Are we willing to lose some WhatsApp messages to recover others that we consider more important?
Yes, because the only way to "get" fundamental interviews or messages that bring something significant to mind is to reinstall the application and follow the standard procedure for restoring the last backup made.
It may have happened that by mistake that message was deleted in which an essential code was written that we do not know how to get back. Or we have had a fight with a person we love and we have impetuously deleted his message from our WhatsApp, but now we have made peace and we want to reread it after some time.
WhatsApp automatically generates backup copies of all chats. It does it every day, every week or every month, using one of these backups you can recover all those conversations that seem lost. To carry out this operation, however, all messages received or sent after the backup date will be lost.
If our choice was to get the older ones back deleted, let's see how to do it.
Recover deleted WhatsApp messages from Android
The Android version of WhatsApp saves chat backups both locally, i.e. on the smartphone memory, and online on Google Drive.
The recovery procedure is the same for both cases, you need to:
- remove WhatsApp from your smartphone (by holding down its icon and dragging it to the trash or by going to the Settings> App> WhatsApp menu),
- download it again from the Play Store,
- follow the initial application setup procedure.
After checking the number, the app will receive a backup order and ask the user whether to restore it.
At this point:
- press the Restore button and all the conversations will return to the state they were in on the backup date (then the deleted messages will be recovered automatically).
If we do not know when was the last backup done automatically by WhatsApp:
- open the application on the smartphone,
- click on the (...) button at the top right,
- select the Settings item from the menu that appears,
- in the new screen select the items Chat> Chat Backup,
- check the dates indicated under Last Backup. There should be both the date of the last backup done locally and that of the last backup saved online on Google Drive.
In the event that the last backup made on Google Drive is consecutive to the date on which the messages we are interested in recovering were deleted:
- uninstall WhatsApp from your phone,
- reinstall it, choosing to restore the backup from Google Drive,
- in this way it will be possible to recover all the messages of our interest automatically (except those received after the backup date).
If, on the other hand, the date of the last backup on Google Drive is after the cancellation of the messages, you need to:
- restore local backups.
Using the backups saved locally, you can also restore the status of the application to a date prior to that of the last automatic backup. Therefore:
- enter the folder where WhatsApp stores the backup files,
- go to the one of the date you want to return to,
- rename it so that the application considers it as the most recent backup to restore.
In practice, you need to install a file manager such as ES File Manager and use it to enter the folder HomeWhatsAppDatabases smartphone, or in sdcardWhatsAppDatabases with a microSD for memory expansion.
Here are a number of files named msgstore- [data] .1.db.crypt12 where instead of [date] there is the date on which the backup was generated.
If it is difficult to follow this path:
- press the hamburger icon located at the top left of the ES File Manager home screen,
- select the home or SD card symbol from the left sidebar,
- go to the WhatsApp folder, then to the Databases one,
- locate the backup file to use in WhatsApp,
- rinominarlo in msgstore.db.crypt12.
If a file with the same name already exists in the folder, delete or rename it:
- to give another name or delete a file with ES File Manager just keep your finger pressed on its icon and press the appropriate button at the bottom.
When the operation is completed:
- remove WhatsApp from your smartphone.
If, after uninstalling it, a message from ES File Explorer appears asking if we want to delete the residual files of WhatsApp Messenger from the smartphone, refuse it because, otherwise the backup to be recovered will also be deleted.
Before reinstalling WhatsApp and restoring chats:
- remove the connection between Google Drive and WhatsApp,
- so the application will search for backups directly from the mobile memory and will not try to restore conversations from the cloud.
To do this:
open the Google Settings (the gear icon that is on the screen with the list of apps installed on the phone),
- select the item Connected apps from the new screen,
- click on the WhatsApp icon,
- press the Disconnect button.
- You can also link to this web page,
- delete from here WhatsApp from the apps associated with our Google account,
- open the Play Store,
- reinstall WhatsApp Messenger, following the initial application setup procedure,
- accept the restoration of the previously renamed backup.
If all went well we would have brought WhatsApp back to the date we wanted, recovering those messages we had deleted.
Recover deleted WhatsApp messages from iPhone
On iPhone, WhatsApp backups can only be restored via iCloud, therefore, you cannot choose the date to report the status of conversations, but only the most recent backup can be recovered.
To check the date of the last WhatsApp backup:
- open the application,
- select the Settings tab at the bottom right,
- go to Chats> Chat Backup.
The restore operation is the same as the one seen for Android, i.e. summarizing:
- uninstall the application from the phone, with your finger pressed on its icon and pressing the "x" that appears at the top left,
- reinstall it via the App Store,
- follow the initial configuration procedure of the app,
- accept the backup restore, automatic with iCloud.
If the iCloud backup was after the date the messages were deleted, you can completely reset the iPhone and restore it via an iTunes or iCloud backup.
It is a challenging choice, but it is the only possibility left to recover lost WhatsApp conversations.
To perform this mode we must check that the iTunes / iCloud backup was done before the date on which we deleted the WhatsApp messages to be recovered (but not too old, otherwise you would risk losing a lot of recent chats).
