WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. With its growing usage, managing and backing up your WhatsApp data has become more important than ever. One of the best ways to backup your WhatsApp chats is to save them to your phone’s SD card.
Why save WhatsApp chats to SD card?
Here are some key reasons why you should backup your WhatsApp chats to SD card:
- Frees up phone storage space: WhatsApp chats, especially media-heavy ones, can take up a lot of storage space on your phone. Saving them to SD card frees up space.
- Preserves chat history: Backing up chats to SD card allows you to preserve your chat history even if you switch phones or lose your phone.
- Easy to restore: You can easily restore backed up WhatsApp chats by copying them back from SD card to your phone.
- Enhances privacy: Sensitive chats are more secure on external SD card compared to a cloud backup.
- Works offline: SD card backup works even without an internet connection.
Requirements for saving WhatsApp chats to SD card
Before backing up your WhatsApp chats to SD card, ensure the following:
- Your phone has an SD card slot
- The SD card has enough free storage space for the backup
- Your SD card and WhatsApp app are both updated to the latest version
- You have enabled WhatsApp’s chat backup to external SD card option (steps covered later)
How to save WhatsApp chats to SD card on Android
Here are the step-by-step instructions to backup WhatsApp to SD card on Android phones:
- Insert the SD card into your Android phone’s SD card slot.
- Open WhatsApp and tap on the 3-dot menu in the top right corner.
- Go to Settings > Chats > Chat backup.
- Tap on “Backup to external SD card” and select “Back up to SD card”.
- Tap “Back up” to start backing up your WhatsApp chats and media to the SD card.
- Wait for the backup process to complete. A “Backup successful” message will appear.
- Your WhatsApp chat backup will now be saved as an encrypted database file on your SD card.
That’s it! Your WhatsApp chats are now securely backed up on your Android phone’s external SD card.
Important tips for Android SD card backup
- WhatsApp chat backups on Android are saved in the SD card folder – WhatsApp/Databases.
- Make sure to not remove the SD card while a backup or restore is in progress.
- You can configure automated daily, weekly, or monthly backups to SD card in WhatsApp settings.
- Encrypted media files are backed up in the SD card folder – WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images.
- You need to copy the entire SD card WhatsApp folder to restore chats from SD card backup.
How to save WhatsApp chats to SD card on iPhone
Unfortunately, iPhones do not allow chatting apps like WhatsApp to write data directly to the SD card. However, here is a workaround to backup WhatsApp chats from iPhone to SD card:
- Connect your iPhone to a computer and launch iTunes.
- Create an encrypted iTunes backup of your iPhone on the computer.
- Locate the iTunes backup folder on your computer – it is usually under Users/[User]/AppData/Roaming/Apple Computer/MobileSync/Backup.
- Copy this iTunes backup folder to your SD card or external hard drive.
This iTunes WhatsApp chat backup on SD card can be restored when required. Alternately, you can use a third-party iOS tool like iMyFone iTransor to export WhatsApp chats from iPhone to computer and then copy the files to SD card.
How to restore WhatsApp chats from SD card
On Android:
- Insert the SD card containing WhatsApp backup into your Android phone.
- Install WhatsApp and verify your phone number.
- On the Restore Chat History page, tap Restore to restore chats and media from SD card backup.
- Select the backup to restore from SD card.
- Wait for WhatsApp to restore chats and media files from the SD card.
On iPhone:
- Copy the WhatsApp iTunes backup folder from your SD card to the computer.
- Connect your iPhone to the computer and open iTunes.
- Restore the iPhone using the WhatsApp iTunes backup files on the computer.
- This will restore your WhatsApp chats and data on your iPhone.
Advantages of saving WhatsApp chats to SD card
Here are some major benefits of backing up WhatsApp chats to your phone’s SD card:
| Advantage | Details |
|---|---|
| Preserves chat history | Chats are safely stored even if you lose your phone |
| Enhanced privacy | Chats are not uploaded to a cloud service |
| Works offline | No internet needed for SD card backup |
| Saves phone storage | Media-heavy chats consume phone storage |
| Easy to restore | Quickly restore chats by copying WhatsApp folder from SD card |
Disadvantages of SD card backup
However, WhatsApp SD card backup also has some limitations:
- Need to manually copy data from SD card for restore
- Possibility of SD card corruption or damage
- Only stores chats from one device at a time
- Does not backup call history and settings
- Requires phone with SD card slot
WhatsApp SD card backup vs Google Drive backup
Here is a comparison between WhatsApp backup to SD card vs backup to Google Drive cloud storage:
| Factor | SD Card Backup | Google Drive Backup |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of restoring | Manual process to copy backup | Automated remote restore |
| Privacy | Enhanced privacy | Data is stored on third-party servers |
| Chat transfer | Only transfers from one device | Syncs chats across multiple devices |
| Internet required | No internet needed | Stable internet required |
| Storage space | Limited by SD card size | Virtually unlimited cloud storage |
As you can see, both WhatsApp backup options have their own pros and cons. Using both SD card and Google Drive backup provides optimal redundancy for your important chats.
WhatsApp chat backup size on SD card
The size of your WhatsApp backup on SD card depends on:
- Number of chats
- Media exchanged in chats
- Length of chat history being backed up
- Number of groups you are part of
- File size of received media like photos, videos, documents etc.
An average WhatsApp backup size on SD card can range from:
- 100 MB for text-only chats
- 500 MB with some media files
- 1-2 GB including chat history, profiles, groups, and media
- 5 GB+ for very extensive chat history and media content
Encrypted media consumes a lot more space than text chats. So the amount and type of media exchanged impacts your overall WhatsApp backup size on SD card.
Tips to manage WhatsApp SD card backup size
Here are some tips to manage WhatsApp backup size on your SD card:
- Exclude large video/audio files from backup by toggling “Include Videos” option in WhatsApp settings.
- Use a large SD card with ample spare storage.
- Optimize phone storage and clear WhatsApp cache/residual files regularly.
- Backup less chat history by customizing the backup duration in WhatsApp settings.
- Clear old backups from SD card once copied to other locations.
- Use a paid Google Drive account for additional free storage for media.
- Transfer old media to a computer and delete from WhatsApp to reduce backup size.
Troubleshooting WhatsApp SD card backup issues
Some common WhatsApp backup issues faced during SD card backup and their solutions:
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Unable to find SD card | Reinsert SD card properly into phone |
| Backup stuck midway | Switch off phone, remove and reinsert SD card |
| Insufficient space error | Clear space on SD card by deleting old files |
| Blank or incomplete backup | Restart backup process, check for SD card errors |
| Forgotten encryption password | No workaround, has to reset WhatsApp |
Conclusion
Backing up your WhatsApp chats and media to an external SD card is an easy and safe way to preserve your chat history. It frees up phone storage space while providing quick offline restore of your chats if required. Remember to use a high-quality SD card, configure automated backups, and optimize your backup size for smooth WhatsApp SD card backup experience.