If you bought a new Android phone and you want to restore your WhatsApp chat history, you can restore your data from Google Drive. You need to meet two main requirements, namely, use the same phone number and Google account you used to create the backup file.
Unfortunately, your device may sometimes fail to restore your chat history from your Google Drive backup. In this guide, we’ll explore what solutions you can use to troubleshoot the problem.
WhatsApp: Unable to Restore Your Chats From This Google Drive Backup
Quick Fixes
As stated above, double-check your phone number and Google account. You need to use the same number and Google account you used when you first created the backup file.
Next on the list, check your phone memory and make sure there’s enough free memory available to restore the backup. Of course, if you’re trying to restore your chat history on a new phone, that should not be a problem.
You also need to install the Google Play Services app on your device. Then check your battery and make sure it’s fully charged. If it’s not, plug in the power cable and wait until the battery is fully charged.
Make sure you have a stable connection. If you’re experiencing bandwidth issues, that might explain why you can’t restore your chat history. Use a wireless network to restore your WhatsApp chat.
Copy the Chat History From an External Device
This solution is a bit lengthy, but many users confirmed it worked for them.
- Uninstall WhatsApp from the new phone and delete the WhatsApp folder from internal storage/SD card storage. Restart the phone.
- Backup WhatsApp locally on your old phone.
- On your old phone, copy the WhatsApp directory from Internal Storage to your PC or another external storage device, such as an SD card. Alternatively, you can also use a cloud storage service.
- Install WhatsApp on your new phone. Launch the app and close it immediately.
- Then restore your WhatsApp folder to your new phone by simply copy-pasting it from the SD card, via USB, or from the cloud, depending on the backup method you previously used.
- Go to the Databases folder and locate the msgstore.db.crypt12 file, as well as the latest backup that contains the backup date. Delete the other files.
- Navigate to Android Settings, select Applications, tap WhatsApp and select Storage. Check the size of the backup file. The size of the Storage folder on the new phone should roughly be the same as the size of the backup file on the old phone.
- Then relaunch WhatsApp on your new phone and try to activate and restore the chat history. If the activation or data transfer process seems to get stuck, enable Airplane Mode.
- Your phone will alert you the data transfer process is too slow. Keep on tapping the Skip button.
- When the normal transfer window appears on the screen, disable Airplane Mode. Launch the data transfer.
- If you get any alerts suggesting that WhatsApp stopped responding, hit the Keep waiting option. If you go to WhatsApp Storage, you should see the data usage percent slowly but surely increasing.
- Keep WhatsApp on the screen, don’t let it run in the background. Just keep on checking the data usage percentage in WhatsApp Storage to ensure there’s progress going on.
Use Your Local Backup
If your Google Drive backup is not available, another way to access your chat backup is to use the local backup.
- Launch your file manager app and navigate to /SDcard/WhatsApp/Databases. Or go to Internal Storage/Whatsapp and locate your WhatsApp backup file.
- Rename the file but keep the number of the extension.
- Then uninstall and reinstall the app and select the Restore option.
On some phone models, you may need to follow some additional steps to reach the WhatsApp directory.
- Launch the file manager and tap the Categories option.
- Then select Internal Storage.
- Scroll down to WhatsApp, tap WhatsApp, and select Backups.
Conclusion
If you can’t restore your WhatsApp chat history from Google Drive, make sure you use the same phone number and Google account you used to create the backup initially. Install the Google Services app, use a wireless connection instead of cellular data and charge your battery to 100%.
If the problem persists, use an SD card or another external storage device to transfer the chat history. Did you manage to successfully complete the process? Share your feedback in the comments below.
Blurr says
At 1st i got problem to restore back data to new what app..lastly im figure out the problem is i doesnt have goggle drive.anyone have the problem make sure u already install the goggle drive
Crash says
I had an older back up copy and forgot to do a latest one before I transfered to new phone so I was struggling to get the Restore function again. Finally resolved it – I re-did a back up on my older phone, uninstalled App from both phones, plugged new phone on charge, took it to 100%, kept it plugged in. When I reinstalled Whatsapp, the Restore function finally came up! So relieved, thanks for the charger tip, it must’ve helped!
Viveki singh says
Hello,
I don’t have backup on Google drive and no backup files found on internal memory of file manager.
Please suggest me how to restore chat , photos and videos ?
Please please advice asap.
Ben says
Thank you so much! This worked for me. My issues was switching to new pixel 6. Restore on the new phone worked great. However, I didn’t like the new phone and switched back to the old Pixel 5. The issue is that, when I restored whatsapp, i was missing a huge amount of media from the saved chats. Not all of it, but I would say at least 50%.
So, I copied the com.whatsapp folder from new Pixel 6 (that was working fine) to my hard drive. Deleted the database entries as directed, then restarted whatsapp on old (desired) Pixel 5. Everything (missing media) is back in the chats where it should be!
Thanks much!
Cipa says
It worked for me.. I followed more or less the same steps.. I made some modifications myself as follows:
1. Copied only few videos and images (was taking too long to copy all)
2. Copied only the backup files instead of copying all deleting some later.. they were ending with 14 instead of 12.
sagar chauhan says
I uninstalled my whats app from my old android phone due to some technical issue…on 09.08.2022, and i daily take back up of my chats on my google drivemy last back up was till 08.08.2022.
