How to transfer old WhatsApp chats to a new phone

One of the major problems that a person faces when he/she switches to a new smartphone is that how do they transfer the WhatsApp chats, data from the previous phone to the new one. The  WhatsApp messaging app is widely used and considered an essential one to communicate with friends and acquaintances. Therefore, we have prepared an easy guide for you to transfer your old WhatsApp chats to a new phone.

How to transfer old WhatsApp chats to your new smartphone

Backup and restore on Google Drive/ iCloud

Android

  • Open WhatsApp on your old phone and tap on the three dots on the top-right corner of your phone. Open the settings menu, go to Chats, and then chose Chats backup.
  •  From here you can choose whether you want to backup your chats manually or automatically (weekly, monthly, and more). When you open WhatsApp on the new phone, it will prompt you to recover old chats, media from Google Drive.
  • The chats, photos, videos will be visible instantly on your smartphone.

 

iPhone

  •  For iOS, before going to WhatsApp settings you need to go into your Apple ID and turn on iCloud. If you have done it already, there is no need to perform this action.
  •  Open WhatsApp and tap on Settings on the bottom right corner. Go to Chats and then click on ‘Chat Backup’. Once again it is up to you whether you want to back up the chat history manually or turn on automatic backup. You also have an option to include or exclude videos from the backup history.
  • Once again, when you install WhatsApp on your new iPhone it will prompt you to restore the chat history from iCloud.

Manual backup (Android)

This is an option for those who have not received the Google Drive update or don’t want to save the chat history online.

  •  First, connect your smartphone to your laptop via a USB cable. You need to go into the WhatsApp database which can be found in the internal memory of the device.
  •  Search for backup files that will display the saved date. The file may look like this – “msgstore-2020-07-10.db.crypt1”.
  • After finding the file, copy it in your system. If the chat history is backed up automatically, it will not have the date of the backup.
  • Before installing WhatsApp on your new device keep in mind that you don’t have to open the app. Copy the retrieved file in your new smartphone’s ‘databases’ folder.
  •  Now, open WhatsApp on your new device. The app will display a notification that a message backup is found. All you need to do is tap on the ‘restore’ option and the chats will start to reflect in a while.