WhatsApp offers users the ability to backup their chat history on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The “daily” chat backup setting means that WhatsApp will automatically backup your chats every 24 hours. This ensures your chat history and media are regularly saved and synced to your Google Drive or iCloud storage.
How does daily WhatsApp chat backup work?
When you enable daily backups in WhatsApp, the app will automatically backup your chats once every calendar day. The time of day this happens can vary, but it’s typically overnight when your phone is idle, charging, and connected to WiFi.
During the daily backup, WhatsApp will save your chat history including text messages, photos, videos, and other media. It does this by uploading a copy of your WhatsApp data from your phone to your linked cloud storage account (Google Drive for Android, iCloud for iOS).
The backup includes your messages, media files, and settings. It does not include your call history. Anything you delete from WhatsApp before the daily backup will not be included in the backup. The backup also does not include WhatsApp databases like your contact list, as this exists on your phone’s internal storage.
What gets backed up daily?
Here are the key items that get backed up in your daily WhatsApp backup:
- Text messages and chat history
- Photos, videos, and other media files you sent or received
- WhatsApp settings like your profile name and “about” description
- Group names and descriptions (but not the participants)
The following items are NOT included in your daily backup:
- Your WhatsApp call history
- The contact names and numbers in your WhatsApp address book
- WhatsApp databases like your blocklist
Where are daily backups stored?
WhatsApp saves your daily chat backups to your linked cloud storage account. This is either Google Drive (for Android users) or iCloud (for iOS users).
The backups do not count against your Google Drive or iCloud storage limits. WhatsApp provides free unlimited storage for your backups as long as you remain an active WhatsApp user.
On Android, your daily backups are saved in Google Drive under WhatsApp > Backups. On iOS, they are saved in iCloud Drive under WhatsApp.
How much data do daily backups use?
The size of your daily WhatsApp backups depends on how much media and messages you exchange on the app. Typically, daily backups are between 10MB to 100MB in size.
If you send a lot of photos and videos, your backups may be larger, sometimes up to 1GB. Even very large backups won’t count against your Google Drive or iCloud storage quota.
When does the daily backup happen?
WhatsApp tries to schedule your daily backup to happen overnight when your phone is idle, charging, and connected to WiFi. However, the exact time can vary.
On Android, WhatsApp will backup around 2-6am. On iOS, it’s around 3-4am. If your phone isn’t ideal for backup at that time, WhatsApp will reschedule for another time later in the day.
You’ll get a notification when your daily backup has completed successfully. If it keeps failing, check your internet connection and storage settings.
Why is daily WhatsApp backup useful?
Here are some of the benefits of enabling daily WhatsApp chat backups:
- Ensures you have a fresh backup of your chats every day
- Protects against losing your chat history if you lose your phone
- Allows you to restore your chats easily when changing phones
- Frees up storage space on your phone as chats are offloaded to the cloud
For maximum protection, it’s recommended to use daily backups rather than weekly or monthly. This gives you multiple backup points in case a particular backup fails.
How to enable daily WhatsApp backups
Enabling daily WhatsApp backups is easy and just takes a few steps:
On Android
- Open WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat backup
- Tap Back up to Google Drive
- Select Daily backup option
On iPhone
- Open WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Backup
- Tap Auto-backup
- Select Daily option
That’s it! WhatsApp will now backup your chats to the cloud automatically every day. Make sure you have an active internet connection for the backups to complete.
How to restore chats from daily backup
If you get a new phone, or need to restore your chat history for any reason, restoring from a daily WhatsApp backup is easy:
On Android
- Install and open WhatsApp on your new device
- Enter your phone number when prompted
- Tap Restore when prompted to restore chats and media from Google Drive backup
On iPhone
- Install and open WhatsApp on your new iPhone
- Enter your phone number when prompted
- Tap Restore when prompted to restore chats and media from iCloud backup
Your daily chat history will be retrieved from the cloud and restored onto your new device. The most recent backup will be used.
How to delete old daily WhatsApp backups
Over time, your WhatsApp backups can take up a considerable amount of storage space in Google Drive or iCloud. Here’s how to delete old backups you no longer need:
On Android
- Open your Google Drive account on the web
- Go to the WhatsApp chat backups folder
- Select unwanted backups and click Delete
On iPhone
- Open your iCloud account on the web
- Go to Manage Storage > Backups > Chat Backups
- Select unwanted WhatsApp backups and click Delete
It’s a good idea to occasionally clear out old WhatsApp backups this way. Make sure you don’t delete backups you may still need to restore from.
Troubleshooting daily WhatsApp backups
Daily WhatsApp backups won’t work properly if you have connectivity or storage issues. Here are some troubleshooting tips:
- Check your internet connection is working before backups
- Connect phone to WiFi for more reliable overnight backups
- Ensure you have enough free storage space in Google Drive/iCloud
- Manually trigger backup if it keeps failing overnight
- Clear old backups to free up space for new backups
If your backup size is consistently large, consider changing relevant settings to reduce the amount of media being backed up.
Key takeaways
- Daily WhatsApp backup saves your latest chats to Google Drive or iCloud once every 24 hours
- It backs up messages, media files, and settings, but not your contacts or call history
- Backups typically happen overnight when your phone is idle and on WiFi
- Enabling daily backup provides maximum protection against losing your chat history
- You can easily restore chats when changing phones or reinstalling WhatsApp
Conclusion
Daily WhatsApp backups give you a great way to safeguard your chat history. Just remember to keep backups enabled, connect to WiFi for reliable overnight backups, and occasionally prune old backups you don’t need.
With daily backups set up properly, you can have total peace of mind that your conversation history is protected. Never lose an important chat again!