How to Backup or Transfer WhatsApp to New Phone

Tips • June. 6, 2022

whatsapp trans

WhatsApp plays a major role in our day-to-day activities and is one of the most used applications on our devices. WhatsApp has a lot of data, like images, videos, chats, documents, and audio files both personal and professional. All of which are very important and some matter a lot on the emotional level too. Therefore, keeping this data safe by regularly backing up is an essential need.

Besides keeping the data safe, this backed-up data can be used to transfer your WhatsApp to a new device and hence is greatly useful when changing devices. Now let’s see what the ways to backup and transfer WhatsApp data are.

RELATED: Ultimate Guide – How to Back Up Your iPhone

First, creating local backup

WhatsApp has a feature that allows to create local backups, it is enabled by default. This local backup is only readable by WhatsApp, and it uses the backup file to restore data if deleted.

Now the backups are done at a fixed time everyday usually at night and the chats after the backup are not present in that file. Therefore, sometimes you might need to create a backup manually sometimes before the next automatic backup takes place. The steps to manually backup are as follows:

local

  1. Open WhatsApp and click on the Three Dots on the upper right corner.
  2. Tap on Settings -> Chats.
  3. Scroll down to find Chat Backup and click on the BACK UP
  4. This will back up your all your WhatsApp chats till that date and time.

Pros

  • Simplest Way to backup chats
  • Does not take a lot of phone storage
  • Fast Restores

Cons

  • Only chats are backed-up and other files are not.
  • Process before restoration is complicated when changing phones.

You can use this backup to restore your WhatsApp chats too, but it’s a hectic task and therefore we use and suggest using other easy methods below.

Transfer WhatsApp to a new Android Phone (Using Google Drive)

Google Drive is a well-known cloud service designed to work best with android devices. It is a great tool to back-up your Android device data easily with a few changes to the settings. It lets you backup photos, videos, settings, app data, WhatsApp Data, and a lot more.

Backup to Google Drive

GDrive

  1. Go to Chat Backup settings using the steps shown above.
  2. Below BACK UP you will see Google Drive Settings, click on Google Account, and choose your account from the list that appears.
  3. Note that only those accounts will appear that are logged in on your device.
  4. When you click on your account, it will ask your permission to Access and Edit your drive data. Click on Allow (This will allow WhatsApp to see and edit your Google Drive Data).

Note there are certain options which you can enable/disable depending on your choice.

  • Back up to Google Drive – The time when Google Drive backups are to be done. You can select an interval or also Never (if you want to disable Google Drive Backup)
  • To backup over cellular data – Enabling this will allow WhatsApp to backup data over your mobile data.
  • Include Videos – Enabling this will backup videos too, this will increase the size of the backup.
Transferring Data

Check the steps to transfer them to other Android Devices. Make sure that in your other device, you are logged in with the google account which you used to back up your data.

Gdrive2

  1. Install WhatsApp in the other device and verify your OTP.
  2. Now you will see a Restore Page appear, WhatsApp will examine the Google Accounts logged in and find the related Account and backup file.
  3. Click on Restore and WhatsApp will start restoring your chats, images and other selected files.
  4. Wait for the process to complete and you are done.
  5. Also, this process take data so make sure you have enough remaining or connect to a Wi-Fi.

Pros

  1. Data is saved on cloud, so no phone storage space is used
  2. Backs up everything, including images, documents and videos
  3. Very Easy

Cons

  1. Requires Internet Data
  2. Somewhat slow
  3. Old Backups are deleted before creating a new one

Transfer WhatsApp to a new iPhone (Using iCloud)

Similar to Google Drive for Android, iCloud is a cloud service that works best with iOS devices. It enables backing up of iOS device data including photos, videos, notes, app data and a lot more. We use this feature of iCloud to backup and transfer WhatsApp data to other iOS devices.

Backup to iCloud

iCloud1

  1. Firstly, you need to make sure your iCloud backup is enabled, if not surf though iCloud settings to toggle it on.
  2. Open WhatsApp and click on the Three Dots on the upper right corner.
  3. Tap Settings- > Chat Settings.
  4. Click on Chat backup and tap on Backup Now
  5. This will backup your WhatsApp data to iCloud server.
Transferring Data

iCloud2

Now the backup file on iCloud server will help us to restore WhatsApp on a new device. To transfer data, you need to be logged in with the same iCloud account as your old device.

  1. Install WhatsApp on your new device and proceed with the number verifications.
  2. While proceeding with the prompts, you will see the Restore From iCloud screen, tap on Restore Chat History.
  3. Wait for the process to complete and you will have your chats as they were.

