How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages

First, make sure the chat is really gone

• Check Archived. Archiving hides a chat from the list without deleting it. Open Archived at the top of the Chats tab.
• Search for the person’s name or a word from the conversation in the search bar at the top of Chats.
• If you have only just tapped Delete for me, look for Undo at the bottom of the screen. WhatsApp shows it for a few seconds afterwards.

Act before your next backup

Your Google Account or iCloud holds one WhatsApp backup, and each new backup replaces the last. That backup is the only copy that can put the messages back.

Open WhatsApp, then Settings, then Chats, then Chat backup, and look at the time of the last backup. If it ran before you deleted the messages, they are in it. If it ran afterwards, they are not.

If the backup still has them, do not tap Back up, and set automatic backups to Off, or to Only when I tap Back up on Android, until you have restored.

Restore deleted messages on Android

Your phone needs more free space than the size of the backup, or the restore can be partial.

1. Confirm you have a backup: the last backup time in WhatsApp’s Chat backup screen, or the Google One app, then Storage, then Other.
2. Uninstall WhatsApp, then install it again from Google Play.
3. Verify the same phone number the backup was made with, on the same Google account.
4. Tap Restore when WhatsApp offers it, and let it finish before opening any chat.

Restore deleted messages on iPhone

You need enough free space both in iCloud and on the iPhone.

1. In WhatsApp, open Settings, then Chats, then Chat Backup, and check the time and size of the last backup.
2. Delete WhatsApp, then install it again from the App Store.
3. Verify the same phone number, signed in to the same Apple Account the backup was made with.
4. Tap Restore Chat History.

What restoring costs you

• Every message sent or received since the backup is lost, in every chat, not only the one you are recovering. Export any chat with recent messages you want to keep before you start.
• You cannot restore one chat on its own. A restore replaces all of your chats with the ones in the backup.
• Videos come back only if Include videos was on when the backup was made.
• An end-to-end encrypted backup needs its password, passkey, or 64-digit key. Without it the backup cannot be restored, and WhatsApp cannot recover it for you.

• Export the chats you want to keep first →

Older backups and phone backups

There is no going back to a WhatsApp backup from last month, because each backup replaces the one before it.

Android phones also keep a local WhatsApp backup on the phone. Older guides describe renaming those files to restore a backup from a few days earlier, but WhatsApp’s current restore instructions cover only the Google Account backup, so do not count on a local file being there or working.

On iPhone, a full device backup made on a computer before the deletion also contains WhatsApp. Restoring it replaces everything on the iPhone with that older copy, not only WhatsApp, so treat it as a last resort.

When no backup has the messages

The other person may still have them. Delete for me and deleting a chat only remove your copy. Ask them to export the chat and send you the file, or to forward the messages that matter.

Photos and videos can survive outside the chat: in your phone’s gallery if WhatsApp saved media there, and on Android in the WhatsApp folders in your phone’s storage.

• How the other person can export the chat →
• Trying to read a message someone else deleted? →

What cannot be recovered

• A message deleted for everyone that never made it into a backup.
• Disappearing messages after they have disappeared, and view once photos, videos, and voice messages.
• Anything sent after the backup, once you restore it.
• A backup whose encryption password or key is lost.
• Chats from a phone that was lost or reset without a backup.

Do WhatsApp recovery apps work?

Apps and computer programs that promise to recover deleted WhatsApp messages can only work with copies that already exist, such as a backup or a phone backup on a computer. They cannot get messages from WhatsApp’s servers, because WhatsApp does not store chats there. Many ask for full access to your phone or backups, which hold every conversation you have. Think twice before paying for one, and never give anyone your WhatsApp verification code.

Make sure it does not happen again

Turn on daily automatic backups, so a backup is never more than a day old. For a conversation you never want to lose, export it as well: an export is a file you keep yourself, and the next backup cannot overwrite it.

• Set up automatic backups →
• Keep a copy of a chat that cannot be overwritten →