WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with over 2 billion users. It allows users to send messages, photos, videos, documents and make voice and video calls for free. WhatsApp saves all your chat history and media on your phone by default. However, there are times when you may accidentally delete chats or media on WhatsApp that you wanted to keep. Thankfully, there are ways to recover and restore deleted WhatsApp data on your phone, without the need for a backup.
In this comprehensive guide, we will provide step-by-step instructions to restore deleted WhatsApp chats and media locally on your Android or iOS device.
How WhatsApp Saves Data
Before diving into the restoration methods, it’s important to understand where and how WhatsApp stores your data on your phone:
Android
– WhatsApp messages, contacts, and other data are stored in an encrypted database file located at /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases. This database has a key-value store of all your chats.
– Media like photos, videos, voice messages, documents etc. are saved in the WhatsApp/Media folder.
– Databases and Media folders may be stored on phone internal storage or external SD card depending on your settings.
iPhone
– The WhatsApp database is stored in an encrypted format at /var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/{chat app ID}/chat.sqlite.
– Media is saved in /var/mobile/Media/WhatsApp/
– Both database and media are stored on the phone’s internal storage.
Knowing the storage location will help us in the data recovery process.
Requirements for Local Restoration
To recover deleted WhatsApp data directly on your phone, there are 2 key requirements:
1. No Overwrites
As long as the deleted WhatsApp data has not been overwritten by new data, it can be recovered. This is because when you delete something on your phone, only the index linking to the data is removed. The data still stays on the phone storage until it gets overwritten.
2. Root Access (Android only)
For Android phones, you need root access to directly scan phone storage and restore deleted files. Rooting gives administrative privileges to access protected folders on Android.
For iPhones, root access is not required as we can utilize iTunes/Finder backups to restore data.
Method 1: Use Data Recovery Apps (Android)
The easiest way to restore deleted WhatsApp data on Android is by using data recovery apps. They scan the phone’s storage for residual WhatsApp files and recover them. Some good options are:
1. Dr.Fone – Data Recovery
Dr.Fone is one of the most popular recovery apps for Android and iOS. Here are the key features:
– Recover deleted WhatsApp messages, photos, videos, voice messages, attachments, call logs etc.
– Support recovery from internal storage as well as SD card.
– 100% safe recovery thanks to read-only access.
– Retrieve up to 27+ types of lost files from Android devices.
2. DiskDigger
DiskDigger is a free undelete app for Android with the ability to restore WhatsApp data. Key features:
– Dig deep to find residual WhatsApp photos, videos, chats, documents etc.
– Filters to sort all recovered files for easy access.
– Save recovered files back to device or SD card.
– Completely free with no limits on recovery.
Steps to Restore WhatsApp using Data Recovery Apps
1. Download and install Dr.Fone (or any data recovery app) on your Android phone.
2. Launch the app and select the ‘Recover from Android’ option.
3. Connect your Android phone to the computer via USB and grant debugging access when prompted.
4. Select ‘WhatsApp’ or ‘Messages & Attachments’ from the file types list.
5. Choose the storage location where WhatsApp data was stored. Scan to find deleted files.
6. Preview and Select the WhatsApp chats and media you wish to recover.
7. Finally, click on Recover to restore WhatsApp data back to your Android device.
Data recovery apps provide a quick and hassle-free way to get back deleted WhatsApp messages, photos, videos, voice notes and more on Android.
Method 2: Extract WhatsApp from iTunes or Finder Backup (iPhone)
For iPhones, iTunes or Finder backups can be leveraged to recover deleted WhatsApp data if you had taken a backup prior to the deletion. Here are the steps:
If you have an iTunes backup:
1. Connect your iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes.
2. Go to Preferences > Devices and select your device. Click to create a backup if latest backup is older than WhatsApp deletion date.
3. Download and install a iOS data recovery tool like Dr.Fone on your computer.
4. Launch Dr.Fone and click Recover from iTunes Backup. Select your device backup.
5. Choose WhatsApp messages and attachments and click Scan.
6. Preview and recover the WhatsApp data from the backup to your computer or iPhone.
If you have a Finder backup:
1. Connect iPhone to your macOS Catalina or later computer.
2. Open Finder window and select your device under Locations in sidebar.
3. Click Manage Backups to create a new backup if latest backup is old.
4. Download and install Dr.Fone and launch the app.
5. Click Recover from iCloud Backup and add your Apple ID credentials.
6. Select the backup and scan for WhatsApp data. Preview and Recover.
By extracting WhatsApp data from iTunes or iCloud backups, you can easily get back deleted WhatsApp content on your iPhone without any data loss.
Method 3: Use WhatsApp Local Databases (Android Only)
Advanced Android users can also directly access the WhatsApp databases on their phone to view deleted messages and media files. Here’s how:
Steps
1. Root your Android phone first to access protected folders.
2. Install a file explorer with root access. I recommend ES File Explorer or Mixplorer.
3. Navigate to the WhatsApp folder location on phone: /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases
4. Locate the msgstore.db.crypt12 file which stores your chat history.
5. Copy the encrypted database file from your phone to computer using the file explorer.
6. Download and install SQLLite browser software on the computer.
7. Drag and drop the msgstore.db.crypt12 file into SQLite to open the database.
8. Browse through the Messages table to find and view deleted WhatsApp chats.
9. To recover media, navigate to /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media and copy deleted photos, videos, etc back to phone.
Limitations
– Need root access which trips Knox security on Samsung phones.
– Can’t recover encrypted media like voice messages and documents.
– Recovered chats have no user interface and hard to interpret.
So while this method lets advanced users access local databases directly, data recovery apps are much easier to use for retrieving deleted WhatsApp contents from internal storage on Android.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I recover deleted WhatsApp messages without backup?
Yes, it is possible to restore deleted WhatsApp chats, photos, videos without backup by using Android data recovery software like Dr.Fone that can scan your phone’s storage to find any residual WhatsApp files.
2. How can I view deleted WhatsApp messages on Android?
On rooted Android phones, you can view deleted WhatsApp chats by accessing the msgstore.db.crypt12 database file with SQLite browser. On non-rooted phones, use data recovery apps like DiskDigger to find and recover deleted messages.
3. How do I restore deleted WhatsApp media files?
Use a data recovery app for Android or iOS to find and restore deleted WhatsApp media like photos, videos, voice messages, documents etc. from phone storage. You can also extract media from local or cloud backups.
4. Can we recover deleted WhatsApp messages after 7 days?
In most cases, yes it is possible to recover deleted WhatsApp messages even after months provided the storage space they occupied wasn’t overwritten with new data. Use a data recovery app immediately for best chance.
5. Is Dr.Fone safe for WhatsApp recovery?
Dr.Fone is 100% safe software used by millions of users. It uses read-only access to recover data without risking any overwrites. Your WhatsApp chats and media can be safely restored.
Conclusion
– Deleted WhatsApp data can be recovered locally from Android and iPhone storage without backups using data recovery apps like Dr.Fone.
– For Android, apps like DiskDigger can also extract WhatsApp content from phone memory. Advanced users can try directly accessing databases.
– On iPhone, leverage iTunes or iCloud backups to restore deleted WhatsApp chats and media through recovery tools.
– Act quickly before overwritten and avoid using WhatsApp after deletion for best chance of recovery.
– Data recovery apps provide a quick, easy and risk-free solution to restore deleted WhatsApp data directly from phone storage.