Did you just get a new device, and would like to move your WhatsApp chats from your old device to the new one?
It’s actually pretty possible, and easy as well.
In February, 2020, WhatsApp hit 2 billion users, making it the messaging app with the largest number of users worldwide. People around the world use WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family.
In 2018, WhatsApp went ahead and launched a WhatsApp Business app to help businesses connect with customers with ease.
After gathering a lot of conversation with friends, family, and customers, you now have a new device and don’t want to lose the chats you have on the previous device. Follow the following steps to make the transfer seamlessly.
Method 1: Using Google Drive
WhatsApp has put a system in place that backs up your chat data automatically, however, you would have to switch the service on before it works with Google Drive. Sadly, a lot of people do not know about this, or where to switch it on.
Step 1:
The old device
Open WhatsApp, and click the Overflow button (3 dots) on the top right corner of the screen. Select Settings.
On the Settings page, select Chats.
On the Chat page, select Chat Backup. This will take you to the backup page.
On the backup page, you will see the Google Drive setting. Select “Backup to Google Drive”, and change it from never to daily. (I prefer daily to avoid unforseen circumstances like theft, loss, or damage that could make me lose days of chats)
After selecting daily, WhatsApp would ask you to select a Google account you want to backup your chat with. Make sure a Google account is already set up on the device.
If you want WhatsApp to backup your WhatsApp videos as well, toggle the “Include video” button on.
After this, WhatsApp would start backing up your chats as you have set it up to do. Usually, WhatsApp runs backup everyday at 2am, but for this purpose, you are going to manually start the backup process.
On the same backup page, you will see “Backup” at the upper part. Click backup, and the backup would start running. Wait for it to complete.
Step 2:
The new device
Log in the Google account you used in Step 1 into the new device.
Download WhatsApp.
Open WhatsApp, and enter your number to authenticate it.
After entering your number (same number used on the old WhatsApp), WhatsApp would search for the backup you have on Google Drive, and ask if you want to restore chats on the backup file.
Click restore. Your chat would be delivered to your device.
Method 2: Backup to Local Drive
This method is very easy, but it can be a little tricky, so, please, pay attention to the steps.
WhatsApp automatically backup chats to the local drive every day. The backup is done every day at 2am, and it saves on the internal memory of your device. This method is as easy as copying the files from the old device to the new device.
Step 1
The old device
Go to the “Chat backup” page on WhatsApp. Click “Backup”.
This will back up your chats till the moment you click the button.
I advice you switch off internet access on your old device, or log out of WhatsApp on the old device after this point. This is to avoid new messages from coming into the old device, because those messages would not be added to the already created backup file.
Go to File Manager on your device, locate Internal Memory or Phone Storage (the name may differ, depending on your device).
Find and open the WhatsApp folder. Open Databases.
Copy the most recent backup file. You could copy the whole Databases folder, if you want, but you only need the most recently created file. The backup files have dates on their filename. This would help you know which is the most recent.
Copy the file (or folder) and transfer to the new device. You can transfer using Bluetooth, a file transfer app (Xender, etc), or a USB cable.
Step 2:
The new device
Go to the Internet Storage of this device. Create a folder named “WhatsApp“.
If you copied the whole Databases folder, then paste the folder inside the WhatsApp folder you just created.
If you copied the most recent backup file, then, create a “Databases” folder inside the WhatsApp folder, and paste the backup files inside the Databases folder.
Download WhatsApp.
Open WhatsApp app, authenticate your number. Accept the option to restore chats, and wait for the chats to be restored.
These steps also work if you are transferring chats from the WhatsApp main app to the WhatsApp Business app. Only difference is, you would create a “WhatsApp Business” folder in the new device, instead of “WhatsApp”.
Note: These chat transfer methods only work when you are using the same WhatsApp number on the old and new devices.
Good luck.