WhatsApp on Android allows you to back up your chat history and multimedia content to Google Drive. This ensures you have a cloud copy of all your conversations. It’s easy to make and restore these backups, and I’ll show you how to do that.
WhatsApp’s iPhone app only allows you to back up messages to iCloud, not Google Drive. You can only use the following methods on an Android device.
How to Back Up WhatsApp to Google Drive
To save WhatsApp backups on Google Drive, first, ensure you have enough free storage available in your Google account. One way to check this is to launch the Google Drive app on your phone and tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines). You’ll see the free and the available space in your account.
After confirming enough storage space is available, launch WhatsApp on your Android phone. In the app’s top-right corner, tap the three dots and choose “Settings.”
On the Settings page, select “Chats.” On the screen that follows, in the Archived Chats section, tap “Chat Backup.”
You’ll land on the Chat Backup page. Here, tap “Google Account” and select the account in which you want to store your backups.
After choosing a Google account, you’ll see an authorization request on your screen. Here, Google asks if you’d like WhatsApp to access and store files in your account. Confirm the action by choosing “Continue.”
Back on the Chat Backup screen, tap “Frequency,” and choose how often you want WhatsApp to create and store backups on Google Drive. Choosing “Never” will never create any backups, and selecting “Only When I Tap Back Up” will only make backups when you launch WhatsApp and manually trigger a backup.
To ensure videos are included in the backups, enable the “Include Videos” option. By default, WhatsApp will only upload backups when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. To make it upload backups even when you’re using mobile data (not recommended if you’re on a limited data plan), turn on the “Back Up Using Cellular” option.
To password protect and encrypt the backups, tap “End-to-End Encrypted Backup” and choose “Turn On.” Either create a password by choosing “Create Password” or select “Use 64-Digit Encryption Key Instead” to let the app generate an encryption key for you. Make sure to note down the password or the key, as you’ll need that to decrypt and restore the backup in the future.
And that’s how you back up your WhatsApp chats to the cloud.
How to Find WhatsApp Backups on Google Drive
Finding WhatsApp backups on Google Drive is easy, but note that you can’t extract any content from these backups.
On Google Drive’s Desktop Site
Launch your favorite web browser and open the Google Drive site. Sign in to your account if you haven’t already done that.
In Google Drive’s left sidebar, select “Storage.” On the right pane, at the top, choose “Backups.”
You’ll find your WhatsApp backup on the list. To remove the backup, double-click the backup and choose “Delete Backup.”
Even if you delete a backup, WhatsApp will re-create a new backup at the chosen frequency.
In Google Drive’s Mobile App
Open the Google Drive app on your phone. In the app’s top-left corner, tap the three horizontal lines. From the open menu, select “Backups.”
You’ll find your backup on the list. To remove this backup, tap the three dots next to the backup and choose “Delete Backup.”
And that’s it.
How to Restore WhatsApp Backup From Google Drive
When you set up WhatsApp on a new or the same phone, you have the option to restore any backups from Google Drive. If you want to do that, first, ensure you have a stable internet connection, as your phone will download the entire backup from Google Drive to restore it then.
To make WhatsApp on your phone, prompt you to restore a backup, delete, and reinstall the WhatsApp app. Do that by heading into Settings > Apps > App Management > WhatsApp, choosing “Uninstall,” and selecting “OK.”
You’ll lose any data that WhatsApp has created after making the last backup.
Launch the Google Play Store on your phone, type WhatsApp, select the app, and choose “Install.” Open the newly installed app and select the “Restore” option to restore your backup from Google Drive.
How to Stop WhatsApp’s Google Drive Backups
If you don’t want WhatsApp to make and store backups on Google Drive, turn off the backups using one of the methods below.
Using WhatsApp
Launch WhatsApp, tap the three dots in the top-right corner, and choose “Settings.” Navigate to Chats > Chat Backup, tap “Frequency,” and choose “Never.”
Using Google Drive on Desktop
Open the Google Drive site, sign in to your account, and choose “Storage” in the left sidebar. Double-click the WhatsApp backup on the list and choose “Turn Off.”
Select “Turn Off” in the prompt to confirm your action.
In Google Drive’s top-right corner, click the gear icon and choose “Settings.” From the left sidebar, select “Manage Apps.” On the right pane, next to “WhatsApp Messenger,” click “Options” and choose “Disconnect From Drive.”
Select “Disconnect” in the prompt, and you’re all set.
And that’s how you back up your WhatsApp chats to the cloud and then find and remove those backups if wanted. Enjoy!
