{"id":107093,"date":"2018-08-22T15:59:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=107093"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:09:13","slug":"how-to-save-old-whatsapp-data-and-chats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-save-old-whatsapp-data-and-chats\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp and Google want to delete your messages! This is how to stop them"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WhatsApp chat backups will no longer count against your Google Drive allowance,but you have to act now to save your old messages<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is good news and bad news for all WhatsApp users. The good news is that from November 12 you\u2019ll be able to backup all of your WhatsApp chats for free. A deal has been made between Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Google to allow users to store their WhatsApp chats on Google Drive <strong>without using up their Google Drive allowance<\/strong>. Google only offers 15 GB of free Drive allowance, which isn\u2019t much these days, so having all your WhatsApp images, documents, sound files, and voice notes backed up for free is great news.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_107094\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107094\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-107094 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting.jpg\" alt=\"WhatsApp Google Drive Backup\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting.jpg 800w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-664x374.jpg 664w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-238x134.jpg 238w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-436x246.jpg 436w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/Whatsapp_texting-304x170.jpg 304w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-107094\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From November 12 you can backup your WhatsApp data for free on Google Drive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WhatsApp is now much more than just a messaging service and offers a great way to store your correspondence for posterity. If you\u2019ve backed up your messages, WhatsApp offers a searchable way to find old messages or any notes you may have left yourself. You never know when you could end up in a dispute and need an exact word-for-word copy of what somebody said to you. WhatsApp offers this, even if you lose or change your mobile device. Furthermore, if you set up a group with yourself, WhatsApp gives you a way of saving all those photos, videos, memes, and GIFs that you love without having to fork out for extra Google Drive storage. Pretty cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- Shortcode [playwire] does not match the conditions -->\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bad news is that all of your old WhatsApp chats that haven\u2019t been updated in more than a year will be <strong>automatically removed<\/strong> from Google Drive storage on the same date. If you don\u2019t want to lose all of your old WhatsApp chats you\u2019ll need to take action now. This is what you need to do:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to save all your old WhatsApp chats<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WhatsApp announced that in order to avoid old messages being deleted you should manually backup your WhatsApp data before November 12. It is also a good idea to do this when connected to Wi-Fi as backup files can vary in size. Also, to backup your WhatsApp data you\u2019re going to need a Google account activated on your phone and enough free space to create the backup.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey\">\r\n<p class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__title\">More from Softonic<\/p>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"Tips to master WhatsApp in 2018\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/tips-to-master-whatsapp-in-2018\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2017\/06\/whatsapp.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Tips to master WhatsApp in 2018<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"5 Tips to boost your WhatsApp security\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/these-5-tips-will-boost-your-whatsapp-security\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article sc-related-articles-grey__article--last\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2016\/05\/whatsapp-app1.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>5 Tips to boost your WhatsApp security<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"11 Hidden WhatsApp features you should know about\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/11-hidden-whatsapp-features-you-should-know-about\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2017\/04\/whatsapp.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>11 Hidden WhatsApp features you should know about<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"How to try new features on WhatsApp before anybody else\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/how-to-try-new-features-on-whatsapp-before-anybody-else\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article sc-related-articles-grey__article--last\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2016\/02\/whatsapp2-664x374.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>How to try new features on WhatsApp before anybody else<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To create a Google Drive backup you need to hit <\/span><b>Menu<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, then <\/span><b>Settings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and then go to <\/span><b>Chats <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and hit <\/span><b>Chat Backup<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. You then need to hit <\/span><b>Chat Backup<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and select a time frame that isn\u2019t <\/span><b>Never<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Put in the details of the Google Account you\u2019ll be using for the backup and you\u2019re good to go. You may also want to change <\/span><b>Back up over<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to Wi-Fi to avoid using all your data backing up your WhatsApp.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_107096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107096\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-107096 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-664x374.jpg 664w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-238x134.jpg 238w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-436x246.jpg 436w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-304x170.jpg 304w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/08\/WhatsApp-Google-Drive-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-107096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You need to perform a manual backup before November 12 to save all your old WhatsApp data<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This will have you good to go for regular backups of your WhatsApp data. You still have to perform a Manual backup, however, to save all of your old WhatsApp chats. To do this, once again navigate to <\/span><b>Chat Backup<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> menu via <\/span><b>Settings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><b>Chats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Once you\u2019re there hit <\/span><b>BACK UP <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and Google Drive will begin to backup up all your WhatsApp data. This first backup will likely be the biggest of them all, and WhatsApp recommends connecting your phone to a power source as it could take some time. After the first backup, however, each backup will only include the new data created since the last backup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;&lt;!-- Shortcode [program] does not exist --&gt;&quot;}\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{&quot;2&quot;:513,&quot;3&quot;:[null,0],&quot;12&quot;:0}\"><div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"WhatsApp Messenger\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_optimized,f_auto\/p\/6b5a0468-96d1-11e6-bfc6-00163ec9f5fa\/1398466786\/whatsapp-messenger-logo.png\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">WhatsApp Messenger<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download WhatsApp \u25ba<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--80\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"80\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"8\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\">8<\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp chat backups will no longer count against your Google Drive allowance,but you have to act now to save your old messages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":107094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[2333],"usertag":[790],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-107093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwhatsapp","usertag-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327505,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107093\/revisions\/327505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107093"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=107093"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=107093"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=107093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}