WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. It allows easy communication through text messages, voice calls, video calls, images, documents etc. However, one common issue many WhatsApp users face is accidentally deleting chat messages and then needing to recover them.
Normally, WhatsApp gives you the option to back up your chats to Google Drive or iCloud. So if you ever lose your chats, you can restore from the latest backup. But what if you don’t have any backups? Is it still possible to get back your deleted WhatsApp messages?
The answer is yes! While a bit tricky, there are ways to recover cleared WhatsApp messages even without a backup. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore all the possible methods to get back deleted WhatsApp chats on both Android and iPhone.
Can You Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages Without Backup?
As mentioned above, the direct and easiest way to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages is from a backup. However, it is possible to recover deleted WhatsApp chats without backup in some cases. This is because even when you delete something on your phone, it is not permanently erased right away. The deleted data still resides on your phone’s storage until it gets overwritten by new data.
Hence, as long as the deleted WhatsApp messages are not overwritten, recovery is possible by extracting data from the phone’s storage. However, this requires specialized data recovery apps rather than WhatsApp’s built-in restore option. We will discuss more details subsequently.
Requirements for Recovering Deleted WhatsApp Chats without Backup
While recovering deleted WhatsApp messages without backup is possible, success depends largely on meeting certain requirements:
- You must not have overwritten the deleted messages with significant new data – the sooner you attempt recovery, the better
- Root access on Android or jailbreak on iOS provides higher chances of recovering more data
- The phone should not have suffered any hardware damage affecting the storage
- You need dedicated data recovery software designed for this purpose
As long as you meet the above requirements, you stand a good chance of getting back your deleted WhatsApp messages through data recovery techniques. However, there is no guarantee of recovering 100% data.
Recovering Deleted WhatsApp Messages on Android without Backup
For Android phones, you can recover deleted WhatsApp chats without backup using data recovery apps. Here are the general steps to follow:
- Download and install a data recovery app on your Android phone. Some popular options are Dr.Fone, EaseUS MobiSaver, DiskDigger etc.
- Allow the app access to your phone’s storage. For best results, root your Android phone if possible.
- Run the data recovery scan. The app will scan your phone’s storage for any deleted data that can be retrieved.
- Once the scan completes, preview and select the WhatsApp messages you want to recover.
- Save the retrieved WhatsApp messages to another location on your phone or external SD card.
The data recovery app will dig deep into your phone’s storage and extract as much recoverable data as possible. This includes deleted media files, documents along with WhatsApp chats.
One key point is that you should not save the recovered WhatsApp messages back to your phone’s internal storage. This may overwrite the deleted data that still resides there and lower chances of retrieving more data. Instead, save to an external SD card or cloud storage.
Using Dr.Fone to Recover Deleted WhatsApp Chats on Android
One of the most popular data recovery apps for Android is Dr.Fone – Data Recovery. Here are the steps to use it:
- Download and install Dr.Fone on your Windows or Mac computer.
- Launch Dr.Fone and click Data Recovery option.
- Connect your Android phone to the computer via USB and select ‘Recover from Android Device’.
- Allow USB debugging access on your Android phone when prompted.
- Select WhatsApp under Deleted files you want to recover.
- Dr.Fone will now scan your device and list deleted WhatsApp messages found.
- Preview and select the WhatsApp chats to recover and click Recover.
- Choose a location on your computer to save the recovered WhatsApp chats.
Using Dr.Fone provides a simple interface to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages on Android. And it recovers data directly from the phone rather than any backups.
Recovering Deleted WhatsApp Messages on iPhone without Backup
The process of recovering deleted WhatsApp chats on iPhone without backup is pretty similar to Android. You need to use data recovery software to extract deleted data from the iPhone storage.
However, the recovery process is a bit more complex on iPhone.
This is because iPhones do not allow accessing the internal file system directly from a computer. You need to jailbreak the iPhone first to gain file system access.
Here are the key steps to recover deleted WhatsApp messages on iPhone without backup:
- Jailbreak your iPhone using Checkra1n, unc0ver or any other jailbreak tool.
- Download a data recovery app like Dr.Fone on your computer and install iTunes if not already available.
- Connect the jailbroken iPhone to the computer and launch Dr.Fone.
- Allow Dr.Fone access to your iPhone data when prompted on-screen and on the iPhone.
- Select WhatsApp chat history under ‘Deleted Files’ to scan.
- Dr.Fone will retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages found during the scan.
- Preview and recover the WhatsApp chats you want to the computer.
Jailbreaking gives data recovery tools like Dr.Fone access to iPhone’s file system to dig out deleted data. This makes recovery of cleared WhatsApp messages without backup possible on iPhone.
Other Ways to Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages
Apart from data recovery apps, here are some other ways you can attempt to get back deleted WhatsApp messages, especially if they are recent:
Check Notification Log
Open WhatsApp Settings > Notifications > View Notification Log. This will show notifications for recent WhatsApp messages. While you cannot recover full messages, it may give you clues about any important deleted chats.
Check Email Conversations
If you had emailed certain WhatsApp chat history to yourself or others, check those emails as they may contain portions of deleted messages.
Check Google Drive Backups
WhatsApp automatically backs up to Google Drive at periodic intervals. Even if you have no manual backups, Drive may contain an auto backup with deleted messages.
Check Local WhatsApp Backups
On Android, WhatsApp stores backup files locally which you can extract using apps like OBBackup. It may have older backups with deleted messages.
Seek Help from WhatsApp
As a last resort, contact WhatsApp Support for help with recovering deleted messages. Provide them details to verify account ownership.
Tips to Avoid Losing WhatsApp Messages
To avoid the hassle of recovering deleted WhatsApp messages, follow these useful tips:
- Enable auto backup in WhatsApp settings to back up your chats regularly.
- Take manual WhatsApp backups to Google Drive or iCloud before a factory reset.
- Be careful while deleting messages and avoid clearing full chat history.
- Back up important chats via email or export chat option.
- Create a reminder to take weekly or monthly WhatsApp backups.
Conclusion
It is possible to recover deleted WhatsApp messages without backup using data recovery apps like Dr.Fone. However, this requires specific conditions to be met. The easiest solution is maintaining regular WhatsApp backups either manually or automatically.
We hope this guide gives you a clear understanding of how to restore deleted WhatsApp chats even without backup. Let us know if you have any other questions in the comments!