How to back up WhatsApp chats
A WhatsApp backup copies your chats and media to your Google Account on Android or to iCloud on iPhone, so you can restore them when you reinstall WhatsApp or set up a new phone. It takes a minute to set up. This guide covers both phones, encryption, and the one thing a backup will not give you: a copy of a chat you can open.
Back up WhatsApp on Android
WhatsApp backups count toward your Google Account storage, which is 15 GB on a free account and is shared with Gmail and Google Photos. If the account runs out of space, backups stop until you free some up.
- Open WhatsApp, tap the three-dot menu, then Settings.
- Tap Chats, then Chat backup.
- Tap Google Account and choose the account to back up to.
- Tap Back up.
Back up WhatsApp on iPhone
WhatsApp asks for free iCloud space of at least 2.05 times the size of the backup.
- In the iPhone’s Settings, check you are signed in to iCloud, that iCloud Drive is on, and that WhatsApp is allowed to use iCloud.
- Open WhatsApp, then Settings, then Chats, then Chat Backup.
- Tap Back Up Now.
Turn on automatic backups
On Android, in Chat backup, set the frequency to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. On iPhone, tap Auto Backup and choose the same. Daily is the safest choice: if you lose your phone or delete something by mistake, the backup is never more than a day old.
Android also lets you allow backups over mobile data. Leave it off if your data plan is small, since a backup with media can be large.
Include videos, or not
Chat backup has an Include videos switch on both phones. Videos make a backup much larger and slower, but they are restored only if the switch was on when the backup was made. Turn it on if the videos in your chats matter to you.
Encrypt your backup
With it on, your backup in Google or iCloud is protected by a key only you hold. If you lose the password or key and cannot get into WhatsApp, the backup cannot be restored, and WhatsApp cannot reset it for you.
- In Chat backup, tap End-to-end encrypted backup, then Turn on.
- Choose a passkey, a password, or a 64-digit encryption key.
- Tap Create, and keep the password or key somewhere safe away from your phone.
Check that the backup worked
Open Chat backup and look at the time and size of the last backup. On Android you can also open the Google One app, then Storage, then Other, to see the backup.
If the time never moves, the usual causes are a full Google Account or iCloud, no Wi-Fi, or being signed in to a different account than you expect.
What a backup can and cannot do
| You want to | A backup | An export |
|---|---|---|
| Move WhatsApp to a new phone of the same kind | Yes: restore it when you set up WhatsApp. | No: an export cannot be put back into WhatsApp. |
| Recover deleted messages | Only messages that were in the backup, restored before the next backup replaces it. | Only as a file to read, and only if you exported before they were deleted. |
| Keep one chat | No: a backup holds every chat and cannot be split. | Yes: one chat per export. |
| Read the chat on a computer | No: only WhatsApp can open it. | Yes: a text file, with the media if you include it. |
| Keep a copy for years | No: each new backup replaces the last. | Yes: the file stays as it is for as long as you keep it. |
How to back up a single chat
WhatsApp backs up all your chats at once. There is no way to back up one conversation on its own. To keep one chat, export it: on Android, open the chat and tap the three-dot menu, then More, then Export chat; on iPhone, tap the contact or group name, then Export Chat. Save the file to cloud storage or a computer, and keep it alongside your regular backups.
Can you back up WhatsApp to a computer?
Not as a WhatsApp backup: WhatsApp backs up to Google Account storage or iCloud only. A full iPhone backup made on a Mac or PC includes WhatsApp, but you cannot open it to read your chats. To have a chat on your computer in a form you can read, export it and move the file across.
Backups and changing phones
To move to a new phone of the same kind, restore your backup when you set up WhatsApp, or transfer your chats directly from the old phone. A Google Account backup cannot be restored on an iPhone, and an iCloud backup cannot be restored on Android; moving between them uses WhatsApp’s own transfer instead.