How to Back Up WhatsApp Chats and Restore Them on a New Phone
5 min read Changing phones does not mean losing your WhatsApp chats. Follow these steps to back up, verify the backup and restore everything on the new device. October 03, 2026 11:09 By Disha Varia, Guj Times
A new phone is exciting until you realise that years of chats, photos and documents are still on the old one. Take ten minutes to do this properly and you will not lose anything.
Before you start
- Make sure you can receive an SMS or call on your WhatsApp number on the new phone.
- Use the same Google account on both phones.
- Keep the old phone until you have confirmed that everything has been restored.
Step 1: Back up on the old phone
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings → Chats → Chat backup.
- Choose your Google account and select Back up. Include videos only if you need them, because they enlarge the backup.
- Wait until the screen shows the time of the latest backup.
You can also turn on an end-to-end encrypted backup in the same menu. If you do, save the password or key safely; without it the backup cannot be restored.
Step 2: Install WhatsApp on the new phone
Download WhatsApp from the official store listing (see our WhatsApp overview), open it and verify your number. Sign in with the same Google account when it asks.
Step 3: Restore
When WhatsApp finds the backup, tap Restore. Messages appear first, and media files continue downloading afterwards, so give it some time on Wi-Fi.
If the backup is not found
- Check that you are using the same phone number and Google account.
- Make sure that Google Drive has enough free space.
- Check your internet connection and try again.
Newer WhatsApp versions also offer a direct phone-to-phone transfer option for Android. The menu names can differ by version, so follow the on-screen prompts.
After switching
Do not share the verification code with anyone, and turn on two-step verification in Settings → Account. If storage is an issue on the new phone, clear old media as explained in our storage guide.
Quick answers
Do WhatsApp backups use my Google storage? They can count towards your Google account storage, so check how much free space you have before a large backup.
Can I move chats between Android and iPhone this way? A normal Google Drive backup does not move to an iPhone. Moving between the two systems needs a separate transfer method, so read WhatsApp's own help page first.
How often should you back up?
In Settings → Chats → Chat backup you can choose daily, weekly, monthly or only when you tap Back up. If you share many photos and documents, daily or weekly is safer. If your Google storage is almost full, pick a longer gap and delete old media you no longer need, because a failed backup is worse than a late one.
A five-minute check before you wipe the old phone
Do not reset or sell the old phone straight away. First open WhatsApp on the new phone and scroll through two or three important chats, such as family or work groups. Open an old photo and an old PDF to confirm that the media came across. Only when all of this looks right should you log out of the old phone.
Common mistakes
The most common problem is using a different Google account on the new phone, which makes the backup invisible. The second is changing the phone number halfway through the move. The third is forgetting the password of an encrypted backup. Write the password in a safe place before you start, because WhatsApp cannot recover it for you.
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