WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. One of the key features of WhatsApp is its backup function, which allows users to save their chat history, messages, media and other data.
What does WhatsApp backup include?
A WhatsApp backup contains:
- Chat history – All your text messages, voice messages, calls etc.
- Media – Photos, videos and other media sent and received on WhatsApp.
- Settings – Your WhatsApp settings like privacy settings, notification settings etc.
- Contacts – Your WhatsApp contacts list.
So in short, a WhatsApp backup does contain your photos along with other data. Whenever you create a new backup, it will include all photos currently saved in your WhatsApp app at that time.
How are WhatsApp backups stored?
WhatsApp gives you two options for backing up your data:
- Local backup – Backups are saved locally on your device storage. This is enabled by default.
- Google Drive backup – Backups are saved to your linked Google Drive account. You need to enable this manually.
For both options, your photos will be included in the backup. With local backup, photos are saved on your phone’s internal storage or SD card if applicable.
With Google Drive backup, photos are counted towards your Google storage quota.
Do WhatsApp backups store full quality photos?
Yes, WhatsApp backups store full quality, original photos with no compression or reductions in quality.
The photos are saved in their original size and format, along with all metadata like geo-location if present. So you don’t have to worry about losing any quality or details in your backed up photos.
How much storage space do WhatsApp photo backups use?
The amount of storage space used by your WhatsApp backup depends on:
- Number of photos – More photos means larger backup size.
- Resolution of photos – Higher resolution photos take up more space.
- Length of chat history – Longer history means bigger backup.
For example, a user with 5000 photos totaling 10GB of data and a long chat history could have a WhatsApp backup size of around 15GB or more.
To get an estimate, you can check your WhatsApp storage usage in Settings > Storage Usage. This shows data usage by Media, Audio and Documents.
Tips to reduce WhatsApp backup size
If your WhatsApp backups are taking up too much space, here are some tips to reduce the size:
- Delete old photos/videos – Manually delete old media you don’t need from chats.
- Export chats – Export specific chats to free up space.
- Clear chat history – Clear all chats or specific long chats.
- Compress photos – Use a photo compressor to reduce photo sizes before sending.
- Backup less often – Reduce how often you backup, e.g. weekly instead of daily.
Enabling Google Drive backup can also provide virtually unlimited storage for your WhatsApp backup, as long as you have enough free space in Google Drive.
What happens to WhatsApp photos if you don’t backup?
If you do not backup your WhatsApp chats, any photos saved in WhatsApp will be lost in certain cases like:
- Getting a new phone – Unbacked up data is not transferred.
- Uninstalling WhatsApp – All data is deleted.
- Clearing WhatsApp data – Chats are erased.
- Hardware damage – Photos are lost if phone is damaged and cannot be recovered.
So it’s highly recommended to use WhatsApp’s backup feature especially if you have important or irreplaceable photos in your chats.
How to restore photos from WhatsApp backup
If you lose your WhatsApp photos for any reason, they can be retrieved from a backup. Here is how to restore photos from a WhatsApp backup:
- Uninstall WhatsApp and install it again on your device.
- When prompted on opening WhatsApp, tap Restore to restore from your latest local or Google Drive backup.
- Wait for WhatsApp to restore your chats and media from the backup.
- Once done, all your photos will be restored within WhatsApp.
This restores your entire WhatsApp data including profile, messages, photos, videos, settings etc. Unfortunately, you cannot selectively restore only photos.
Limitations of WhatsApp backup
While WhatsApp backup is very useful, there are some limitations to be aware of:
- No selective backup – You cannot backup specific chats or media only.
- Large backup size – Backups can take up substantial storage space.
- No export options – Media cannot be exported out of the backup except via third party apps.
- propriety format – Backups are encrypted and stored in WhatsApp’s own format.
- Chat history limit – Only last 40K messages can be backed up.
Due to these restrictions, many users additionally use third party apps to better manage, export and backup their WhatsApp photos.
Third party apps for managing WhatsApp photos
Here are some popular third party apps that offer enhanced management and backup of WhatsApp photos:
| App | Key Features |
|---|---|
| Google Photos |
|
| WhatsApp Transfer |
|
| WAMR |
|
These provide more flexibility in backing up your WhatsApp photos as per your requirements.
Conclusion
To summarize, WhatsApp’s built-in backup does include photos along with your other chat data. It stores full quality photos with no compression or reductions.
Backup sizes can be substantial depending on amount of media exchanged. While the backups are very convenient, limitations like selective backup make third party apps useful for enhanced management of WhatsApp photos.
Key Points
- WhatsApp backups include photos along with your chat history, media and settings.
- Backups store original, full resolution photos with no loss of quality.
- Backup sizes depend on number and size of photos shared.
- Without backup, WhatsApp photos are lost if you switch devices or reinstall.
- Limitations of built-in backup can be overcome using third party apps.
I hope this detailed overview helps explain whether WhatsApp backups include your photos and how you can effectively manage WhatsApp media backups. Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions!