WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. It allows you to send messages, photos, videos, documents and more to friends and family instantly. However, your WhatsApp storage can quickly fill up with old chats, media and files. If you don’t routinely clean up your WhatsApp account, you may run out of storage space on your phone.
Luckily, WhatsApp gives you the option to delete old chats and media to free up space. You can delete specific chats, clear all chats, delete media, and configure auto-deletion settings. In this article, we will show you how to delete sent messages older than 6 months on WhatsApp for Android and iPhone.
Why Delete Old WhatsApp Messages?
Here are some key reasons why you may want to delete old WhatsApp messages and media regularly:
– Free up storage space – WhatsApp media like photos, videos and documents can take up a lot of storage space on your phone. Deleting old chats and media helps free up storage.
– Privacy – If you have sent sensitive information like passwords, addresses or credit card details in old chats, deleting them helps protect your privacy in case your phone gets lost or accessed by others.
– Reduce clutter – Removing old chats that you no longer need makes it easier to find recent conversations and information.
– Improve performance – Having too many chats and media files slows down the WhatsApp app. Deleting old content helps improve app performance.
– Compliance – Some regulated industries require deleting work-related chats older than a specified period for compliance purposes.
How to Delete Sent Messages Older Than 6 Months on Android
Follow these steps to remove sent messages older than 6 months old on WhatsApp for Android:
1. Open WhatsApp and tap on the 3-dot menu icon in the top right.
2. Select Settings > Chats > Chat History.
3. Tap on “Delete chats older than 6 months” and confirm by tapping DELETE.
4. WhatsApp will automatically delete all sent messages older than 6 months across all your chats.
5. You can also choose to delete chats older than 3 months, 1 year or always keep all chats.
6. Tap OK when done.
This setting will now auto-delete any sent messages older than 6 months going forward. The delete operation happens once daily at 4 AM.
Delete Old Chats Individually
To delete old chats for specific contacts rather than everything, here are the steps:
1. Open the individual chat you want to delete.
2. Tap on the contact name at the top.
3. Select More > Clear chat history.
4. Confirm by tapping CLEAR to delete the entire chat history with that contact.
5. You can also tap and hold a specific message, then choose Delete to remove individual messages.
Clear All Chats
To delete all your WhatsApp chats at once:
1. Open WhatsApp Settings.
2. Select Chats > Clear All Chats.
3. Tap CLEAR ALL CHATS to confirm.
4. Enter your phone password or fingerprint to authorize the action.
This will delete all individual and group chats, removing all messages, photos, videos and files you’ve sent or received on WhatsApp.
How to Delete Old Messages on iPhone
Here are the steps to auto-delete old sent messages on WhatsApp for iOS:
1. Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
2. Tap on Chats.
3. Select Keep Messages > 1 Year.
4. Tap Done to save the setting.
This will now automatically delete all sent messages older than 1 year. The deletion process runs every time you open WhatsApp.
Clear Chat History
To delete an entire chat history with a contact:
1. Open the WhatsApp chat.
2. Tap on the contact name at the top.
3. Select Clear Chat History.
4. Confirm by tapping Clear to delete the chat.
Delete Specific Messages
To remove specific messages in a chat:
1. Open the WhatsApp chat.
2. Tap and hold the message you want to delete.
3. Tap Delete in the menu that pops up.
4. Choose Delete for me or Delete for everyone if it was sent to a group.
Clear All Chats
Follow these steps to delete all WhatsApp chats on iPhone:
1. Go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats.
2. Select Clear All Chats.
3. Enter your iPhone passcode to confirm.
All your individual and group chats will be permanently erased from WhatsApp.
How Does WhatsApp Delete Old Messages?
When you enable auto-deletion for old messages, WhatsApp does not immediately purge them from your phone storage. Instead, it marks the expired messages as deleted and hides them from view in your chat screen. The actual deletion happens later in a background cleanup process.
On Android, this cleanup runs every day at 4 AM or when your phone is not in use. On iPhone, it happens each time you open WhatsApp. Media files like photos or videos also remain saved in your phone storage until this cleanup process runs.
The deleted messages are permanently erased and no longer accessible through WhatsApp. However, any media files sent within chats get saved to your phone’s internal storage. So you may need to clear your phone’s storage separately to delete those media files.
Important Points
Here are some important points to note about deleting old WhatsApp messages:
– Deleted messages are permanently erased and cannot be recovered. So be certain before deleting.
– Backup your chat history if you want to retain a record of important chats.
– Enabling auto-delete will only affect newly sent messages after that point. Older existing messages will not be automatically deleted.
– Deleting a chat or message also erases it from recipients’ phones if done within 7 minutes.
– Media files must be manually deleted from your phone’s storage.
– If you switch phones, chats marked as deleted will sync and also be removed from the new phone.
– Messages deleted by recipients will remain visible in your chat history.
– You can still find and delete old messages manually even after enabling auto-delete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does WhatsApp notify the sender or receiver when deleting old messages?
No, WhatsApp does not send any notification when automatically deleting old messages as per your auto-delete settings. The messages are silently removed from your chats list. However, if you manually delete a chat or message, WhatsApp will show a note that “This message was deleted” to indicate the removal.
Can I recover deleted WhatsApp messages?
Unfortunately, there is no way to recover deleted WhatsApp messages on Android or iPhone. The messages are permanently deleted from WhatsApp servers after 30 days. Your only option is to restore messages from a previously saved chat backup.
Will my chat history transfer to a new phone?
When you switch to a new Android phone or iPhone, your existing WhatsApp chats and data will transfer over during setup if you authenticate with the same phone number. This includes your chat delete settings, so any chats marked as deleted will not show up on the new device.
Can I selectively restore deleted chats from a backup?
WhatsApp only provides an all-or-nothing restore option from backups. You cannot select specific chats or messages to restore. Once you restore from a backup, it will overwrite and replace all chats on your device.
Will deleting chats free up space on my SD card?
No, deleting WhatsApp chats only removes message data. It does not delete the media files in your SD card or phone storage. You will need to manually delete WhatsApp media from your device’s storage settings to free up space.
Conclusion
Keeping your WhatsApp chats clutter-free by regularly deleting old messages has many benefits. It saves storage space, improves privacy, removes clutter and speeds up the app. WhatsApp provides flexible auto-delete options to remove messages older than 7 days, 90 days, 1 year or always keep everything.
On Android, you can set chats to auto-delete after 6 months or longer. For iPhone, the maximum deletion age is 1 year. Make sure to backup important chats before enabling auto-delete, as all removed messages are permanently erased. With these simple steps, you can effectively manage your WhatsApp message history.