How to Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages From Your Phone

WhatsApp stores a backup for both Android and iOS in the cloud as well as local storage.

WhatsApp is said to be working on a few new features one of which is disappearing messages.

(Photo: iStockphoto)

Imagine one day your WhatsApp messages get accidentally deleted from your phone and you are not able recover your texts. The reason could be unknown but fact is your entire WhatsApp message library has been wiped out.

What if I told you that there’s way to recover those deleted messaged from your phone and from your Google Drive, which can be done both on Android and iOS?

The process may look a bit complicated but here’s how you can do it.

Disclaimer: You won’t be able to recover the messages that you received or sent after the backup was created.

Recovering Deleted Messages From the Phone’s Local Storage

• Go to your phone’s File Explorer>Internal Storage
• Search for the ‘WhatsApp’ folder and go to Databases, where all WhatsApp backup files are stored
• Select ‘mgstore.db.crypt.12’ and long press on it. You’ll get a 3-dot option on the top right to rename the file.
  
• Rename the file to ‘msgstore_backup.db.crypt12’. to prevent it from being overwritten.
  
• Now select the most recent backup file and rename it as ‘mgstore.db.crypt.12’.
• Now, open your Google Drive account on the phone and click the hamburger menu option on the top left of the screen.
• Select the ‘Backups’ option and delete ‘WhatsApp backup’. Do this only if the local backup is more recent.
• Now, uninstall WhatsApp and re-install it. While the installation is going on it will ask for the app to restore the messages from a local backup since the cloud backup has been deleted.
• Select the ‘mgstore.db.crypt.12’ file and tap on the ‘Restore’ button.

After you’re done with the above process, your WhatsApp message will be restored as per your recent backup.

(Photo: WhatsApp screenshot)

Recovering Deleted Messages From the Cloud

You can also recover your deleted WhatsApp messages from your cloud account. This could be either on the Google Drive or Apple iCloud.

• First, uninstall WhatsApp from your phone
• Re-install WhatsApp and login using the same number
• During the re-installation you’ll receive a prompt to restore from backup using either Google of iCloud.
• Click ‘Restore’ to start the process
• Your messages will be restored along with your media files

(Photo: Google Drive screenshot0