Deleting your WhatsApp backup can have varying consequences depending on your specific situation. The main things to consider are:
- Loss of chat history and media
- Loss of WhatsApp account if you delete the only backup
- Options for recovering deleted chats
Overall, deleting a WhatsApp backup should be done with caution, as you may lose data that cannot be easily recovered. However, there are some mitigating factors that may reduce data loss depending on your backup settings and whether you’ve previously moved chats to another device.
What Data is in a WhatsApp Backup?
A WhatsApp backup contains the following data from your account:
- Chat history and media
- Account information
- Settings
The chat history and media encompasses all of your conversations, images, videos, audio messages, documents and more that are sent or received within WhatsApp. Your account information includes your name, profile photo, about info and any statuses. Settings that are saved include your notification preferences, security info like fingerprint lock, and chat wallpaper.
Backups do not contain your WhatsApp calling history. They also do not backup data or files that are not related to WhatsApp, such as your phone contacts, calendar events, or photos stored on your device’s internal storage outside of WhatsApp.
Backup Frequencies
WhatsApp defaults to a daily backup frequency when you have automatic backups enabled. However, you can also manually create backups at any time from WhatsApp’s settings. Creating manual backups is recommended before resetting your phone or moving your chat history to a new device.
Consequences of Deleting a WhatsApp Backup
Here are the potential consequences of deleting your WhatsApp backup:
Loss of Chat History and Media
The most obvious effect of deleting a backup is that you will lose access to all of the WhatsApp chats and associated media that were contained in that backup. This includes:
- Text messages
- Photos and videos sent or received in chats
- Voice messages
- Stickers
- Files and documents
- WhatsApp Status photos and videos
Essentially all of your activity within WhatsApp chats will be erased if you can no longer restore from the deleted backup.
Loss of WhatsApp Account
If you have deleted your only recent backup, and you then need to delete and reinstall WhatsApp, you may lose your entire WhatsApp account.
WhatsApp uses your backup files to restore your account information when installing on a new device or reinstalling after uninstalling. Without a backup, WhatsApp has no way to recover your account details, profile data, chat histories and settings.
Losing your account means you would have to create a brand new account and start your WhatsApp chats from scratch. You would also lose your previous WhatsApp number association.
Inability to Move Chats to New Device
If you were planning to migrate your WhatsApp account and chat history to a new device, deleting your most recent backup makes this impossible. Transferring your chats requires having the backup available on your old device to import it to the new phone or tablet.
Mitigating Factors
While the above consequences can be severe, there are some mitigating factors that may reduce data loss:
Multiple Backups
WhatsApp backups are stored in the following locations:
- Locally on your device storage
- iCloud backup for iOS users
- Google Drive backup for Android users
If you have enabled multiple backup sources, deleting one backup may still leave you with another intact backup to use for restoring your chats. For example, even if you delete the Google Drive backup, the local backup on your Android device storage may still be available.
Previously Moved Chats to New Device
If you had previously migrated your WhatsApp account and chat history to another device, then deleted the backup on your old device, your data is still safe on the new device.
As long as you don’t delete the WhatsApp backup on your new device, your chat history remains intact on that device. However, you will not be able to transfer your chats back to the old device after deleting its backup.
iCloud Retains Deleted Backups Temporarily
On iPhone devices, even if you delete a WhatsApp iCloud backup, it may still be recoverable for a limited time period. iCloud keeps deleted backups in a temporary storage for up to 40 days before permanent deletion.
So if you accidentally delete a WhatsApp iCloud backup on an iPhone, you may be able to recover it within weeks by restoring from iCloud. However, the backup will be permanently lost after that window.
Recovering Deleted Chats
If you have deleted your WhatsApp backup and need to try to recover chats, here are your options:
Retrieve from iCloud or Google Drive
As mentioned above, check your iCloud or Google Drive backups to see if you have another intact backup available from which to restore. This allows recovery if you only deleted the local file backup.
Use Data Recovery Software
For local Android backups deleted from internal device storage, data recovery software may be able to retrieve the backup file. Software can scan your device storage and recover deleted files.
Restore from iTunes or iCloud Backup
On iPhone, you may be able to recover at least partial WhatsApp chat history by overwriting your device with an iTunes or iCloud backup that is outdated but still contains some WhatsApp data.
Request WhatsApp for Chat History
WhatsApp allows you to request your account’s chat history by contacting them from within the app. However, this will likely only include very recent messages up to 30 days old.
Third-party Apps (Android only)
Some third-party Android apps claim to be able to recover deleted WhatsApp messages, even without a backup. However, the reliability varies across apps.
Preventing Data Loss
To avoid losing your WhatsApp data if backups are deleted, follow these tips:
- Enable daily automatic backups to Google Drive or iCloud.
- Periodically create manual backups as a secondary measure.
- Export important chat conversations to your device storage.
- Frequently move your chat history to new devices.
- Avoid deleting any backups until you’ve confirmed they are redundant.
Following these best practices minimizes the risk of permanent chat history loss.
Conclusion
Deleting your WhatsApp backup can have severe consequences due to potential loss of chat history, media, and even your entire WhatsApp account if you no longer have a backup to restore from. However, the impact can be reduced if you have additional intact backups available on Google Drive, iCloud, or iTunes. With proper backup precautions, you can avoid catastrophic data loss. But extreme care should be taken before deleting any WhatsApp backups containing important chat history you want to keep.