Losing important Word documents that you received or sent through WhatsApp can be incredibly frustrating. Luckily, with the right tools and techniques, it is often possible to recover deleted Word documents from WhatsApp.
Why Word documents get deleted from WhatsApp
There are a few common reasons why you may have accidentally deleted a Word document from WhatsApp:
- You deleted the chat that contained the Word document
- You cleared your WhatsApp chats and media
- Your phone ran out of storage space and deleted files automatically
- A bug or glitch in WhatsApp caused files to disappear
Word documents sent over WhatsApp get saved in your phone’s internal storage. When you delete a chat or clear WhatsApp storage, these Word files get deleted as well. However, the files aren’t immediately removed from your phone’s storage system. Instead, they get marked as deleted and the space they occupied becomes available for new data. This provides a window of opportunity to recover them before they get overwritten.
How Word documents are stored by WhatsApp
To understand how to recover deleted Word files from WhatsApp, it helps to know how WhatsApp handles document transfers:
- When you receive a Word document over WhatsApp, it gets downloaded and saved in an internal WhatsApp folder on your phone’s storage.
- The Word file exists independently of the WhatsApp chat. Deleting the chat does not delete the Word file.
- When you delete chats or media from WhatsApp, it only marks the associated files as deleted. The files still physically exist on your phone.
- Over time, deleted files get overwritten by new data. But you can recover them until they are overwritten.
So even if you accidentally deleted a chat or cleared WhatsApp storage, the Word files may still be recoverable from your phone’s storage before they get overwritten by new data.
How to recover deleted Word documents from WhatsApp on Android
Here are the steps to recover deleted Word documents from WhatsApp on Android phones:
- Download and install a file recovery app on your Android phone. Some good options are DiskDigger, Dumpster, or DigDeep.
- Open the file recovery app and grant it the required permissions.
- Select the WhatsApp folder location on your phone’s storage to scan.
- Let the app scan your phone’s storage for deleted Word documents.
- Preview and select the Word documents you want to recover.
- Choose a restore location and recover the deleted Word files.
The WhatsApp folder location varies across different Android versions but is usually in the Internal Storage > WhatsApp > Media folder. Advanced file recovery apps can locate it automatically.
Using DigDeep as an example:
- Download and install DigDeep on your Android device.
- Open the app and grant the required permissions.
- Tap ‘Gallery’ and select ‘WhatsApp Files’ to scan just the WhatsApp data.
- Tap ‘Start’ to begin scanning the storage.
- Once the scan completes, it will show recoverable Word files.
- Preview and select the files you want to restore.
- Choose where to restore the Word documents and tap ‘Recover’ to get them back.
This will let you get back deleted Word files from WhatsApp as long as they haven’t yet been overwritten by new data.
How to recover deleted Word documents from WhatsApp on iPhone
To recover deleted Word files from WhatsApp on an iPhone:
- Download and install an iOS data recovery app like PhoneRescue or iMyFone D-Back on your computer.
- Connect your iPhone to the computer and launch the recovery app.
- Select the ‘WhatsApp’ or ‘Documents’ option to scan just for Word files.
- Let the app scan your device and extract the deleted Word documents.
- Preview and select the Word files to recover.
- Choose a save location on your computer to restore the deleted Word documents.
The best iPhone data recovery software can extract WhatsApp documents, notes, videos, and more from iTunes or iCloud backups as well. This expands the window of recovery, letting you restore deleted Word files from WhatsApp even if they are overwritten on your iPhone.
Using iMyFone D-Back as an example:
- Download and install iMyFone D-Back on your computer.
- Connect your iPhone and launch D-Back.
- Select ‘WhatsApp Documents’ and scan.
- Preview and select the deleted Word files to recover.
- Choose a location to save the recovered documents.
- You can also retrieve deleted Word files from iTunes and iCloud backups.
Tips to avoid losing Word documents from WhatsApp
Here are some tips to avoid losing important Word documents received on WhatsApp:
- Save attachments: Immediately save Word files received on WhatsApp to a safe location on your device or cloud storage.
- Backups: Regularly backup your WhatsApp chats and media to Google Drive or iCloud.
- Delete with care: Avoid mass deleting WhatsApp chats and media where you may have received Word files.
- Preview before delete: Open the chat and check for attachments before deleting any chat.
- Storage check: Ensure your phone has enough storage space so WhatsApp does not auto delete files.
