How to Find, Manage, and Restore WhatsApp Backups from Google Drive and Local Storage

To lose all your conversations on any social media site can be a catastrophe particularly if those messages are vital conversations, media attachments, or memories. But for WhatsApp users, there's some relief: you don't have to lose your chat history if you use the app's auto-backup options. With proper syncing to your Google account, you can back up all your WhatsApp data and recover it whenever needed.

In this tutorial, we're going to take you through the way WhatsApp backups work, how to locate and control them on Google Drive and your device's internal storage, and how to recover messages as required.

Understanding How WhatsApp Backups Work

If you enable WhatsApp to backup your data, it directly saves your messages, media, and other app data to Google Drive. You can configure these backups to happen on a daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever you manually initiate them basis.

It should be noted that each backup overwrites the previous one for the same Google account. This implies that you cannot maintain multiple older versions unless you change to a different account. Google also automatically removes WhatsApp backups that have not been updated in five months.

Although backups saved within Google Drive are encrypted, they cannot be opened manually you can restore them to WhatsApp completely only. In addition to cloud backups, WhatsApp also saves local backups on your phone or SD card once a day, giving you an additional recovery solution when cloud restore is not possible or unavailable.

How to Find Your WhatsApp Backup on Google Drive (PC Method)

If you want to check or manage your backup via a web browser on your computer:

1. Go to drive.google.com and log in with the Google account linked to WhatsApp.

2. Click Storage in the left menu.

3. Select Backups to see all available backups.

4. Locate the WhatsApp backup, it will show the last updated date.

5. Double-click the backup to access options:

   - Delete Backup to permanently remove it.

   - Turn Off Backup to stop future updates.

6. To completely disconnect WhatsApp from Google Drive:

   - Click the gear icon (Settings) → Manage Apps → Find WhatsApp Messenger → Click Options → Disconnect from Drive.

How to Locate Your WhatsApp Backup in Google Drive Mobile App

If you’re using the Google Drive app on your smartphone:

1. Open the Google Drive app.

2. Tap the menu icon (top left).

3. Select Backups.

4. Find your WhatsApp backup and check the last updated date.

5. Tap the three-dot icon to:

   - Delete Backup permanently.

   - Turn Off Backup to stop future syncing.

Why You Can’t See Your WhatsApp Backup

If your backup isn’t visible in Google Drive, possible reasons include:

• You’re signed into the wrong Google account.

• You’re restoring to a different phone number than the backup’s original.

• The backup was deleted after 5 months of inactivity.

• Your Google Drive is full and cannot store new backups.

• An unstable internet connection prevented successful uploads.

How to Stop WhatsApp Backups to Google Drive (Android)

1. Open WhatsApp.

2. Tap the three-dot icon → Settings.

3. Go to Chats → Chat backup.

4. Select Automatic backups → Choose Off.

Finding and Managing Local WhatsApp Backups

To locate local backups stored on your phone:

1. Open your File Manager.

2. Navigate to:

   Internal Storage → Android → Media → com.whatsapp → WhatsApp → Databases.

3. Backup files will be named like msgstore.db.crypt14 (latest) or with a date like msgstore-2024-06-03.1.db.crypt14 (older).

How to Restore an Older Local Backup

1. In the Databases folder, rename the latest backup to something like msgstore.latest.db.crypt14.

2. Rename the desired older backup to msgstore.db.crypt14.

3. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.

4. Verify your number and tap Restore when prompted.

How to Restore from Google Drive

1. Ensure you’re signed in to the correct Google account and using the same phone number.

2. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.

3. Open the app, verify your number, and choose Restore from Google Drive.

4. Wait for the process to complete (time depends on internet speed and backup size).

Managing Google Drive Storage for WhatsApp

Since WhatsApp backups can quickly eat up Google Drive’s free 15GB space, here are tips to optimize it:

• Regularly check your Google Drive storage via the app or website.

• Delete unnecessary files and media.

• Back up only photos instead of photos + videos.

• Manually delete unimportant videos/images before automatic backups occur.

Enabling End-to-End Encryption for Backups

For added security, WhatsApp offers end-to-end encrypted backups. When enabled, you’ll need a password or 64-digit key to restore them.

To activate:

1. Go to Settings in WhatsApp.

2. Tap Chats → Chat backup.

3. Select End-to-end encrypted backup and follow the setup steps.

Learning how to control both your local WhatsApp backups and your Google Drive backs up is the key to safeguarding your valuable chats and media from permanent loss. Whether you're changing phones, undeleting by mistake, or clearing out cloud storage space, having these techniques at your disposal means that you always have control over your WhatsApp information.