The structure of the article is as follows: first, we answer the question “how to recover WhatsApp correspondence” in the simplest way, then, if it does not help, we delve into the details: we check the settings for automatic message backup - this will help you understand how to work miracles of restoring deleted chats (instructions are attached). In the end, we’ll figure out how to retrieve correspondence from broken phones or transfer them to a new one.
Attention! Read to the end only if you want to know everything about data recovery in the messenger. No time to figure it out? Click on the link and go to the desired section.
- Via msgstore.db.crypt12
- We forward the correspondence
- Android
- iPhone
Easy recovery
First, about the simplest situation: you used the messenger, deleted it a long time ago, and now you decided to use it again, and even return all the “recent” correspondence? Nothing simpler - install it and the messages will return themselves.
Follow simple instructions :
- Download the application
- WhatsApp for Android or
- WhatsApp for iPhone
- Install and register Specify the country, phone number, receive an SMS with a confirmation code, enter it into the application
- We write the username
- WhatsApp will offer to restore your message backup - agree
- Ready! Correspondence restored
No? So your case is not so simple. Most likely, backup was not configured and messages were not saved. We check and configure in the next chapter - this is important!
Notifications by mail and SMS
Users who are concerned about the security of their VKontakte profile often enable various notifications such as account login alerts, email and phone notifications about new messages and other events on the social network.
If you are one of these prudent users, you can go to your email and look for the letter you need, or delve into the history of SMS notifications from VK on your phone. Most likely, there will be a lot of correspondence. Even your approximate memories of the contents of the message or the date it was sent will greatly speed up the search for the desired letter.
You can use the content search - enter at least one word from the message you are looking for, and the mail service or smartphone will find the required letter.
Unfortunately, this method also has flaws. Alerts only come about incoming messages. If you are looking for a message that was sent by you, you will not find it either in the mail or in SMS.
Backups
In phone
If you have already used WhatsApp, then all correspondence, photos and other files are stored in the phone’s memory, in the “/WhatsApp” folder. You can check using an application like “File Manager” (or “ file manager ”). Not sure what you have? We recommend downloading these:
Open the application and find the folder:
Didn't find it? Come here right away. Found it? Okay, let's get acquainted with the content.
The “WhatsApp / Databases” folder contains archives of different reservation dates. The dates are indicated in the file names. Archives are saved every 24 hours at approximately 2 - 3 am according to the time configured on the phone. The undated file “ msgstore.db.crypt12 ” is the latest, most up-to-date copy. Correspondence is restored using it after installing the application. By renaming files you can restore dialogues from different periods. Here in the “WhatsApp / Databases / Media” folder are all your files from chats.
In the cloud
WhatsApp additionally saves copies to cloud services:
- Google Drive for Android devices
- iCloud Drive on iPhone and iPad
Most likely, copies of your correspondence (“backups”) are already saved in the “cloud” - the messenger periodically offers to connect cloud backup. If you remember that you refused - in vain, turn it back on.
Checking your cloud backup settings .
- Open your chat lists
- Click on the “3 dots” icon in the upper right corner of the screen, select “Settings” from the drop-down list
- Go to the menu “Chats → Chat backup”
Setting up a reservation
- “Last backup” - dates of the last backups
- The “Backup” button starts backing up the current state of chats
- Storage is configured below: disk account, backup frequency.
- You can choose the download method - via Wi-Fi only or via mobile network.
If your chat history is not saved to a cloud drive, be sure to enable this feature, it will save you from misunderstandings in the future.
We've sorted out the theory, let's move on to practice. Let's start with the most interesting thing - deleted messages.
Contacting technical support
If a friend also deleted messages or for some other reason did not send you the correspondence history, then you can ask technical support for help.
In the “Help” section there are entries on restoring dialogue, photographs and other materials from the page, in which the question of how to recover deleted messages is given an unequivocal answer - no way. However, the Internet is replete with articles about how technical support still helps with solving this problem. Let's try to figure it out.
According to information published by the VKontakte administration, the social network is included in the register of organizers of information dissemination on the Internet. This means that VK falls under clause 3 of Article 10.1 of the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”. The law states that the organizer of the dissemination of information on the Internet (in our case, the social network VKontakte) is obliged to store the correspondence of Russian citizens for six months.
