What Happens When You Skip Restoring Chats
When setting up WhatsApp on a new device, you are given the option to restore your chat history from your previous device. This transfers all your conversations, media, and other data to the new device.
However, if you accidentally tap “Skip” instead of “Restore” during this process, you will start fresh with no chat history on your new device. All previous chats and media will only remain on your old device.
This can be frustrating if you wanted to keep conversations, photos, videos, and other important information from your old chats. Thankfully, there are ways to recover and restore your chat history in WhatsApp even after skipping the restore process initially.
How to Recover Skipped Chat History
If you accidentally skipped restoring your WhatsApp chat history, don’t panic. You can still retrieve your previous chats through a few methods:
Method 1: Restore from Google Drive Backup
WhatsApp gives you the option to backup your chats to Google Drive. If you had previously set this up, you can restore from your Google Drive backup to recover skipped chats:
- Open WhatsApp and tap the More options (three dots) menu.
- Go to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
- Tap “Restore” and confirm your Google account if prompted.
This will overwrite your current chat history with the Google Drive backup, restoring your old chats.
Method 2: Transfer from Old Device
If you still have your old device, you can transfer its chat history to your new device:
- On the old device, ensure you have the latest version of WhatsApp installed.
- On the new device, open WhatsApp and go through the setup process again until you reach the chat restore screen.
- On the old device, go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Restore > Restore.
- Scan the QR code shown on the new device using your old device to complete the transfer.
This will directly migrate your chat history from your old device to your new device.
Method 3: Local Backup
You can also restore chats from a local backup on your old device:
- On your old device, go to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
- Tap “Backup” to create a new backup of your chat history.
- Transfer this backup file to your new device via USB, cloud storage, etc.
- On your new device WhatsApp, tap Restore > Restore from Backup and select the file.
Just make sure the backup is recent so you don’t lose any recent chats.
How to Prevent Losing Chats
To avoid accidentally losing your chat history again, here are some tips:
- Set up Google Drive backup in WhatsApp settings so your chats are always backed up.
- Create occasional local backups as an extra safeguard.
- Pay close attention when setting up a new device and carefully tap “Restore” instead of “Skip”.
- If you have your old device, always transfer chat history directly instead of just relying on backups.
Following these best practices will minimize the risk of ever losing your chat history again if you get a new phone, switch OS, or reinstall WhatsApp.
What If I Overwrote Existing Chats on My New Phone?
If you restored your old chats from a backup, but also had new conversations on your phone that got overwritten:
- You can export the new chats before restoring – go to WhatsApp > More options > Settings > Chats > Chat history > Export chat.
- On Android, chats stored locally on the device can be found in WhatsApp/Databases and extracted using third-party software.
- Unfortunately, overwritten chats cannot be recovered on iOS.
So if possible, always export recent chats on your new device before restoring from backup.
Can I Selectively Restore Certain Chats?
WhatsApp’s restore process is “all or nothing” – you cannot selectively restore only certain conversations from a backup.
The entire chat history from your Google Drive or local backup will be restored. There is no option to cherry-pick only particular chats.
If you only need certain conversations, try exporting them individually from your old device before restoring:
- On your old device, open the chat you want to export.
- Tap More options > More > Export chat.
- This will save the chat with media to your device storage.
- Transfer the exported chats you need to your new device.
- Now you can restore your full backup without losing these key chats.
Will Restoring Overwrite My Existing Media?
When you restore chats from a backup to your new device, this will also restore all associated media – photos, videos, voice messages, documents etc.
If this media already exists locally on your new device, restoring chats can potentially overwrite that existing media with older versions from your backup.
To avoid this:
- Copy any important new media from your device to a safe location first.
- After restoring chats, replace any older media with your new copies again.
This prevents important new media from being lost.
What About My WhatsApp Settings and Call History?
Restoring your chat history only applies to conversations and media. Your WhatsApp settings and preferences will not transfer over.
You’ll need to reconfigure settings like privacy, notifications, themes etc. on your new device.
Your call history also does not restore with chats. But calls placed over WhatsApp will still appear in conversation threads.
Will Restoring Affect My WhatsApp Web Sessions?
You can remain logged into WhatsApp Web after restoring your chat history on a new device.
However, since web sessions are tied to your device, you will need to scan the QR code again to link the new device. Existing web sessions on your old device will get disconnected.
I Lost Chats After Restoring!
If you are missing some chats after restoring WhatsApp from backup:
- The backup may not have been up to date, so verify the last backup date and time.
- Network issues during restore can cause data loss.
- On Android, check the WhatsApp/Databases folder for chat history not loaded properly.
- Try restoring again from backup in case of software glitches.
- As a last resort, attempt data recovery on your old device.
Prevent issues by backing up chats frequently and directly transferring from old device whenever possible.
Conclusion
Accidentally skipping chat restore when setting up WhatsApp on a new device is frustrating but recoverable. Use Google Drive or local backups to get your chat history back. Enable backups regularly to avoid ever losing your chats. With some effort, you can safely migrate your existing WhatsApp conversations to any new phone or OS.