How to Back Up and Restore WhatsApp Chats on Android (2026 Guide)

Your WhatsApp chats hold years of family photos, voice notes, work conversations and memories — and they can vanish in seconds. A phone dropped in water, a stolen handset, a factory reset, or a new phone that arrives before you copied anything: in each case, if your chats were not backed up, they are gone for good. WhatsApp does not keep your chats on its servers, so the backup on your own phone is the only copy that matters. The good news is that Android phones can back everything up to Google Drive automatically, and restoring on a new phone takes only a few taps. This guide shows you how to set it up once, check that it works, and restore it — plus what to do when Google Drive is not an option.

What a WhatsApp backup contains — and what it does not

A WhatsApp backup contains your messages and the media inside them: photos, videos (only if you choose to include them), voice messages and documents. It does not move your account by itself. A backup is tied to two things — your phone number and your Google account — so restoring only works when both match. If you change your number without updating it in WhatsApp first, or you sign in with a different Google account on the new phone, the restore screen will simply not appear. That is the single most common reason restores fail, and it is easy to prevent: keep the same number and the same Google account.

One more thing to know: WhatsApp backups do not include anything outside WhatsApp. Your phone photos that were never sent in a chat, your contacts and your other apps all need their own backup. Think of the WhatsApp backup as one box in a bigger moving plan, not the whole plan. If you are switching phones, back up WhatsApp first, then back up the rest of the phone — our Android phone backup guide covers the full-phone side.

Before you start: the 3-minute checklist

Before touching any setting, check four things. First, your phone number: the SIM should be active in the phone, because WhatsApp will send a verification code to it on the new phone. Second, your Google account: open your phone Settings, tap Google, and confirm which account is signed in — that is the account your backup will be saved under. Third, storage: a Google account comes with 15 GB of space shared across Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos, and a backup with years of videos can be several gigabytes. If Drive is nearly full, the backup will fail silently. Fourth, Wi-Fi: back up on Wi-Fi, not mobile data, especially if you include videos. Plug the phone in or keep the battery above 20% so the backup does not stop halfway.

Step 1: Turn on Google Drive backup

1. Open WhatsApp and tap the three dots in the top-right corner.
2. Tap Settings, then Chats, then Chat backup.
3. Under Google Account, choose the Google account you want to use. If no account is listed, tap it and sign in.
4. Tap Back up to Google Drive and choose Daily. Daily is the safest choice: you can never lose more than a day of chats.
5. Decide about videos. Include videos is off by default, and videos make backups much bigger. Turn it on only if your video messages matter to you and you have the Drive space.
6. Under Back up using, choose Wi-Fi so backups never eat your mobile data.

That is the whole setup. From now on WhatsApp backs itself up every day, usually overnight while the phone is charging and on Wi-Fi. You do not need to open the app or remember anything.

Step 2: Make a backup right now

Do not wait for tonight's automatic backup — make one now so you know it works. On the same Chat backup screen, tap the green Back Up button and keep WhatsApp open until it finishes. The first backup is the slowest, because it uploads everything at once; later backups only upload what changed. When it finishes, look at the Last backup line: it should show today's date and time, and the size of the backup. If it shows an old date, or the backup stops with an error, check your Wi-Fi and your free Google Drive space before trying again.

Step 3: Restore your chats on a new phone

1. On the new phone, install WhatsApp and open it.
2. Verify the same phone number you used on the old phone.
3. When WhatsApp asks, allow it to access your Google Drive and choose the same Google account as before.
4. WhatsApp will find your backup and show its date and size. Tap Restore.
5. Wait for the chats to restore, then tap Next and finish setting up your name and profile photo. Photos and videos keep downloading in the background on Wi-Fi.

Two warnings matter here. First, if you tap Skip instead of Restore, you cannot go back and restore later without uninstalling WhatsApp and starting again — so do not skip it, even if you are in a hurry. Second, do not wipe or sell the old phone until you have opened WhatsApp on the new phone and seen your chats. The old phone is your safety net until the restore is confirmed.

Step 4: Move chats to a new phone without Google Drive

If you have no Google Drive space, or you simply prefer not to use the cloud, WhatsApp can move chats directly from one Android phone to another. On the old phone, go to Settings → Chats → Move chats to Android and follow the on-screen steps; on the new phone, choose the transfer option during setup and scan the code shown. Keep both phones unlocked, close together and on Wi-Fi until the transfer finishes, and do not use either phone for anything else during the move. The transfer copies your chats and media straight across, and nothing is uploaded to the cloud. It only works between two Android phones that are both nearby, so it is best used on the day you switch, with both phones in your hands.

Step 5: Save a single chat without the cloud

Sometimes you do not need the whole backup — just one important conversation, such as a chat with work instructions, receipts or family medical details. WhatsApp lets you export a single chat: open the chat, tap the three dots, then More → Export chat. Choose Without media for a small text file, or Include media to keep the photos too. You can save the file to Google Drive, your Files app, or email it to yourself. Exported chats are useful as a second copy of the conversations that matter most, and they open on any device — but they cannot be restored back into WhatsApp, so treat them as an archive, not a backup.

Turn on end-to-end encrypted backup

By default, a WhatsApp backup stored in Google Drive is not protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption — Google stores it under its own security instead. If you want the extra layer, turn on encrypted backup: go to Settings → Chats → Chat backup → End-to-end encrypted backup, tap Turn on, and create a password or use the 64-digit encryption key WhatsApp gives you. From then on, nobody can read the backup without that password or key — not even WhatsApp or Google.

If the restore does not work

Work through these in order. No backup found? You are almost certainly signed in with the wrong Google account, or the wrong phone number — check both on the old phone's Chat backup screen. Backup is old or tiny? The old phone may not have backed up for weeks; open WhatsApp on the old phone, make a manual backup, then try again. Restore stuck or failing? Connect to stable Wi-Fi, free up space on the new phone, and keep WhatsApp open. Chats restored but photos missing? Media downloads after the chats, on Wi-Fi, in the background — give it time, and check that videos were included in the backup in the first place. Google Drive is full? Delete old files from Drive or remove videos from the backup, then back up again.

If nothing works and the old phone still has WhatsApp installed, your chats are still on the old phone — nothing is lost yet. Use the direct phone-to-phone transfer in Step 4 instead, while you still have both phones.

Quick checklist

• Daily Google Drive backup switched on, on Wi-Fi, with the right Google account
• Manual backup made today — Last backup shows today's date
• Same phone number and same Google account on the new phone
• Restore tapped during setup — never skipped
• Old phone kept until chats are confirmed on the new phone
• Encrypted backup password or 64-digit key written down safely
• Most important chats also exported as a second copy

Set this up once and it protects you quietly every night. The ten minutes you spend today are the difference between losing years of conversations and simply signing in on a new phone and carrying on where you left off.