How to Backup WhatsApp data to Google Drive in 2024: 9 Simple Steps
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Have you ever asked how to back up WhatsApp? When you come to swap your phone, you will want to move your chats to your new device and need a WhatsApp chat backup. This article explains how to back up your data on WhatsApp.
When you intend to replace your phone, you can ensure the transfer of chats is straightforward.
To use Google Drive for your WhatsApp backup, you will require the following:
- Log in with the Google Account on the device.
- Your device has enabled Google Play services, which is necessary to update Google apps from the Play Store.
- Ensure your device has sufficient free storage space for the backup.
- A stable internet connection. WiFi indoors and ideally 5G outdoors. Be aware of mobile data charges if you backup outside a WiFi network).
WhatsApp backup Key Notes:
- By design, Android devices use Google Drive, and iOS devices use iCloud for their backups.
- There are unlimited services where you can store the backup you create.
- During a fresh installation, you can quickly restore WhatsApp chats and data.
- Backup WhatsApp every five months to prevent it from being deleted automatically.
- Your Google Drive backup links to your phone number and account, so you can’t restore it with different information.
- New WhatsApp backups on Google Drive overwrite old ones, preventing access to older backups.
- Keep your phone charged while performing the first backup on Google Drive, as it may take a while.
- You can only see WhatsApp backups on Google Drive from a computer, but you can’t open or take stuff from them.
- WhatsApp backups do not occupy any storage space on your Google Drive.
You can back up WhatsApp messages to storage devices, disks, and cloud platforms. This article will detail how to back up your WhatsApp chats to Google Drive in nine easy steps.
You must back up your data on WhatsApp should your phone suffer a hardware error or be lost. We recommend backing up to Google Drive as it is one of the best cloud storage platforms, and everyone gets 15GB of free storage.
Why Backup WhatsApp Data?
It depends on what you use WhatsApp for. If you are a casual user like most, it’s not the end of the world if you lose your messages. However, if you have important messages, photos, files, or laws in your sector or country that require you to retain these messages for some time, you must have a tested backup and restore method.
Remember, in the UK and other countries, WhatsApp is an accepted method of communication, and legal disputes can use your messages.
Therefore, keeping a backup of WhatsApp Data is highly important in such cases and can be beneficial for a user to retrieve data quickly.
Backup WhatsApp to Google Drive in a Few Easy Steps
If you are backing WhatsApp to Google Drive for the first time, you will be glad to do this in such a simple way.
1. Open WhatsApp (Note: Make sure to choose your WhatsApp version through Play Store on Android)
2. Tap on the colon icon (:) just on the top right and select Settings
3. Tap on the Chats
4. Find Chat backup and tap on it
5. Tap on Back up to Google Drive
6. Select whether you want the backup to happen weekly, daily, monthly or “Only when I tap ‘back up’
7. Tap on the Backup button.
8. Let the Backup progress finish.
9. Tap the Allow button to allow WhatsApp access to your Google Account.
Note: During this process, you will see prompts to log in or select the Google account where you want to store the WhatsApp backup data. If you have more than one Google Account, ensure you choose the correct one to simplify future restores.
For added security, tap the End-to-end encrypted backup option in the Chat backup menu and turn it on to ensure your Google Drive WhatsApp backup data remains private, even from Google.
In the Chat backup menu, you can select whether you want the backup to run using mobile data or WiFi and include videos on your WhatsApp backup data on Google Drive. Continue after you have made your selection.
Here’s how to back up WhatsApp to Google Drive. You can successfully generate backup data on Google Drive by following the above steps.
How to Backup WhatsApp to Google Drive on iPhone?
Backing up WhatsApp to Google Drive on an iPhone is complex. You cannot back up your WhatsApp data to Google Drive on your iPhone. By default, the iOS version of WhatsApp only uses iCloud for backups.
If you want to learn how to backup WhatsApp on iPhone to Google Drive instead of iCloud, there is a workaround. Following this, you can back up a certain amount of WhatsApp data to Google Drive on your iPhone.
Backup WhatsApp on iPhone to iCloud first:
- Launch WhatsApp and navigate to Settings > Chats.
- Switch the Save to Camera Roll toggle to automatically save WhatsApp pictures on your iPhone.
Transfer iCloud backup to Google Drive:
- On your phone, open the Google Drive app and click the menu button at the top corner of the screen, represented by three horizontal lines.
- You can later copy the saved WhatsApp images and videos to Google Drive directly from your iPhone’s camera roll.
However, note that this approach to iPhone backup WhatsApp to Google Drive only supports backing up media files. It does not include support for your chat logs. You may require external tools or services if you want your conversation history backed up.
Remember to remain alert for third-party services and work only with reliable sources to avoid damaging your information. Additionally, if a user constantly switches WhatsApp accounts from one device to another, such activity may lead to blocking the given account. So, please be careful.
Where Can I Find My WhatsApp Backup in Google Drive?
If you can complete backing up WhatsApp to Google Drive, you can validate that the backup data is available. Review your WhatsApp backup for Android if Google Drive backup WhatsApp is required.
1. Open Google Drive on your Android device
2. Tap on the three horizontal bars on the top left and select Backups
3. Locate your WhatsApp Backup Data
You can see all your backups here, including your WhatsApp data.
Note: Keep using your device and update your backups; otherwise, the backup will be automatically deleted after a few months. If you didn’t find the backup folder on your Google Drive, check this article How to Restore Deleted WhatsApp Messages Without Backup.
If you are restoring your backup to a new device, you will need to use the same phone number that you used to create the backup, and Google account.
Common Issues and Solutions for WhatsApp Backup Google Drive:
- Outdated Google Drive App or WhatsApp app: Ensure you update your Google Drive and WhatsApp to the latest version.
- Corrupt WhatsApp data such as cache: Clear the cache of your WhatsApp application.
- Unstable or weak internet connection: Check your network connection. Ensure you have a stable internet connection for the backup process.
- Different Google Drive account: Ensure you log into the same Google Drive account you use for the backup.
- Issues with Google Play Services: Update your Google Play Services.
- Different phone numbers were used to create the backup: The phone number used to generate the backup should be the same.
- Inadequate storage space on Google Drive: Ensure enough storage space on your Google Drive for the WhatsApp backup.
- Revoke WhatsApp Access to Google Drive and Add Again: If all else fails, you can revoke WhatsApp’s access to Google Drive and add it again.
You can remove access to Google Drive by WhatsApp and add it again if none works.
When such solutions are applied, avoid overlooking the given instructions.
If the issue persists, you can contact support for assistance.
Conclusion
You can safeguard your WhatsApp conversations in Google Drive to protect the chats. You have learned how to backup WhatsApp messages to Google Drive. Remember to use updated versions of both Google Drive and WhatsApp applications for proper performance and to avoid any interruption during the backup. If you encounter any problems, follow some of the troubleshooting steps in this article.
Rest assured that the backup system that traces to Google Drive will be of utmost reliability in securing your critical data. To keep your data always accessible, make it protected to begin with.
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