Hello,
I switched phones for vacation and when I switched back to my original phone i reinstalled the app and accidentally didnt tick the box that said "keep 10gb worth of whatsapp data" which resuled in me loosing all my media from all of my time on whatsapp.
Now, I have the local backups from the phone I used while I was on vacation and if my thinking is correct the media should be on those backups (htough I might loose a couple of days wirth of text messages but thats fine).
However, when I reinstall whatsapp and install the backup it always used the backup on google drive which is the incorrect one. DO you know how I can force Whataspp to use the local backup instead of the drive one?
I have access to all of the backups from the past 7 days of my vaation phone (those from my real phone were deleted in the big purge, sadly). I have them on my pc, transfer the one I want to my phone, edit the name to msgstore.db.crypt14 but it still only used cloud files.
Videos
Disclaimer: this solution is offered to those who as myself found this post via googling for "whatsapp not restoring local backup", I have not changed my number.
I've tried giving permissions before Whatsapp starting as advised in other answer, but to no success, restarted my phone - again no success. But then I noted "Whatsapp" folder as seen by android file manager contains only "Media" folder, whereas to my Linux mounted drive I copied all folders, which gave me a clue. I copied all "whatsapp" previous phone folder to some folder on the "new" phone via laptop and copied from there to "whatsapp" folder via internal android file manager app. Then Whatsapp found backup. Looks in my case the issue might have been with Linux-Android USB link.
ADDED: Android 11 release issue and solution:
WhatsApp is now in [Internal storage]/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases - that you can check for yourself after installing it on a new phone (install first - not run yet, then copy files from old phone over to new one in that new folder, then start WhatsApp on new phone).
Android 11 release issue and solution:
In my case, after backing up the WhatsApp folder via USB and restoring it using the same method to the new phone, I discovered that WhatsApp was unable to find the backup in the path /data/media/0/WhatsApp (which is mapped to USB on my Android 11 Pixel 4a as "Internal Storage").
Moving the folder instead to /data/media/0/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp did the trick for me. No permission changes were necessary. I did this via a root shell on a custom ROM, but it should also be possible on a regular phone to simply recreate the folder structure using the USB connection:
- Force close WhatsApp
- Go into app settings and clear WhatsApp's storage
- Via USB, create
Androidfolder if it's missing - Create
mediasubfolder if it's missing - Create
com.whatsappsubfolder if it's missing - Copy your
WhatsAppfolder to thecom.whatsappsubfolder
Fellow internet citizens,
I've had a situation earlier today, when transferring from a previous Android phone to a new one, WhatsApp apps on both phones froze up when trying to scan QR code. After I've closed the apps, for some weird reason I have lost all my chat history and media on my old phone.
I didn't have a Google Drive backup, just a local backup from two weeks ago (and no media backup since last year, yay).
Unless I've missed something, I haven't found proper instructions on how to recover from local backup on an Android 14 phone. Official WhatsApp FAQ tells that for local backups you need Android 9 or younger. Everything up, is Google Drive backup only.
Unofficial instructions didn't help me either.
Eventually I've figured it out myself how to trick WhatsApp into looking at local files instead of trying to find non-existing Google Drive backup, and I'm sharing it here. Maybe it'll help someone.
WHATSAPP LOCAL BACKUP RESTORE FOR ANDROID 14
SITUATION
You don't have Google Backup and you cannot (for any reason) rely on your old phone.
You have a clean phone without WhatsApp. Or you're reinstalling and you don't have any files or folders left by the WhatsApp app
You do have a copy of msgstore.db.crypt14 (or older, .crypt12-11-10-... depending on your android version) file saved somewhere (not on your phone).
Original location on your Android for this file is: Storage -> Android -> media -> com.whatsapp -> WhatsApp -> Databases
Depending on your smartphone brand and the used File Explorer app, you might need to turn on "Show Hidden Folders" in the file explorer app settings
HOW TO
Install WhatsApp
Start WhatsApp, but do not continue. Just leave it on the "Select Language" screen
Go to your file explorer app. And go to Storage -> Android -> media -> com.whatsapp
It should be empty.
Copy your copy of "Databases" folder containing the msgstore.db.crypt14 file into Storage -> Android -> media -> com.whatsapp
Go back to WhatsApp and continue with the setup.
At a certain moment, after verification, it will tell you "Backup detected, restore?"
Press yes
Be happy
EDIT 17 Feb 25: I've never expected this post to get so much traction. I'd like to thank everybody here and for their kind words and for sharing their experience and workarounds! Thank you all who commented!