Pros

  1. Has options to set Auto-backup intervals.
  2. Easy to backup and restore
  3. Fast process

Cons

  1. iCloud has less storage space
  2. Requires Internet access

Transfer WhatsApp from Android to iPhone and Vice-Versa (Using MobileTrans)

MobileTrans is a desktop application that runs on both Windows and macOS. Its main purpose is to transfer data from one device to another and is entirely levelled to transfer WhatsApp data from one device to another. Also, it transfers data cross platform, therefore we can use it to transfer data from Android to iPhone. Some features of MobileTrans are:

Features
  1. Backup WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business and GBWhatsApp data to your PC.
  2. Backup and Restore WhatsApp to another phone.
  3. Backup and Restore entire device data
  4. Manage other social apps like Viber, Kik, Line, etc.
  5. Supports 6000+ iOS and Android devices

MobileTrans

Transfer WhatsApp using MobileTrans
  1. Download and install the software on your desktop.
  2. On the main screen, tap on WhatsApp Transfer.
  3. Using the adequate cables, attach your devices to your PC.
  4. You will see your phones on two sides, one is the Source, and the other is the Destination, tap on the Flip button in the middle if the placement is wrong.
  5. Click on Start, to begin the process, you might receive a pop-up, click on Yes to proceed.
  6. The transfer will begin and wait until its done, now you can detach your phones and you will find your WhatsApp data in your new phone.

Pros

  1. No storage problems
  2. No internet connection required
  3. Very fast
  4. Can select which data to transfer

Cons

  1. None to mention

Read our full MobileTrans review here.

Transfer WhatsApp from iPhone to iPhone (Using iMazing)

iMazing, like MobileTrans, is an amazing tool to backup and restore WhatsApp data from one iPhone to another. iMazing is supported on both Windows and macOS, but you can only transfer data between iOS devices. Besides transferring WhatsApp data, it has a lot of other uses too, including saving Podcast and WhatsApp chats into pdf and doc formats and then printing them. So let’s have a look at its features before going into further steps and details.

Features
  1. You can see the backed-up WhatsApp data.
  2. Detailed knowledge of chats, group events, messages sent and received, etc.
  3. WhatsApp Business fully supported
  4. Allows complete iPhone backup and transfer
  5. Supports a lot of files, apps and settings to easily backup, including Safari, File System, Contacts, and much more.imazing message
Backup
  1. Download and install iMazing on your PC or macOS.
  2. Connect your old iPhone to your PC, iMazing will read your device and show you a list of options. Select Message Apps.
  3. Scroll down to find WhatsApp in the list and click the Back Up
  4. The iMazing App Data Wizard will open, here choose the destination folder, by default it is set to Desktop.
  5. Here you can also choose to create a backup and then extract, or you can use a previous backup file to extract data. The former is a good choice.
  6. Click on Next and once completed, click on Close Window to return to iMazing’s home screen.
  7. Now disconnect your old device.
Transferring data using iMazing
  1. Open iMazing and connect you iPhone to your desktop.
  2. Similar to what we did before, select the Manage Apps option from the sidebar.
  3. Click on the Device tab on the upper left side of the window, then click on the down pointing arrow next to uninstall button and choose Restore App Data.
  4. On the Restore App Data Wizard,click on choose and select the WhatsApp image file it will be saved by .imazingapp 
  5. Click on done to start the transfer.

Few points to keep in mind:

  • If Find My iPhone is active, you might be asked to temporarily deactivate this feature. You can do so, by going to your Apple ID settings -> iCloud ->Toggle off Find My iPhone.
  • Install WhatsApp, or iMazing will do so, but you will need to enter your Apple ID password, so that it can access App Store. Remember, do not login, just install it.
  • iMazing might need to restart your iPhone so bear a little.

Pros

  1. You can see the backed-up data
  2. Can save and print chats in the process
  3. No internet required
  4. Can save different backup files, old data need not be deleted

Cons

  1. Works only for iOS devices – no Android support
  2. Process is a little too long

Read our full iMazing review here.

FAQ

Is there any risk of data loss?

There is no risk of data loss to your device during WhatsApp transfers. However, if the process gets disturbed in the middle, like the internet connection break or the device is disconnected, or the steps are not followed properly, the backup file will remain incomplete, and all the data might will not be backed up.

Do Google Drive and iCloud save old backups?

No, neither Google drive, nor iCloud saves old backups. Before a new backup, the old backup data is deleted and then the new backup file is created,

Conclusion

There are a lot of ways you can backup and transfer WhatsApp data from one device to another. If your device OS is same, I would suggest you use Google Drive or iCloud. However, using MobileTrans and iMazing is a great option if you want the process to be faster and more visible. Moreover, MobileTrans and iMazing allow you to see what’s inside the backup, unlike Google Drive and iCloud. Also, they are device independent so you can transfer data between any two devices.

So worry not while changing devices and use the mentioned steps to backup and transfer your WhatsApp data securely, quickly and smoothly.

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