More than 100 cool lessons, tests and exercises for brain development
Start developing
It turns out that the message will be stored on the social network server for 6 months, even if you delete it. From this we can conclude that you still need to contact technical support with a request to restore messages. Perhaps the social network does not have the functionality to return the correspondence back to the dialogue, but a support agent can send messages stored on the server, at least in a text file.
Restoring correspondence
We warn you not to waste your time! simply undo the deletion of a message and return it directly to the chat!
The principle of the messenger: do not store what was intentionally deleted. Therefore, the official documentation does not offer clear solutions. FreeSoft offers.
Solution : restore the state of the correspondence at the time of automatic backups. Let's look at a couple of simple ways to recover important messages.
Option 1
If you remember that you sent a message before the date and time the file “ msgstore.db.crypt12 ” was changed, and deleted it later, just reinstall the application, receive an SMS with the code, log in, restore chats from backups. Don't remember? Read on.
Backup occurs at night, every 24 hours, which means that if a day has passed between the sending and deletion of the message, everything is possible, we will now restore the correspondence. (Otherwise, the less time has passed, the less chance there is. By the way, you can check with a special program).
In general, follow the instructions :
- Copy backup folders Make a copy of the copies, just in case: go to the “/ WhatsApp” directory, copy the “Databases” folder to a safe place. Use a computer connection or a file manager application
- Find the right backup
- Select the archive file with the date between the sending and deletion of the message - it contains your message, the file must be renamed.
Find the file msgstore.db.crypt12, copy the name, then delete it, or better yet, rename it “abra-kadabra”.
- Assign the copied name to the file with your message.
- Last → reinstall the application.
At the end of the installation, WhatsApp will offer to restore messages - agree. You will get the state of the chats at the time when the message was not yet deleted. Simple, isn't it?
Important! All current messages that were not included in the latest backup will be lost. If this is critical, create a copy from the current moment - to do this, in the settings, click the “Backup” button (more details), then repeat step 1.
Option 2
If you know for sure that the sent message was not included in the backup copy on the device or in the cloud, then your solution is to ask the other person to forward the message or chat.
Forwarding a message is very simple:
- Click on the message, hold down the button - it will be “highlighted”, the message highlighting mode will be activated. In this mode you can select more messages
- In the upper right corner, click on the “right arrow” - a list of contacts will open
- Select the recipient's contact
This will work if you deleted it using the “Delete at home” method. The “Delete for everyone” option erases the message from both you and the other person. The chance that it ended up in your interlocutor’s backup is small.
To forward the entire chat
- Go to “Settings”
- Go to the menu “Chats → Chat history → Export chats”
- Selecting a chat
- Specify the chat transfer method
Comment The messenger will ask if you need to send files from the chat. We recommend choosing the “No files” method - it’s faster. It is more convenient to transfer files via the Internet: use WhatsApp, another messenger or a cloud drive. But in fairness, we note that you can send a file directly via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct - this is convenient when there is no access to the Internet or its speed is very low, and you, for example, decided to attach all multimedia files.
Deleted messages have been dealt with. Now let's figure out what to do if you overdid it with clearing the memory, broke it, lost it, or simply bought a new device.
Help from a friend
In the event that you needed deleted messages after a while, or you refreshed the page and can no longer use instant recovery, you should ask your interlocutor for help. The fact is that the correspondence is saved for all participants in the dialogue or conversation, so even if you deleted all the messages, your friend will still have a copy of them.
Ask a friend to highlight and forward the messages you need. You cannot send the entire conversation at once, so your friend will have to manually select all messages and forward them to you.
This method, like the previous one, has a small caveat. Any user can delete a message sent by him within 24 hours from himself and from the person to whom he sent it. If you have erased a message for your interlocutor, then, accordingly, he will not be able to forward it to you.
Memory recovery
Solutions depend on the problem. Let's consider all the options.
Unsuccessfully cleared phone memory
In this case, the backups will be retrieved from the cloud drive. Just try installing the application again. If there are no copies in the cloud, we will restore the information from the gadget’s memory. Steps:
- Download and install the memory recovery program
- Extract message archives from the device memory (more details)
- Place them in the “WhatsApp/Databases” folder
- Reinstall the application as described at the beginning of the article.
We restore archives using free programs and applications.
Where is WhatsApp chat stored?
The storage location for WhatsApp data will depend on the operating system installed on your smartphone.
For example, on Android, information can be recorded on external or internal memory, as well as on Google virtual drives. The iPhone uses IClaud for the same purposes.
