Needless to turn around too much. WhatsApp is the most used messaging application in the world. According to data released by Zuckerberg on May 3, 2017, WhatsApp has over 1 billion users.
It is therefore legitimate to ask questions such as ” how do I save my WhatsApp conversations ?” Or, more specifically, ” how do I transfer WhatsApp messages from an old smartphone to a new one “? We will see in the following guide to answer these questions. Let’s find out how to transfer WhatsApp chats by subdividing the arguments into paragraphs. Yes, because many users not only would like to transfer their chat, but would like to do so also passing for example from iPhone to Android or vice versa.
How to save WhatsApp chats
Let’s start from the most obvious passage, that is how to backup the conversations of WhatsApp and then transfer them to the new smartphone. This operation is also useful to actually save the history of your chats so as to preserve them in case of problems on the current device. We have already devoted a large guide to the topic, which you find linked in the title of this paragraph.
- Android – Android has introduced a very useful feature that allows you to back up all the files that transit on your WhatsApp through Google Drive, the Google home backup platform. Just in the WhatsApp home, press the menu button (the three vertical dots) at the top right, press Settings, then Chat and go to the Backup chat submenu. Here you can choose the settings that are right for you. If you have any doubts, consult the guide we have previously quoted and linked.
- iPhone – On iOS, as well as on Android on the other hand, we use a proprietary cloud service, which is the classic iCloud. From the home of WhatsApp simply press on Settings (you can find it on the bottom right), press on Chat, then on Backup of the chats and continue pressing on Backup now. Simple, no? Also in this case, for any doubt you can consult the guide that you find linked in the title of this paragraph.
How not to miss WhatsApp chats by changing phone
Now that we’ve saved our WhatsApp conversations safe on the cloud, it’s time to see how to transfer chats from one device to another. More specifically, we will analyze the following topics:
- How to transfer WhatsApp chats from Android to Android
- How to transfer WhatsApp chats from iPhone to iPhone
- How to transfer WhatsApp chats from Android to iPhone (and vice versa)
- How to transfer WhatsApp chats from Windows Phone to Android
Transfer WhatsApp chat from Android to Android
We start from the most popular mobile platform, Android. How do I transfer the chats on my old Android smartphone to the new one? It is rather simple. To start on the new smartphone you must use a SIM with the same phone number that you used on the old smartphone and add the same Google account with which you have backed up to Google Drive. The account will be added directly to the smartphone, not just to WhatsApp.
To add an account simply go to Settings -> Account (on some smartphones has different wordings, on Samsung for example Cloud and account) and look for the Add Account button. Usually the Add Account button is at the bottom of the list of active accounts. Enter your login credentials and wait for the synchronization to end. Having said this, a series of simple steps are now missing:
- Install WhatsApp from the Play Store. If for some reason you do not have the Play Store follow this guide: how to manually install the Play Store on all Android devices.
- Open WhatsApp making sure you are connected to the internet, preferably a Wi-Fi since we have to proceed with a restore of the chat.
- After verifying your phone number, WhatsApp should automatically recognize your Google account. The Restore button will then appear, simply press to start the process.
As mentioned it is better to be connected to a Wi-Fi, as in addition to the chats, which occupy a few MB, there are also various multimedia files such as photographs, videos or voice messages. And if for some strange reason you can not use Google Drive backups? In theory it is possible to transfer the WhatsApp conversations from the old to the new smartphone with the manual backups that are saved locally (and not on the cloud). To view these options, however, you must not have activated the backup via Drive, otherwise you will not even see the option to perform this type of backup.
Transfer Chat to Android WhatsApp (without Cloud)
That said, of course, on the old smartphone, open WhatsApp, press the button with the three points vertically in the upper right, press Settings, again on Chat and again on Backup chat. Here you will find the entry Perform Backup and the check Include video. Press on Execute Backup when you are ready. Now you have to use any File Manager, such as ES File Manager, Astro or Solid Explorer. Follow the following steps now:
- Press the top left menu button (similar to this ≡ symbol), and press on Home.
