How To Recover WhatsApp Chat History After Formatting Or Changing Your Phone

It is a workable option to retain all
your WhatsApp conversations after
formatting your Android phone.
You can also transfer your
WhatsApp conversations from one
Android phone to another.
Formatting is supposed to clear
your smartphone of all user-
installed applications and inputs,
and sets the device to its factory
settings. However, you may wish to
have your WhatsApp conversations
back to your phone after a format.
Furthermore, in the event that you
want to dispose of your phone, you
may also want to retain your
WhatsApp conversations, and put
them in a new phone.
How To Back Up WhatsApp
Conversations
WhatsApp is programmed to do an
automatic daily backup of
conversations by 4am, provided
your phone is switched on at that
time. However, you need not have
your phone on to have a backup
because manual backup is available
at all times.

1. Open WhatsApp

2. Go to Menu > Settings > Chat
settings, and tap Backup
conversations.
All conversations will be backed up
in an encrptic file found under
Files > All > Device Storage >
WhatsApp > Databases. The specific
backup file will look like
msgstore.db.crypt8 or something
similar.

3. Move the whole WhatsApp
folder to a memory card. If your
device does not support a memory
card, you can connect your device
to a PC via USB (mass storage mode
or media device), and move the
WhatsApp folder to your desktop
or anywhere on your computer.
How To Restore WhatsApp
Conversations To A Phone You
Have Formatted Or A New Phone
4. Put the memory card in the
phone you have formatted or a
new phone and move the
WhatsApp folder to phone
memory.
If the device has no
support for memory card, connect
the phone to a PC via USB and
move the WhatsApp placed on the
desktop (or elsewhere) to the
phone storage.

5. Download and install WhatsApp

6. Agree to Terms of Service and
continue.

7. Enter your number and click OK.
The number to be entered is the
one that you had in WhatsApp
when you backed up your
conversations.

8. During verification and
activation, WhatsApp will discover
that you have a backup file. It will
show you two buttons, namely,
Restore and Skip restore.
Select Restore.
The backup conversations are
restored.

9. Click Continue and follow the
prompts.
When WhatsApp is fully activated,
you will discover that your chat
history has been restored to your
previously formatted phone, or the
chat history from the old phone is
intact in the new device.

Note: Transfer of chat history
works only within a platform, that
is, you can only restore it from one
Android phone to another Android
phone, not to another phone
running a non-Android operating
system, and vice versa.