It is preferable to choose a cloud service for storing correspondence and other important information, since it is completely protected from data loss as a result of a technical failure. In addition, with this method of storing information, even if you lose your phone, you can restore all the data you need in a new device.
iPhone Data Recovery
The program recovers correspondence and generally all WhatsApp data on an iPhone for free, and is installed on Mac-OS .
Pay attention to the functionality: the applications do a good job of returning deleted songs, photos and even videos.
The device has changed
It all depends on whether you have access to the old device. Let's consider 3 possible cases.
Case No. 1 - the old phone works
Did the purchase of a new device cause the correspondence to be restored? Solution: set up and restore backups step by step:
Through the Internet
- Go to the application settings on your old device
- Go to the "Chats / Chats Backup" menu
- Select "Backup to Google Drive/iCloud Drive"
- Specify your account and reservation frequency
- Click on the "Backup" button
- Install the application on your new phone
- After installation, WhatsApp will ask for access to the cloud drive - allow it
- Ready! Read old correspondence on a new device
Without Internet
- Open the “Settings” of the application, go to the “Chat / Chat backup” menu
- Click on the “Backup” button
- We transfer the backup files from the “WhatsApp / Databases” folder to the new device to a similar directory. Use a connection to a computer or send from phone to phone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct. Wi-Fi Direct is usually faster, but not all old devices support it, and not all new ones, check with yourself. Bluetooth is available on almost every modern gadget.
- Then everything is as in the previous instructions - install, register, restore. Ready!
Case No. 2 - the old device is lost
Lost or broken with no chance of repair or data recovery.
You can now restore correspondence only if backup to the cloud has been configured. As a rule, the application sooner or later recommends doing this. When installing the messenger, it will ask for access to the virtual disk and restore the data. Reinstall.
If you specifically refused to reserve a WhatsApp → Game Over! (╯°□°)╯︵┻━┻. Now ask your interlocutors to forward chats. And be sure to set up a reservation in the future!
Cache check
Each browser caches some files from the sites the user visits. This process of saving data to a computer allows you not to download information from a web server each time, but to use existing files. This significantly reduces site loading time.
You can use this feature of the site to find messages that are not very old. This operation can only be performed if automatic cache clearing is not enabled in your browser settings, and you have not deleted it yourself recently.
The process of searching and viewing the cache in different browsers has significant differences, so this is the topic of a separate article. Now we will briefly analyze the process of reading cached pages using the example of the popular Google Chrome browser.
First of all, you need to turn off the Internet. This will prevent the browser from overwriting the cache. After that, go to the page with experimental settings (chrome://flags/#show-saved-copy) and in the “Show Saved Copy Button” item, set the switch value to “Enable: Primary”. This option adds the ability to view cached pages when there is no Internet connection.
Still not turning on the Internet, go to the page with a list of VKontakte dialogues. Since your Internet is turned off, you need to copy the link in advance. You can also use this URL - https://vk.com/im?peers.
On the familiar page with the dinosaur and the notification about the lack of Internet, you will see the “Open saved copy” button. Click on it and you will be taken to the dialog page, which is stored in the browser cache. The absence of a button on the page means that it was not cached and there is no saved copy on your computer. In this case, try using any other method given in the article.
Are you sure you deleted the messages?
Maybe you just lost them and didn’t delete them? Look more closely. There is a search at the top of the messages - try entering the name of this person or some words that you definitely had in your correspondence.
It happens that messages are not loaded in the VK mobile application for technical reasons. It seems that all correspondence has been deleted, but this is not the case. The solution is here:
- What to do if messages in the VKontakte application are not loaded
On the computer, problems occur with the browser, the Internet connection, the computer itself, and this may also make it seem that the messages have been deleted. Not really. You need to solve your problems - first of all, reinstall the browser (or try another one), or log into VK from another device and make sure that all messages are there.
If someone offers you to recover deleted messages and asks for a login and password, then they are scammers. They will simply steal your page.
How to recover messages if your SD card is broken
Unfortunately, the memory card often fails. If data from WhatsApp was stored on it, then, if desired, the information can be returned.
To do this you will need:
- connect the gadget to the PC via cable
- open the “Hetman Partition Recovery” software, start scanning the memory card and smartphone
- select the path: /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases (information containing chat history will be placed there)
- you need to perform a restore in the “Databases” folder using program commands
- Now you need to transfer the required message or file to the SD card folder from WhatsApp
- then reinstall the application
After the process is completed, the files you are looking for will be in the same place.
