WhatsApp has grown to the extent that some of us cannot afford to lose our WhatsApp data. You might have gotten a new phone and one of the questions that run through your mind is – how to move WhatsApp to new phone without losing data? Well, this post provides answers for that question.
I have been hooked up with this same question several times and browsed many websites to find answer, but all my efforts proved abortive until I figured how to achieve this myself which I’m going to show you in this post. Not only can you move messages, you can also move all your WhatsApp images, audios, videos, stickers, voice notes, animated gifs and other documents.
Note: this post is specifically for android users.
How to Move WhatsApp to New Phone Without Losing Data
Follow these steps to effectively backup and restore WhatsApp on new android phone.
Step #1: Back up WhatsApp on the old phone
First and foremost, you have to ensure that you make backup of your latest WhatsApp messages on the old phone.
How to back up WhatsApp
- Open WhatsApp on the old phone, navigate to settings >> Chats >> Chat backup
- On the chat backup screen, ensure that “Back up to Google Drive” is set to “Never” since you are just creating a local backup.
- Then, click on “BACK UP” and wait for the backup to complete.
Note: disconnect internet connections on the old phone, so that new messages won’t get in and subsequently left out in the back up.
Once the backup is completed, you can move on to the next stage.
Step 2: Transfer the backed-up file from the old phone to the new phone
In this stage you will learn how to effectively move your WhatsApp folder which contains all your WhatsApp data to your new phone.
WhatsApp folder is usually located at the root folder of your internal storage or SD card. For some android phones you can locate WhatsApp folder in this pattern – Internal Storage >> Android >> media >> com.whatsapp
If WhatsApp is installed on SD card, just remove the SD card and insert it on the new phone then copy the WhatsApp folder to the root of the internal storage.
If WhatsApp is not installed on SD card, insert SD card with enough space into the old phone, copy the WhatsApp folder to the SD card, remove the SD card and insert on the new phone, then copy the WhatsApp folder to the root of the internal storage.
Alternatively, you can use Xender or any file transfer app to send the WhatsApp folder to the new phone, once, you have sent the file on the new phone, locate the file is this pattern – Internal storage or SD card >> Xender >> folder >> WhatsApp, then copy and place the file on root of the internal storage.
Once you have successfully transferred the file to the new phone, you are now set to restore WhatsApp on the new phone.
Step 3: Install / reinstall and restore WhatsApp on the new phone
In this step you will learn how to restore the WhatsApp data you have backed up on the previous step
How to restore WhatsApp on new phone
- Install and open WhatsApp on your new Android device.
- Read the Terms and Conditions and tap “Agree and Continue”.
- Verify your country and phone number when prompted (Must be same number used on the old phone).
- Input the six-digit verification code if required.
- Click on “CONTINUE” to allow WhatsApp to access your backup files, contacts, photos, media, and files
- WhatsApp will now search and automatically detect the backup data and prompt you to restore it.
- Click on restore and wait for the messages and media to restore.
Once the restoration is done, you can now pick up from where you stopped on your new phone.
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Important things to note
- While backing up your messages on the old phone do not forget to disable your data connection.
- Move WhatsApp folder as a whole from the old phone to the new phone.
- Use the same WhatsApp number on the old phone on the new phone, else the process will not work.
Conclusion
I believe you have learnt how to how to move WhatsApp to new phone without losing data, that’s if you follow the post holistically. As we said before, this post can help you backup and restore WhatsApp from android to android.
If you have any questions or suggestions, you can share them with us via the comment section below.
