WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. It allows you to send messages, photos, videos, documents and more to your contacts. By default, WhatsApp backs up your chat history and media to iCloud on a daily basis.
While this backup is useful in case you ever need to restore your chats or transfer them to a new device, you may want to turn it off to save storage space or for privacy reasons. Luckily, it’s easy to stop WhatsApp from backing up on your iPhone.
Why Stop WhatsApp Backups?
Here are some common reasons you may want to disable WhatsApp backups on your iPhone:
- Save storage space – Backups can take up a significant amount of iCloud storage, especially if you send a lot of photos and videos.
- Privacy concerns – Backups contain your entire WhatsApp chat history. You may not want this data stored on iCloud servers.
- Prevent restoring old chats – When you restore from a backup, you also restore old chats you may have deleted. Disabling backup prevents this.
- Troubleshooting issues – Sometimes turning backups off then on again can help resolve backup problems.
How to Turn Off WhatsApp Backups on iPhone
It only takes a few taps to stop WhatsApp backups on your iPhone. Here are the steps:
- Open WhatsApp and tap Settings.
- Go to Chats > Chat Backup.
- Tap the switch next to Auto Backup so it turns off (gray).
That’s all there is to it! With auto backup disabled, your WhatsApp chats and media will no longer be backed up to iCloud.
Stopping iCloud Drive Backups
In addition to iCloud backups, WhatsApp may also back up your data to iCloud Drive. To disable this:
- Go to Settings > your name > iCloud.
- Scroll down and tap Manage Storage under iCloud Drive.
- Look for the WhatsApp folder, tap it and toggle off WhatsApp Backup.
What Happens When You Turn Off Backups?
When you turn off WhatsApp backups, here’s what happens:
- Your existing iCloud backups are kept and will not be deleted.
- No new backups are created when disabling auto backup.
- Chats and media are not backed up again until you re-enable backups.
- Your WhatsApp account and chats themselves remain intact on your iPhone.
So your chat history remains on your phone, it just stops being copied to iCloud. You can re-enable backups anytime to start backing up your latest WhatsApp data again.
How to Re-Enable WhatsApp Backups
If you change your mind later, re-enabling WhatsApp backups is easy:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
- Tap Chats > Chat Backup.
- Turn on the Auto Backup switch.
Once you toggle auto backup back on, WhatsApp will resume backing up your chats and media to iCloud on a daily basis.
Alternative Ways to Backup WhatsApp Data
Even with iCloud backup disabled, you have a few options to manually back up your WhatsApp history:
Back Up to Google Drive
Instead of using iCloud, you can choose to back up your WhatsApp chats to Google Drive. To do this:
- Open WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
- Tap Backup to Google Drive and follow the prompts.
- You can set how often backups occur (never, daily, weekly, etc).
Export Chat History
WhatsApp lets you export your chat history with any contact or group as a text file. To use this feature:
- Open a chat in WhatsApp.
- Tap More > Export Chat.
- Choose whether to include media and select a date range if desired.
- Tap Export and select the destination app or location to save the file.
iTunes or Finder Backup
When you connect your iPhone to a computer and do a backup in iTunes (Windows) or Finder (Mac), your WhatsApp data can be included. However, remember to encrypt your iTunes backups for privacy.
Tips for Securing Your WhatsApp Data
Here are some tips to keep your WhatsApp chats secure if you’re not backing up to iCloud:
- Enable encryption in WhatsApp settings for end-to-end security.
- Use a strong password/PIN to lock your iPhone.
- Manually back up important chats to another source like Google Drive.
- Export important chat history to store offline.
- Encrypt iTunes or Finder backups to protect copied WhatsApp data.
Conclusion
It’s quick and easy to disable WhatsApp backups on your iPhone. Simply go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Backup and toggle off Auto Backup. This prevents your chats and media from being copied to iCloud.
Remember that your existing backups are not deleted when you turn this off. You can re-enable auto backup anytime to resume copying your WhatsApp data to iCloud. Alternatively, you can manually back up chats to other sources like Google Drive or by exporting history.
I hope this guide has shown you how to easily stop WhatsApp backups on your iPhone if you need to save space, increase privacy or troubleshoot issues!