Recover deleted Whatsapp messages and restore backups

If instead of archiving a WhatsApp chat, you have used the key to delete it by mistake, it may be useful to know how recover deleted messages on Whatsapp.
While archived chats can be easily recovered, recovering deleted messages is not that simple, although possible if you are timely and if a backup of the chats has been planned that allows you to never lose any messages. The article is about the application of Whatsapp both on smartphone Android che su iPhone, although for Android you can do something more.

READ ALSO: Save Whatsapp chats to Google Drive or iCloud

Restore archived WhatsApp messages

First of all, if the messages were archived and not deleted, their recovery would be easy and immediate.
As already explained in the guide on how to find chats stored in Whatsapp, you can swipe the conversation to the left (on iPhone) or, on Android, touch it by holding down and then use the top button to remove it from the archived chats.
The chats stored on Android can be found by scrolling down the list of conversations, up to the last.

To recover deleted WhatsApp messages and not archived, you must enable the “Backup chat” in Settings> Chat.
Below “Automatic backup” O Backup su Google Drive, WhatsApp offers different backup frequencies: Daily, weekly, Monthly, Just how much I touch Backup.
By using, therefore, the option of automatic daily backups, you can easily recover messages immediately after they have been deleted.
If you choose to make weekly automatic backups, you will be able to save older chats, but you will not be able to recover the most recent WhatsApp messages if they have been deleted less than seven days since the last backup.

How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages

Recovering deleted WhatsApp messages is very simple, but it depends on the selected automatic backup frequency.
For example, if the automatic backup frequency is set to daily, you can easily restore chats that were deleted the day before, before the next backup is activated. To do the recovery, just uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
When reinstalling the app, you will be prompted to restore the message history from the backup file and everything will be restored from the last backup. This method of recovering deleted WhatsApp messages works on both Android and iOS.

Recovery of older chats after backup

Recovering deleted messages after performing a backup is slightly more difficult and will depend on the automatic backup frequency you select. This can also be done solo su Android smartphone.
This is because WhatsApp on iPhone keeps only the latest backup file, while in the Andorid version the two most recent backup files remain in memory. One will be the last chat backup, the other, depending on the automatic backup frequency, could be from the day before, the week before, or the month before. These are hidden in the device memory.

Using a file management application on Android, you need to open the folder SD Card -> WhatsApp -> Databases.
In this folder, there are several files that have the type name msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt and one that is called msgstore.db.crypt12, which is the most recent backup.
The latter must be renamed to msgstore-latest.db.crytp12 .
The file with the earliest date (msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12) should be renamed to msgstore.db.crytp12.
Obviously trying to open these files will not get anything readable because they are encrypted. You must then uninstall Whatsapp, reinstall it and restore the old conversations.

In this case, the backup file used will be the oldest one that remained in memory and will therefore contain messages from at least two weeks ago. With this method you will lose the newest messages, those of the days between now and the date of the file to which the name has been changed.
It will therefore be necessary, after reading and recovering the messages that were lost, repeat the procedure to rename the files as follows:
– msgstore.db.crytp12 it must go back to having the same name as before msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12
– msgstore-latest.db.crytp12 back to being instead msgstore.db.crytp12
Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp, to restore from backup and the latest chats will reappear!

With this trick on Android it is also possible keep multiple backup files and not just the two provided by Whatsapp.
You can then rename the file msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 into something else, like ott11.db.crypt12.
This file will then not be recognized and overwritten by WhatsApp and in the next backup, a new file will be created msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 .

Recovery of deleted chat images and videos

It might come as a surprise, but when you delete pictures and videos from WhatsApp, they disappear from the chat, but they are not deleted from the memory. Recovery of deleted WhatsApp images and videos from chat is therefore quite simple.
You can then open the app to explore files in Android and go to the folder WhatsApp -> Media to search for the lost image or video to restore.

Read deleted messages anyway

Thanks to an application called Message Portal per Android it is possible to store and read all Whatsapp chat messages, including those that have been deleted by the person who sent them. The app is automatic and is based on notifications, keeping in memory all the messages received, including those that are then deleted.

NOTE: Another article explains how find out the content of messages received but deleted in Whatsapp