Recovering deleted messages is sometimes a matter of luck. (Image: filins – Adobe Stock)
To anticipate the question from the title: Nodeleted messages are not that easy to recover. Even with a backup, there is no guarantee that the deleted messages will be successfully restored.
The backup must have been made after the sender sent the messagebut before the message was deleted.
If you have a backup and would like to try your luck, you can find out hereHow to restore the backup and therefore your (not deleted) chat messages.
iPhone: Back up WhatsApp chat history – here’s how
Chat history can be backed up via (automatic) backups in iCloud. In this way, at least a large part of important data, media or other information from WhatsApp can be prevented from being lost in the future.
However, there is a small checklist to consider beforehand:
- Make sure you have the latest iOS version installed.
- Make sure your iCloud storage is sufficient. You need twice as much storage on iCloud and iPhone as the backup, as WhatsApp itself writes.
- Ensures the correct iCloud account is used with the same phone number.
Check? Then it continues:
- Tap “Settings” at the bottom right.
- Now select the item “Chats”.
- Switch to “Chat Backup”.
- Now tap on “Create backup now” to perform a manual backup on iCloud.
- Recommendation: Enable end-to-end encryption at the bottom of the context menu.
In the “Chat Backup” menu you can also see when the backup was created.
Should chats and media be backed up automatically?switch to “Automatic backup” and choose between daily, weekly and monthly.
If you also want to back up videos from WhatsApp messages, put a tick next to “Include videos”.
iPhone: Restore WhatsApp chat history – here’s how
As mentioned at the beginning, there is no guarantee that deleted messages will reappear after restoring a backup.
If you want to initiate the restoration, there are important points to consider beforehand:
- Checks the timestamp of the backup in the settings under “Chats” -> “Chat Backup”. It may be that the last backup was too long ago and the data loss will be even greater.
- Messages received or sent after the backup timestamp will (unsurprisingly) not be restored.
Does everything fit? Then proceed as follows to start the recovery.
- Delete WhatsApp from your iPhone. To do this, hold your finger down on the app and select “Remove app” and then “Delete app”.
- Reinstall the app from the App Store.
- Verify your phone number.
- You will then be asked if you would like to restore the chat history. Tap on “Restore chat history”. Depending on the size of the backup, it may take a few minutes or even several hours.
In fact, you have to completely delete WhatsApp from your iPhone before you can restore a backup.
If the restore was successful, a corresponding message appears. Now tap on “Next”, enter a name if necessary or change the profile picture and select “Done”.
WhatsApp may be loading additional messages in the background that were restored from the backup. You can see this by the loading symbols next to the individual (group) chats.
Switch from Android to iPhone or vice versa? A new function makes it easier to transfer WhatsApp data.
Of course, you can also create a backup on Android and restore it if necessary.
Have you ever desperately searched for a solution to this problem? How do you deal with such situations specifically on WhatsApp? Do you have any tips and tricks? Feel free to write them in the comments below!
