WhatsApp will delete all messages, photos and videos after the new update, if you do not do a manual backup. Here’s how to save data.
Google is changing the way it stores data on WhatsApp and should not be caught unprepared for not losing conversations, photos and videos saved.
So far, WhatsApp has backed up chat and media on Google Drive, the popular cloud storage service used primarily by Android users. With the new update, however, the messages, photos and videos of WhatsApp that you have backed up will not affect the space available on Drive. However, WhatsApp backups that have not been updated for more than a year will be automatically removed from storage.
To avoid losing all saved content, users are advised to manually backup WhatsApp chats before the November 12, 2018 update.
How to backup WhatsApp
The backup of WhatsApp is a procedure that should be done when you change your phone and take a new one, as the chats and multimedia files will be automatically transferred to the new device.
To back up WhatsApp to Google Drive, we recommend that you first connect your phone to a Wi-Fi network as data transfer may consume a lot of jig. You must also have an active Google Drive account on your phone and have Google Play Services installed.
To create a backup on Google Drive:
- Open WhatsApp
- Go to Menu> Settings> Chat> Backup of chats
- Choose Backup to Google Drive and set a backup frequency that is never
- Select a Google account to back up your chat history. If you do not have a Google Account, touch Add account when prompted and enter your login credentials
- Tap “Run backup via” to choose the network you want to use for backup. Please note that backup via cellular data network may incur additional costs
To manually backup WhatsApp chats:
- Open WhatsApp
- Touch Menu> Settings> Chat> Chat backup
- Tap Back up to start the backup on Google Drive
Depending on the size of the chats, the first full backup may take some time, so we recommend connecting the phone to a power source.
Remember that the media files and chats that you back up on are not protected by the end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp when they are in Google Drive.