If you are accostumed to use your recycle bin to restore deleted files, you can forget about it in iPhone. WhatsApp iPhone chat does not include a recycle bin so all your deleted conversations are a bit trickier to restore.
In case you delete a conversation by mistake in WhatsApp, there’s no recycle bin to resort to. But you still can recover your chats. In this article we explain how to do it and the difficulties and shortcuts to do so.
WhatsApp recycle bin is missing in iPhone devices
WhatsApp is a messaging app that puts privacy above anything else. All your messages are stored in your own device and security backup. But you can’t find them on remote servers. However, iMessage from Apple has a recycle bin. So the first advice is to use iMessage for every conversation you have instead of WhatsApp.
In order to restore deleted messages from WhatsApp you have to perform some manual searches. It’s the only available method today and there’s no sign of change in WhatsApp for iPhone in the near future.
Check the Archive section
A very common mistake is archiving a message or conversation in WhatsApp instead of deleting it. When you archive a conversation it disappears from the main list but it’s not eliminated. You can still see it from the Archive section in the upper bar of WhatsApp interface next to Read.
Restore WhatsApp chats in iPhone
If you have deleted the conversations you need to visit the iCloud security backup. You need to have free storage space in order to make iPhone backup copies. Check which are the newest backup copies to try and find your latest chats.
- Open WhatsApp.
- Go to Settings -> Chats and select Security backup to learn the newest backup date.
If the messages you erased are pass that date, then you won’t be able to recover anything. You can set the backup copies creation per month, week, day or even manually. If the date is OK and you can restore messages for WhatsApp in iPhone there are still other considerations.
Partial loss of content. Every message you have sent or received after the latest backup copy will be lost when you restore the file.
Videos require a special configuration. In order to recover videos you have to check the Include video option box in the backup copy settings.
WhatsApp overwrites backup copies. The app doesn’t store all the copies, just the most recent ones.
Restore your WhatsApp backup copy step by step
- Uninstall WhatsApp completely from your iPhone.
- Install it again from the App Store.
- Set your original number.
- Confirm that you want to restore your account.
- The system will load all the conversation stored from your latest security backup.
Tips to avoid losing your conversations
The following are a set of advices to prevent the loss of chats in WhatsApp for your iPhone operating system.
Set your security backup routine. You can activate a security backup copy automatically from the Settings – Chat – Security backup menu. There you can use a shorter frequency for the backup.
Export the most important chats. It’s not a bad idea to export your main chats outside the WhatsApp server.
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