Data Backup Digest

WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication tools globally. Billions of messages are sent through the app every single day. Of course, the messages that we send and receive are precious data to us. They might contain important business conversations, messages from loved ones or just funny chats between friends. It can be hard to remember to back up everything on your phone and sometimes you might forget about WhatsApp messages. But it’s still a very important component! This guide will talk you through how to back up your WhatsApp data to ensure that it’s safe and sound.

First of all, be very aware that WhatsApp chat logs are not stored in a server. Or not a publically accessible one, at least. The file that contains all your conversations are stored locally, either on your device or the SD card within. This is extremely important to note because if you do a factory reset of your phone, or you lose it, or it gets stolen, or anything like that, you will not be able to access the data if you haven’t backed it up elsewhere beforehand.

The process of backing up is as simple as can be. First, launch WhatsApp and then click the menu icon (the three dots). From the drop-down menu select ‘Settings’ and then ‘Chat Settings’. Finally, tap ‘Backup Chat History’. This is the manual method of backing up your chat logs, but WhatsApp should do it automatically every day. Before backing up manually, check the text below ‘Backup Chat History’ to see when the last time a backup was taken.

Of course, you’ve now backed up your data, but as we’ve discussed it’s no use if it’s just sitting on your smartphone. If you uninstall WhatsApp and reinstall it the app will automatically detect the backup file and restore your chat logs. That’s fine and dandy for a simple restore, but not if one of the disaster situations (phone broken, lost, etc.) detailed above happens.

As such, you need to access the file that you’ve just created. Hook your phone up to your computer via USB and navigate to the WhatsApp/Databases folder on your phone (or SD card). In here will be the database files, all dated depending on when they were created. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so you may as well transfer all the backups within this folder. Copy them over to a safe and secure location on your computer – or an external drive.

If you ever need to restore from the database on your computer, simply do the reverse: transfer the file from your PC to the folder on your phone. Then you just need to uninstall WhatsApp, reinstall it and then it will automatically detect the backup.

This is a guide for Android devices and if you’re on a different operating system (iOS or Blackberry, for example) then your process will be different. Further information can be found on WhatsApp’s official support site, along with a support email address if necessary.