How not to lose WhatsApp chats by changing smartphones

How to transfer WhatsApp chats by changing Android or iPhone smartphones. IPhone to Android transfer is now also possible.Who knows how many of us will have lost WhatsApp chats. Many memories are stored on that app: photos, videos and messages that you want to keep. After purchasing or receiving a new smartphone as a gift, we can’t wait to set it up and put the old one back in the drawer. Before getting rushed, it is good to save and make a backup of everything we have on the old smartphone including the WhatsApp chats in order to have them available on the new phone. In this guide we will help you understand how not to lose WhatsApp chats by changing smartphone .

Transferring WhatsApp chats between smartphones with the same operating system (Android-Android or iOS-iOS) is quite simple using cloud services such as Google Drive and iCloud. The situation becomes a little more complex if you want to make a manual switch or between different operating systems. Thankfully, WhatsApp has now made available an official method to transfer WhatsApp chats from iPhone to Android.

How not to lose WhatsApp chats by changing Android smartphones

As just mentioned, transferring chats between an old Android phone and a new Android smartphone is very simple if you use Google Drive. First of all, we recommend activating the automatic backup to Google Drive on your smartphone, so if you lose your phone or cannot access it anymore, you can install the app on a new smartphone and recover the most recent backup.

Chat transfer with Google Drive

Here are the steps to follow to transfer chats using Google Drive.

Open the app on your old smartphone and from the settings (three dots at the top right) select the Chat item . In the menu that will open, click on Chat Backup , activate the Include Video item if you want to transfer the videos as well and start the backup by clicking on Back Up . Also make sure that the Google account entered is the same one you will use on the new smartphone.

Once the backup is finished, configure the new smartphone using the same Google account, insert the SIM card (you must use the same number used on the old smartphone) and install WhatsApp from the Play Store.

At this point, open the app installed on the new smartphone and follow the instructions for configuration. Immediately after verifying the number, WhatsApp will automatically detect the backup previously saved on Google Drive. Just click on the Restore button and the chats with multimedia contents will be at your disposal.

In a few steps, you will have configured the new smartphone without having lost any WhatsApp chat.

Manual WhatsApp chat transfer without Google Drive

If you can’t use Google Drive, the process is much more complex. Here are the steps to follow:

• Open a File Manager app on the old smartphone (if not, install it from the Play Store), click on the Internal memoryitem and identify the WhatsApp folder and then select Database
• Identify the file named “ db.crypt12”. This file contains the latest backup. It may be using a different protocol such as crypt14 or crypt13. Do not change the protocol number
• Copy this file (to copy it, hold down, click on the three dots and choose the Shareitem ) and auto-send it by email or using any other service that is then easily accessible on the new smartphone. The same step is to be carried out for the Media folder if you want to bring along photos and other multimedia contents, however this folder could be very large.
• Insert the SIM card on the new smartphone, install WhatsApp without opening it, download the files you sent yourself and put them in the same folders from which you took them, but this time on the new smartphone. If they are not there, you can create them.
• Make sure that WhatsApp has permissions to access and read the internal memory by following this path Settings – App – WhatsApp – Permissions
• Finally, start WhatsApp which should now find the local backup. To start the restore, you must always click on Restore.

It is a bit of a complex procedure. We therefore recommend transferring chats using Google Drive or iCloud.

How not to lose WhatsApp chats by changing iPhone

Transferring WhatsApp chats from an old iPhone to a new iPhone follows the same logic as for Android smartphones. In this case, however, you have to rely on iCloud.

It is sufficient to create the backup on the old iPhone first by going to Settings (bottom right) and choosing the Chat and Chat Backup items . If you want to include videos as well, move the Include Videos item to Enabled . At this point, click on Back up now to create a copy of your chats on iCloud.

Once the backup is finished, configure the new iPhone always using the same Apple ID , insert the SIM card and go to iCloud to verify that iCloud Drive is activated .

At this point, all that remains is to install WhatsApp from the App Store, start it, follow the configuration steps and click on Restore chat history when prompted. And also in this case you will get all the WhatsApp chats back on the new iPhone as well.

How not to lose WhatsApp chats by switching from iPhone to Android

Until recently, there was no official method to transfer chats from iPhone to Android smartphone and vice versa. Things have changed with the arrival of Android 12 , the latest version of Google’s operating system, at least as regards the transition from iPhone to Android.

The function is available on Samsung smartphones and Google’s Pixels and will gradually arrive on all other smartphones that will update to Android 12.

The procedure to follow is this:

• during the first configuration of the new Android mobile phone, connect it to the old iPhoneusing a USB-C – Lightning cable
• scan the QR codethat will appear on the new smartphone with the iPhone camera to start the transfer of the WhatsApp history (chats, photos, videos and voice messages)
• If the QR Code scan doesn’t work, start the manual transfer by going to Settingsto the WhatsApp (installed on the iPhone), clicking Chat and then Transfer to Android .

As for the transfer of chats from Android to iPhone, unfortunately, there is still no official method.

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