WhatsApp chats are similar to an online diary. It’s where we can log conversations, business dealings, photos, and information to reference later. And while we hope nothing bad happens to your phone, anything can happen, and you might lose all that information.
That’s why it’s important to back up your WhatsApp chats. There are two main methods to do it on an iPhone. One of them uses iCloud, and the other needs you to export it somewhere outside your phone’s local storage. We’ll show you both ways and what you need to do them.
How to Back Up WhatsApp Chats on iCloud
If you already have an Apple ID on your phone, then you must ensure you have enough iCloud storage for WhatsApp backups. Should you find your storage full, then you’re going to need tobuy more iCloud storage to create room.
After that, you’re pretty much ready to go.
WhatsApp has a dedicated backup panel you may visit in its settings. You can manually request a backup from here or schedule monthly, weekly, or even daily backups. Here’s how to use it:
WhatsApp iCloud backups exclude videos by default. But you can save videos by toggling on theInclude Videosswitch in theChat Backuppanel of WhatsApp’s settings. However, use it with caution, as it could easily take up all your storage. Care is more advised now that WhatsApp users can send HD videos.
Now that your chats are backed up, you can recover WhatsApp messages from there when you change devices.
How to Save WhatsApp Chats With Exports
While iCloud backups are convenient, they may not always be an option. If you don’t want to buy iCloud storage, or you want your chats saved on another platform or device, then you can export individual chats.
Follow these instructions to export your chats:
If you want to search for chats you want to export, you would have to look for them in WhatsApp’s defaultChatssection. Tap open the chat, tap the name at the top of the chat window, and chooseExport Chatclose to the bottom of the menu.
you’re able to AirDrop the ZIP file to your Mac, attach it to an email and send it to yourself, save it to a file, or even upload it to another cloud storage app you have on your phone. You won’t be able to restore your chats from these ZIP files, but you’ll be able to look through them should the need ever arise.
Always Have WhatsApp Chat Backups
The sneaky thing about backups is that you never need them until you do, and when you do, you could be really sorry you didn’t take proactive action. With the methods listed here, you may have both offline and online backups so that you can still reference your chats if you ever lose access to your Apple ID.