- Reliable phones: Consider using more reliable smartphones that rarely crash or face data loss issues.
Can you recover permanently deleted WhatsApp documents?
If a Word document attached on WhatsApp was permanently deleted a long time ago, is it still possible to get it back?
Unfortunately, once deleted WhatsApp files are overwritten by new data, they are almost impossible to recover by regular means. However, in some cases, advanced data recovery solutions may be able to recover even permanently deleted WhatsApp documents.
Here are some last ditch options that may work:
- Root/Jailbreak method: This gives data recovery tools low-level access needed to extract overwritten data.
- Extract from phone image: Creating a full bit-by-bit image of the phone storage allows scanning for deleted files.
- Consult a data recovery service: Pro data recovery experts use specialized tools to recover overwritten data from drives.
But there is no guarantee of recovering a deleted WhatsApp Word document if it was lost a long time ago and overwritten. Prevention is better – so always backup your WhatsApp attachments.
Can you recover deleted WhatsApp documents without root?
Root or jailbreak access gives data recovery software unrestricted access to phone storage. This helps enhance their ability to recover deleted files. But is it still possible to restore deleted WhatsApp Word documents without root access?
Fortunately, yes – you can recover deleted WhatsApp documents without rooting or jailbreaking your Android phone or iPhone.
All the file recovery apps and methods outlined above work without needing root access. They only require basic storage permissions from the user. As long as the Word file has not been overwritten, it can be recovered without root.
However, root access improves the chances and extent of deleted file recovery. With root, recovery tools can:
- Access all storage partitions including protected areas
- Low level scan for deleted data remnants
- Bypass security restrictions imposed by the OS
- Extract overwritten data
So for best results, it is recommended to root or jailbreak your phone before attempting recovery of permanently deleted WhatsApp documents. But even without it, undeliberately deleted files have a good chance of getting rescued.
Can you recover Word documents older than 30 days on WhatsApp?
WhatsApp allows backups of chats and media to Google Drive or iCloud. But these backups only retain data from the past 30 days for free users. So can you still recover Word documents older than 30 days received on WhatsApp?
Here are some ways you may be able to restore Word documents older than 30 days on WhatsApp:
- Cloud backup with paid account: WhatsApp retains media for up to a year in paid Google One and iCloud plans.
- Local backup: Use a local backup tool to manually backup WhatsApp data beyond 30 days.
- File recovery: Scan your phone storage with a data recovery app to find deleted files.
- External save: Check cloud storage, email, or file manager apps in case you saved the document externally.
But the easiest method is to upgrade to a paid Google One or iCloud subscription. These provide extended WhatsApp backup retention of up to a year, letting you restore older deleted documents.
Without an extended cloud backup, your best chance is file recovery apps. But the older the file, the less likely for it to still be recoverable from phone storage before getting overwritten.
Can you recover Word documents deleted from the WhatsApp folder?
WhatsApp stores all received media in dedicated folders on Android (/WhatsApp/Media/) and iOS (/Media/WhatsApp/). If you accidentally deleted Word documents from the WhatsApp folder itself, can they be recovered?
Yes, Word documents deleted directly from the WhatsApp folder can also be recovered using the techniques outlined earlier:
- A file recovery app can restore deleted documents from the WhatsApp folder, as long as the space hasn’t been reallocated.
- On iPhone, iTunes or iCloud backups made before the Word document was deleted can contain a retrievable copy.
- Root/Jailbreak access enables recovery tools to extract deleted files even after they are overwritten.
So even if you manually deleted a Word file from the WhatsApp Media folder, don’t lose hope. A quick scan with a data recovery app may be able to find and restore it.
Conclusion
Accidentally losing important Word documents received over WhatsApp is very common. Thankfully, there are various DIY data recovery techniques that can help restore deleted Word files on both Android and iPhone devices.
The key is to act quickly before the deleted files get overwritten with new data. Using data recovery apps, you can easily find and extract deleted Word documents from WhatsApp – provided they still exist untouched on your phone’s storage.
In case of older or permanently deleted files beyond the reach of regular recovery, options like rooted scanning, phone imaging, and professional recovery services may still be able to salvage the data. But the chances decline over time.
To avoid document loss from WhatsApp, make sure to backup chats regularly, export attachments, and handle deletions carefully. With some care, you can minimize the need for recovery via the methods described in this article.