…bt when i re installed whatsapp on my old phone again I am unable to restore my chats of previous years. plz help me..i am worried.
Its the case of restoring msgs and chats in old phone only.
When i install whats app on my old phone, only groups are added and all my old messages are not restored…plz help. plz provide the solution.
Plz can anybody help me.
sagar chauhan says
I uninstalled my whats app from my old android phone due to some technical issue…on 09.08.2022, and i daily take back up of my chats on my google drive…bt when i re installed whatsapp on my old phone again I am unable to restore my chats of previous years. plz help me..i am worried.
Its the case of restoring msgs and chats in old phone only.
When i install whats app on my old phone, only groups are added and all my old messages are not restored…plz help. plz provide the solution.
Charlie says
I made a backup on my old phone.
I installed whatsapp on my new one.
I entered my phone number.
I was prompted to enter my “pin code”, It could have been one texted to me now I think of itI
Did so.
Promted to restore backup.
Did so.
Took a long time, but progress bar showed in notifications. It them stopped at 100%
All seemed to be fine.
I used my new phone for a week using WhatsApp frequently.
Then, I didn’t like it my new phone!
I wanted to go back to my old phone!
I made a backup on my new phone.
Tried to restore it on my old phone, and there was no restore prompt.
Then I had all sorts of problems.
I had to enter texted codes and my own code. It got very confusing and worrying.
Eventually. I uninstalled WhatsApp on my old phone, (thankd to the posts before), then reinstalled it.
A few codes later ( I can’t remember if texted or personal one; more likely both), I was prompted to restore,
I think that uninstalling on my old phone, (the one I was now restiring to) deleted the files in internal storage / android / media / com.whatsapp / whatsapp / media., giving WhatsApp no option but to restore from the cloud.
I hope this helps someone, though I couldn’t have done it without the help from previous posts.
Also its possible that the sequence of codes could be,
the first to confirm the phone number, and the second to recognise the user..
A final note, (eventually), best to make a copy of,
/ android / media / com.whatsapp / whatsapp / etc on both phones before you try anything! Moving from one device to another could delete the whatsapp info on the phone you’re leaving and overwrite the info on the one you’re going to.
Hope this helps someone.
AYAZ Bijili says
moderation.
The same problem as shared by all individual members here I also faced since 27 /04/2022.its showing as 1 gb message backed up but after doing all juggling and combos no solutions. Only msgs after 27th on display. All 3 to 4 years individual and group chat’s gone. Never faced before this situation
AYAZ Bijili says
The same problem as shared by all individual members here I also faced since 27 /04/2022.its showing as 1 gb message backed up but after doing all juggling and combos no solutions. Only msgs after 27th on display. All 3 to 4 years individual and group chat’s gone
sakthivel says
no. i have backup on both drive and local storage. but still showing unable to restore chats.
Nana Antwi says
My whatsapp after restoring on a new device only shows my groups but no chat history, I tried uninstalling and restoring it. This time it gave me access to restore from backup I hit n the restore after taking several minutes it said no backup found. Meanwhile all my backups are there on my old device. This is frustrating, Please help. Thanks
N I Joseph says
I backed up my WhatsApp being used on my Dual apps in my RedmiNote
On restoring to my new phone Redmi Note, only the group chats are showing that too, without any chats inside..
Please help.
to lef says
Thank you for the “manual” instructions! They worked flawlessly for me.
I was moving from a S10 to a S21 and was assuming, Samsung Smart Switch would do everything for me, but it (or I) failed to transfer the WhatsApp Chats. I realized this only after I had made a factory reset to the S10 but luckily enough I had made a complete backup before, from which I could restore my files accoring to your instructions in almost no time. Thank you..
Swaihiam panmei says
Please your help and support for restore my watsapp account is much appreciated and needed thank you
Swaihiam panmei says
I have tried many times to activate and restore my watsapp account but till now there is no option I found out no option to register my watsapp account why?
Rachael says
I tried to restore my chat history on my new android many times without success. After reading these instructions, I simply uninstalled and reinstalled Whatsapp, plugged my phone in to its charger, and tried the restore again – and it worked! Thanks for the tip about plugging in..
Himawari says
I deleted my whatsapp for some reason and now it isn’t taking any backups. I am not be abling to restore any previous data. What should I do? ðŸ˜
Frank says
Remember to restart the app for the messages to reload.
Vikram says
Not worked for me, please help
M says
Is there a version of this post anywhere that can actually be understood by anyone over 50?
Rizw says
I’m trying to restore my WhatsApp from my files/internal storage/WhatsApp/databases
I’ve renamed the file to msgstore.db.crypt14
But when I install WhatsApp it doesn’t find this file.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
Kate says
I’m trying to restore my WhatsApp from my files/internal storage/WhatsApp/databases
I’ve renamed the file to msgstore.db.crypt14
But when I install WhatsApp it doesn’t find this file.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
Emily says
Thank you so, so, soooooo much!! The external device option worked for me.
Emma J says
I tried the method in the article, but I cannot restore or transfer the chat data to my iPhone. Because I originally used Android. Later, I successfully restored the chat with Mobitrix WhatsApp Transfer. I suggest that you can add the following method to your article, so that more people who are troubled by the transmission of whatsapp chat records can solve the problem.