Re: How to back up WhatsApp to local storage on your Android device

On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 18:00:26 -0000 (UTC), Jim Jackson wrote :

My intent with this thread is to be able to back up to local storage the
WhatsApp chats *without* needing to put those chats on the cloud first.
>

 
Just copy the files that you mentioned in the very first post over to
your desktop PC?
 
If something happens to your phone just copy them to the new device?
 
What am I missing here?

I completely understand your suggestion & hence, I fully agree with your
point that a simple copy from one phone "should" work on your phone after
you do a factory reset (assuming you keep the same phone number of course).

Yet, if you google whether a simple backup will actually work, the plot
thickens. There's a *reason* WhatsApp backs up to a Google Drive, it turns
out. None of us yet seem to know what that specific reason might be.

So it's my understanding, based not at all on my own experience but only on
my search results, simply copying the WhatsApp directory to your Windows PC
and then copying the folders back to your phone after a factory reset will
likely NOT restore your chats.

Apparently WhatsApp primarily relies on Google Drive for backups on
Android. When you reinstall WhatsApp after a factory reset, it will look
for backups linked to your phone number on Google Drive.

Local backups might exist, but the restoration process is usually tied to
the WhatsApp application itself detecting them during the reinstallation.

My research warned that manually copying folders might not trigger this
detection process.

In addition, the results of my research implies that WhatsApp backups are
often encrypted and tied to your specific account and device at the time of
backup. Simply copying the files might not include the necessary encryption
keys for the reinstalled app to decrypt them.

Whether or not that's true I don't know because I have never tested it.
Has anyone?