As you may know, your WhatsApp chat history is an accumulation of all your chats backed up every day, but they’re not stored on WhatsApp servers. This means there’s no way that any messages you delete can be retrieved.
Its possible to use iCloud backup to back up and restore chat history, but while the media and messages are in iCloud, they’re not protected by WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption.
There are different ways you can restore your chat history on iPhone. Read on to find out how.
Ways to restore WhatsApp chat history on iPhone
iCloud backup
For manual backups of your chats, go to WhatsApp Settings>Chats>Chat backup and tap Backup Now.
You can enable scheduled, automatic backups by tapping Auto Backup and choose the backup frequency. This way, you’ll back up media and chats to your iCloud account and select whether or not to include videos from the backup. iCloud backup takes time to fully complete, based on the backup size and internet connection.
If you’re using iCloud on cellular data, and you worry about the data usage, you can limit iCloud to backup via WiFi only.
To recover chat history from iCloud, do this:
- Confirm that there’s an iCloud backup by going to WhatsApp Settings>Chats>Chat Backup
- Delete and reinstall WhatsApp from the App Store if you can see the date of the last backup
- Verify your phone number and follow the instructions to restore your WhatsApp chat history
Note: the same number you use to back up and restore must be the same when you use iCloud restore, because you can’t restore chat history from a different account. You can keep your WhatsApp backup separate if you share iCloud accounts with family members, because you need the same number for your WhatsApp account and iCloud backup.
What to do if you can’t restore a backup
If you can’t restore a WhatsApp chat history backup, do the following:
- Confirm you’re attempting to restore data from the same iCloud account and phone number the backup was created on
- Check that you have enough space on your iPhone for backup restoration
- Confirm that iCloud Drive is turned on in your phone’s settings
- Try restoring from a different network, especially the one you use most. iCloud works best when you try to restore from the location you connect from the most
Elsie is a tech writer with 8+ years professional experience. For Tech News Watch, she brings rich experience contributing to topics such as Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS among others. In her spare time, she loves checking out the latest tech trends, gadgets, and news, listening to music and cars.