How to see deleted messages on WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a popular messaging app and almost everyone with a smartphone uses it. The Facebook-owned messaging app has over 1.5 billion monthly active users globally.

WhatsApp is a feature-packed application and new features are added to the app regularly. One of its basic features is its ability to clear all messages, whether it is private messages or group messages at once.

It is easy to clear all the messages at once, without having to select messages one by one. However, you may have accidentally deleted some important messages and now want to recover them. Today, we will look at ways to restore deleted WhatsApp messages for Android and iOS users.

We will use the most recent backup to restore messages on WhatsApp. It is to be noted that you will lose messages that were received after your last backup.

How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages

Recover via local storage

This method however is applicable only for Android users and does not work on iOS.

• Open the file browser on your device.
• Go to WhatsApp > Database. The database contains all the WhatsApp backup files that are stored locally.
• Select the ‘msgstore.db.crypt12’ file and long press it and click on edit name. Now, rename it to ‘msgstore_backup.db.crypt12’. We have renamed the file to prevent it from being overwritten.
• Now, select the most recent backup file and rename it to ‘msgstore.db.crypt12’.
• Now, open Google Drive on your phone and tap on the three vertical lines menu at the top right corner.
• Tap on ‘Backups’ and delete your WhatsApp backup.
• Now, uninstall WhatsApp and re-install it. While installing, you will be asked to restore WhatsApp from a local backup as you don’t have a cloud backup anymore.
• Select the ‘msgstore.db.crypt12’ file and tap the ‘Restore’ button.

Your messages have been restored from your most recent backup.

Recover your whatsapp messages via cloud backup

You can also recover your WhatsApp messages from Google Drive or iCloud.

• Uninstall WhatsApp from your Android phone or iPhone.
• Reinstall WhatsApp and login using the same phone number.
• Now, you can restore your messages from Google Drive or iCloud. Tap on ‘Restore’ to begin the process.
• Your messages will be restored.

It must be noted that if the message was deleted after the cloud backup, you cannot restore it.

See also:
How to know if someone has blocked you on WhatsApp
How to stop others from adding you in a WhatsApp group