- From here scroll down to find the WhatsApp folder, open it.
- Go to the Databases folder and look for the msgstore.db.crypt8 file .
- Press and hold on this file to open sharing options. Now you have several options:
- Or save your cloud backup, such as on Dropbox;
- Send the backup via Gmail also to your address;
- Otherwise you save it on some kind of physical support, like the microSD to use maybe even in the new smartphone.
On the new smartphone you must of course install WhatsApp, a file manager (maybe the same one used previously), recover the file that you had previously saved and place it in the exact same location, that is \ Home \ WhatsApp \ Databases. If one of the two folders did not exist, you can create them manually. Once you have placed the file in the right place, open WhatsApp, verify the phone number and accept to restore the backup that the smartphone will find automatically.
Transfer WhatsApp Chat from iPhone to iPhone
We come now to the transfer of messages from the old iPhone to the new iPhone. As anticipated, we are going to use iCloud, the Apple cloud storage service. We already told you at the beginning of the guide what to do on the old iPhone. When you have made sure that WhatsApp has actually made the backup, remove the SIM from the old iPhone and insert it into the new one. Also make sure in this case to have a Wi-Fi available to restore without consuming all your data.
On your new iPhone make sure to login with the same Apple ID used on the old smartphone ( Settings -> iCloud and login) and also use the same SIM or the same phone number. Download WhatsApp from the App Store and install it on your iPhone. Start it, follow the phone number verification procedure and accept the conditions for restoring the chats from iCloud by clicking on Restore chat history. Congrats, you’re done.
Transfer Chat WhatsApp from Android to iPhone
First of all: is it possible to transfer Whatsapp chats from Android to iPhone? The answer is “yes”. Technically it would not be possible. On the two platforms, WhatsApp uses different online storage techniques. Even the files saved in local backup would be different. So why did we answer “yes” and not directly no? Because there are alternative methods made by more nerd users.
WhatsApp Migrator
The correct application name is WazzapMigrator, it does not use the WhatsApp name for the simple reason that it would be easier to find and close. This is a paid application that, however, according to what is reported in the comments on the Play Store, does its dirty duty. With this, we are telling you that we have not personally tested it.
The application is updated, so as to support the extended screen mode of Galaxy S8, but it comes to cost € 3.79. A figure that you might find high, but if it can help save your chats it may be worth it.
Once you have extracted and saved this file, simply copy it to your Android device (via cloud, email, microSD) in one of these two folders. So just Download WazzapMigrator, and the application itself will do the dirty work for you.
Transfer Chat WhatsApp from Android to iPhone
As in the opposite case, even in this the answer is “Yes”. Technically it can not be done for the same reasons: different files, different cloud saving systems. However, there is a rather expensive PC program that could help you.
WhatsApp Transfer
It is a tool that, at least on paper, is really powerful. It could also help you in the opposite case, that is to transfer chats from iPhone to Android. However, we usually do not recommend using these tools. First of all we do not know what the level of support provided by the developers is. Recently Apple has changed the encryption technique of files that are stored in iTunes, and there is that some procedures of the program do not work properly. Secondly because as anticipated they are quite expensive. From the official website of WhatsApp Transfer. You can download a demo for Windows or MacOS, but a personal license costs more than € 30. At your own risk, therefore, we have provided the link.
Transfer WhatsApp chat from Windows Phone to Android
Is it possible to transfer WhatsApp chats from Windows Phone to Android? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is no. Also in the WhatsApp FAQs. It is specified that it is possible to make transfers only from devices of the same family. If searching Google happened in this topic official Microsoft, unfortunately, as reported in the second answer is “wrong”, or rather, it comes to transfer the chat but from a Windows Phone to another.
Transfer WhatsApp Chat to PC
We have already discussed this topic in our guide to the implementation of WhatsApp chat backups. Basically you can send your conversations via e-mail and read them conveniently on your PC. The guide in question is this, and explains how to do it on both Android and iOS.
very useful post