WhatsApp has become the most popular messaging app across the world with over 2 billion active users. It allows users to send messages, photos, videos, documents and even make voice and video calls. With so much media being shared on WhatsApp daily, it’s common for users to accidentally delete important media files like photos and videos.
If you have accidentally deleted a photo, video or any other media on WhatsApp, is it possible to get it back? Let’s find out.
Can You Restore Deleted Media on WhatsApp?
The short answer is – no, you cannot restore or recover deleted media from WhatsApp once it’s been deleted. WhatsApp does not have a built-in restore option or “trash” that stores your deleted media.
This is because WhatsApp is designed to immediately delete any media that you delete from the app. The files do not remain on their servers. So if you have deleted a photo, video, GIF, document or any other media file on WhatsApp, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get it back.
Why Doesn’t WhatsApp Allow Media Restore?
There are a few reasons why WhatsApp does not allow restoring deleted media files:
Encryption
All chat messages and media exchanged on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted. This means only the sender and receiver can view the messages, and not even WhatsApp itself. So when you delete a file, WhatsApp cannot access and store it on their servers.
User Privacy
Restoring deleted files requires WhatsApp to store user data on their servers. This raises privacy concerns as personal photos, videos and files would be stored by the company even after users delete them. Not having a restore option upholds user privacy.
Storage Constraints
WhatsApp has over 2 billion users sending millions of photos, videos and other media daily. Restoring even a fraction of deleted files would require enormous storage capacity on WhatsApp’s servers.
Maintaining such vast media archives for each user is not feasible and could impact WhatsApp’s performance.
Is Deleted WhatsApp Media Gone Forever?
While WhatsApp itself does not store deleted media, the files may not be completely gone from your phone.
When you send or receive photos, videos and other media on WhatsApp, they get saved to your phone’s internal storage. Even when you delete them within WhatsApp, the media files may still be available on your phone’s local storage.
But this depends on:
#1. Android vs iOS
On Android, deleted media files are typically moved to the trash folder, from where they can be permanently deleted after 30 days. So if you act within 30 days, you have chance to restore.
On iOS, there is no trash folder – deleted files are permanently erased almost instantly. Unless you have a backup, restoring is near impossible.
#2. Third-party Apps
Some Android gallery apps like Google Photos automatically back up photos and videos on your phone. So your deleted WhatsApp media may still be available through these apps.
On iPhone, you can check if the files are stored in your iCloud backups. Media stored only locally on iPhone is lost forever when deleted.
#3. Cloud Services
If your WhatsApp media files were uploaded to cloud services like Google Drive or iCloud Drive, you can retrieve them from there.
Note that WhatsApp only allows backing up chats to Google Drive on Android. Media files need to be backed up separately using other apps.
#4. File Recovery Software
If the media files still exist locally on your phone storage, data recovery software may be able to restore them. This depends on factors like whether the storage space was overwritten with new data.
File recovery has varying success – it works best if you attempt it soon after deleting and cease usage of your phone to prevent overwriting file data.
How Can I Retrieve Deleted WhatsApp Media Files?
Here are the steps to attempt recovery of deleted media files from WhatsApp on Android and iPhone:
On Android
- First, stop using your phone immediately to avoid overwriting the deleted files.
- Install and open a file recovery app like DiskDigger.
- Allow the app access to your phone’s storage.
- Select the storage location where your WhatsApp media files were saved.
- The app will scan the location and show recoverable files.
- Preview and restore the deleted media files you want to recover.
On iPhone
- Check if you have a backup on iCloud that contains the deleted files.
- You can also use iPhone data recovery software like iMyFone D-Back to scan and restore lost media files.
- Alternatively, take your iPhone to a data recovery service – they use specialized tools to recover deleted data.
Tips to Avoid Losing WhatsApp Media
Since WhatsApp does not have a built-in restore option, you need to be extra careful about accidentally deleting media files. Here are some tips to avoid losing your WhatsApp photos, videos and other media:
Enable Auto Backup
Set up automatic backups for WhatsApp media files so you have copies stored securely:
- On Android, enable Google Photos backup to regularly save your media.
- On iPhone, turn on iCloud backups under WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
Export Important Media
When you receive an important photo or video on WhatsApp:
- Save it to your camera roll or gallery so there is a copy outside WhatsApp.
- Share it to cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Avoid Mass Deletion
Be cautious when selecting multiple WhatsApp media files to delete – make sure you are only deleting the exact items you want to remove.
Double Check Before Deleting
Take a few seconds to verify that you really want to delete a media file on WhatsApp. Avoid impulsively deleting files that you may want later.
Back up valuable media content from WhatsApp routinely so you always have copies available if anything gets deleted accidentally.
Conclusion
WhatsApp currently does not have any built-in feature to retrieve deleted photos, videos, documents or other media content. Once files are deleted from WhatsApp, they are permanently erased from their servers.
However, the deleted media may still be recoverable from your phone’s local storage for a short while, or from backups and cloud services. File recovery software can also help extract deleted media files that still exist on your phone’s memory.
To be safe from accidental data loss, enable auto backup of your WhatsApp media files, and export important files to other storage sources outside of WhatsApp.