How to Get Back Deleted WhatsApp Messages, Photos, Videos?

WhatsApp is undisputed one of the leading messaging service providers across the globe today.

The huge popularity of this messaging app can be attributed to its ability to send video clips, audio files and share pictures with all others who have downloaded this wonderful app on their cell phones without having to pay heavily for doing so, if you have an internet connection on your phone.

And that too with amazing ease!

All you need to stay in touch with your near and dear ones in any corner of the earth today is have a WhatsApp enabled phone, and an active internet connection on that phone.

Recovering Lost WhatsApp Data- Messages, Pictures, Videos

How many of you have regretted after accidentally pressing the DELETE button on your WhatsApp messages, images and / or videos in a hurry?

Well you need not regret it anymore because today we tell you how to recover all lost WhatsApp data.

Let me begin with telling you that WhatsApp creates a backup of all shared data across it once every 24 hours.

And then stores these backup files on the microSD memory card of your smartphone.

So, if you decide to recover any of the data you accidentally or deliberately deleted data, you can actually get it back.

There are two ways of going about recovering this deleted data:

Restoring Recent Data (Messages, Images and Videos)

To restore lost WhatsApp data which is less than 7 days old, simply uninstall and then reinstall WhatsApp from your cell phone.

When you do so, the system will automatically fetch back all the data stored on the microSD card of your phone i.e. the messages, chats, photos and videos which are less than seven days old.

When you reinstall this app, you will be asked if you want to restore message history.

Choose [RESTORE] to recover lost data.

In case you want to recover/ retrieve/ restore older WhatsApp data (chats, pics or videos), use this tool mentioned below:

Restoring Older WhatsApp Data (Pictures, Chats, Videos)

If you want to recover chat/ text messages, pictures and videos which are more than 7 days old,  you can use RecoverMessages to get back your data.

The backup files in WhatsApp are stored under the name “msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt”.

We are mentioning here the locations where you can find the backup files for Android based phones and for iPhones:

For Android based phones: sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore.db.crypt

For iPhones: net.WhatsApp.WhatsApp/Documents/ChatStorage.sqlite

After getting the access to your backup file, use Recover Messages to copy the backup data from your cell phone to your computer.

Having done that, go to the Home Page of Recover Messages and select the file you want restored by clicking on “Select File SQLite” button.

Choose the file you want to get back.

Now, they will ask you whether you accept their terms of use (like all other web applications). 

“Accept” their terms and conditions after going through them.

The whole backup process might take a while, depending upon the size of file and the speed of your internet connection.

Keep on clicking on the appropriate tabs till you get your lost data back.

How to Recover Lost WhatsApp Data on an iPhone?

Though RecoverMessages is a wonderful free option available for recovering lost WhatsApp messages, pictures and videos, things get even better for you if you are a proud iPhone owner.

iPhone users can avail of this fabulous software called the WhatsApp Extractor which can help them recover lost WhatsApp contacts, audio notes and location in addition to all the data mentioned above.

Though it does come for a small fee of $7.99, but that’s for lifetime usage and you do not have to upload your message database to a 3^rd party website.

Here is the link to the website in case you decide to buy this wonderful data extractor: WhatsApp Extractor

Recover Messages requires users to upload the data (chats, messages, pictures and videos) to their database which implies that they keep track of all the data or the info you are recovering from your phone’s backup.

While you do get back your messages, pictures and videos, there is a definite possibility of your data being compromised later. And, God forbid, if you do have some pictures, videos or messages which you would not want the whole world to see, you are asking for serious trouble.

Another problem which our readers have pointed out is that while it is easy to recover messages and chat conversations (most of them), it is very difficult to get back the lost pictures and videos. The picture size in an iPhone usually runs into several Mb. If you have a few hundred pictures, they alone would run into several Gb.

Not only would that take unduly long (assuming that you have a reasonably fast internet connection) but you also run the risk of losing out on some wonderful memories and important pics if you use an app which has not been tested before.

I trust WhatsApp Extractor and recommend it highly because of their wonderful 24X7 email support in case you need some help with recovering your lost data.

KEEP IN MIND:

There are some very important things you need to keep in mind while restoring/ recovering lost WhatsApp data, unless you are using WhatsApp Extractor:

• You will lose all current chat history upon restoration of deleted data.
• All new messages (whether received or sent) after a backup has been taken but deleted before the next backup will be lost.
• Running a manual backup will overwrite the last automatic backup file.

Conclusion

Do let us know if this simple tutorial helped you recover/ restore/ get back your WhatsApp texts, images and videos back.