What happens when you archive a WhatsApp group?
When you archive a WhatsApp group, it gets removed from your main Chats tab and goes into your Archived chats. Archiving a group mutes notifications so you won’t get notified of any new messages until you unarchive the group. The group remains intact with all members, messages, media etc. and you can find it again in Archived chats.
Archiving is useful to temporarily mute busy groups to focus without leaving them. However, archived chats get automatically deleted after 6 months of inactivity. So if a group remains archived for over 6 months with no new messages, the entire chat will get deleted and can’t be recovered.
How to find and restore archived WhatsApp groups
If you have accidentally archived a group or want to access an archived group chat again, here are the steps to find and restore it:
1. Open WhatsApp and tap on the three-dot menu in the top right.
2. Select “Archived chats” from the menu.
3. This will open your list of archived individual and group chats. Scroll through and look for the archived group you want to restore.
4. Tap on the group and select “Unarchive” from the menu.
5. The group will now be unarchived and moved back to your Chats tab. You’ll start receiving notifications from the group again.
6. If you don’t see the archived group you’re looking for, it may have been automatically deleted after being inactive for 6 months. Unfortunately, in that case, the group is gone forever and can’t be recovered.
What to do if your archived WhatsApp group is deleted
Since archived WhatsApp chats get permanently deleted after 6 months of no activity, there is a chance your archived group may have crossed this limit and been removed from the app. Here are your options if this has happened:
– Check again in Archived chats – Sometimes groups may show up as deleted but still be recoverable from the Archived list for a few days.
– Ask the admin to add you again – If the group has active members, request the admin to add you back into the group with your saved chat history intact.
– Create a new group – If the group is gone forever, you’ll have to create a new one and manually add all the old members back in. Rebuilding the group is the only way to get it back at this point.
– Use a chat backup – If you had taken a backup of your chats before the group was deleted, you may find it again by restoring your backup. Backups can help retrieve deleted chats.
– Export the chat history – If any of the former group members have the group chat exported as text, you can import the chat history into a new group to access old conversations.
Tips to avoid losing archived WhatsApp groups
To make sure you don’t lose an important archived WhatsApp group again, follow these best practices:
– Set archiving timeout to indefinite – Turn off auto-deletion of archived chats in WhatsApp settings so they stick around forever.
– Frequently check archived chats – Periodically scroll through your archived chats to make sure important groups are still there.
– Unarchive inactive groups – If you don’t need a group to stay muted forever, unarchive it periodically to keep it active.
– Export chat history – Frequently export chat history of important groups you have archived as a backup.
– Back up chats – Regularly back up your WhatsApp chats to Google Drive or locally so you have multiple chat backups.
– Note group details – Keep a record of important group members, names, and ID outside WhatsApp in case you need to recreate it.
– Pin important groups – Use the pin feature to pin important groups you frequently access to the top of your chats list.
Can I recover a deleted WhatsApp group?
If your WhatsApp group has been accidentally or permanently deleted, here are a few ways you may be able to recover it:
– **From the phone’s local backup:** If you had enabled WhatsApp’s daily local backup on your phone, you can restore chats from the latest backup and may be able to retrieve the deleted group.
– **From Google Drive backup:** WhatsApp also backs up chats to Google Drive. You can restore chats from a previous cloud backup where the group still existed.
– **From another group member’s phone:** If anyone in the group still has the chat available on their device, you can be added back to the group to restore it.
– **Using third-party data recovery apps:** Some advanced mobile data recovery apps claim to recover deleted WhatsApp data. You can try apps like Dr.Fone or iMyFone to attempt recovery.
– **Recreating the group:** As a last resort, you can manually add participants back into a new group and gradually recover lost messages from members.
But once a WhatsApp group is deleted from all devices with no backup, it is likely gone forever and irrecoverable through official means. So the best policy is having regular backups and archives.
What happens when a WhatsApp group is deleted?
Here is what happens when a WhatsApp group is permanently deleted:
– The group disappears from the Chats tab for all members and can no longer be opened.
– All the group info like name, icon, participants list etc. is deleted permanently.
– The entire chat history of the group including messages, media, links is erased.
– The group is removed from the phone’s local database and cloud backups.
– Members don’t get notified about the group being deleted directly.
– You cannot find the group again in WhatsApp unless it was backed up externally.
– All former participants lose access to the group completely when it’s deleted.
– Only way to get it back is if someone still has the group chat on their device to add you.
So if the group is deleted by the admin, there is no way for other members to access the group or chat history again through regular WhatsApp. That’s why backups are important.
Conclusion
Archived WhatsApp groups can get permanently erased after months of inactivity, but they can be recovered from backups as long as the deletion was recent. Always backup chats frequently, unarchive inactive groups periodically, and export important chat history to avoid losing WhatsApp groups. With proper archiving and backup procedures, you should be able to find and restore archived or deleted groups, as long as the data exists somewhere.