WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, with over 2 billion users. Many Samsung device owners use WhatsApp daily to communicate with friends, family, colleagues, and more. An essential feature of WhatsApp is the ability to back up your chat history, media, and other data. This allows you to restore your chats if you ever switch phones, reinstall the app, or lose your device. But where exactly does WhatsApp store your backup data if you’re using a Samsung phone? In this article, we’ll explain the details of how and where WhatsApp backs up data on Samsung devices.
WhatsApp Backup Overview
WhatsApp gives users two main options for backing up their data:
- Back up to Google Drive (for Android users)
- Back up locally to the phone’s storage
Backing up to Google Drive allows your chat history, photos, videos and other data to be stored securely online. This makes it easy to restore your backup if you get a new device or reinstall WhatsApp. The backup happens automatically from time to time, or whenever you manually tell WhatsApp to back up.
Backing up locally stores your WhatsApp data on your phone’s internal storage. This doesn’t give you cloud backup capabilities, but can be useful if you don’t have much Google Drive storage space available. Local backups happen on a regular schedule or when manually triggered.
On Samsung devices specifically, there is also an option to back up your data to your Samsung Cloud storage. This provides a backup destination that’s integrated with your Samsung account.
Where WhatsApp Backups are Stored on Samsung Phones
Now let’s look at the specifics of where your WhatsApp data is stored when you use the backup features on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet:
Google Drive Backup
If you select Google Drive as your backup option in WhatsApp, your backup data gets saved to your linked Google Drive account. Within Google Drive, it will be located in a folder called WhatsApp. This folder may also contain backups from WhatsApp on your other devices.
The advantage here is that your chats and media get stored securely online. Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage, so you get a good amount of backup capacity before needing to pay for more space.
One thing to keep in mind is that your WhatsApp backup on Google Drive does count towards your overall Google Drive storage quota. So if you already store lots of other files in Google Drive, the backups may fill up your available free space quicker.
Local Storage Backup
If local storage backup is enabled, your WhatsApp data will be saved to a folder on your Samsung device’s built-in storage. The exact location it’s saved will depend on your specific model.
But in general, you should find your local WhatsApp backups in one of these folders:
- /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases
- /storage/emulated/0/WhatsApp/Databases
The WhatsApp folder here will contain a file called msgstore.db.crypt12. This database file stores all your chats, media attachments, settings and other WhatsApp data from your backup.
The advantage of using local storage is that you don’t need an internet connection for backups and you aren’t limited by cloud storage quotas. But the disadvantage is that your backups only exist on that one device.
Samsung Cloud Backup
Many newer Samsung devices give you the option to back up your WhatsApp data directly to Samsung Cloud. This is Samsung’s own cloud storage service linked to your Samsung account. It provides 15GB of free storage for backups from supported apps.
To set up Samsung Cloud backup, go into WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat backup and select “Back up to Samsung Cloud”. This will store your backup data in your Samsung Cloud storage allotment.
An advantage here is that Samsung Cloud integrates seamlessly with your Samsung device and account. But a disadvantage is that you only get 15GB of space, so large backups may quickly eat up your storage.
How to Find Your WhatsApp Backups on Samsung Phones
Here are some step-by-step instructions to locate your existing WhatsApp backups on your Samsung device:
Find Google Drive Backups
1. Open the Google Drive app on your Samsung phone.
2. Look for the WhatsApp folder. This is where your backup files are stored.
3. Open the WhatsApp folder to view your chat history and media files stored in your backup.
Find Local Storage Backups
1. Launch the My Files or File Manager app on your Samsung device.
2. Navigate to the WhatsApp/Databases folder on your phone’s storage:
– /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases
– /storage/emulated/0/WhatsApp/Databases
3. Open the msgstore.db.crypt12 file to access your locally stored WhatsApp backup.
Find Samsung Cloud Backups
1. Open the Settings app on your Samsung device.
2. Go to Accounts and backup > Samsung Cloud.
3. Select the Back up data button to view files backed up to the cloud.
4. Look for the WhatsApp backup files in the list.
How to Transfer WhatsApp Backups to a New Phone
When you get a new Samsung phone and want to transfer your WhatsApp data, here are some tips:
Transfer Google Drive Backup
1. Install WhatsApp on your new phone.
2. Verify your phone number.
3. On the Backup screen, select Restore from Google Drive.
4. Sign into your Google account containing your WhatsApp backup.
5. Wait for your chats, media, settings etc to be restored.
Transfer Local Backup
1. Copy the msgstore.db.crypt12 file from your old phone to your new phone.
2. Install WhatsApp and verify your number on the new device.
3. On the WhatsApp Restore screen, select Restore from internal storage.
4. Select the backup file copied from your old phone.
5. Tap Restore to load your chats, media, and settings.
Transfer Samsung Cloud Backup
1. On your new phone, install WhatsApp and verify your number.
2. Go to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
3. Tap Restore and select Restore from Samsung Cloud.
4. Sign into your Samsung account containing the WhatsApp backup.
5. Allow time for your backup data to be downloaded from the cloud.
How to Delete WhatsApp Backups on Samsung Phones
If you need to delete your WhatsApp backups to free up storage space, here is how to do it:
Delete Google Drive Backups
1. Open the Google Drive app.
2. Locate and open the WhatsApp backup folder.
3. Tap the 3-dot menu in the top right.
4. Select Delete.
5. Confirm deletion in the pop-up prompt.
Delete Local Storage Backups
1. Open My Files or File Manager on your Samsung device.
2. Navigate to the WhatsApp/Databases folder.
3. Long press on the msgstore.db.crypt12 file.
4. Select Delete from the menu.
Delete Samsung Cloud Backups
1. Open the Settings app on your Samsung device.
2. Go to Accounts and backup > Samsung Cloud > Back up data.
3. Locate the WhatsApp backup files.
4. Tap the 3-dot menu next to them and select Delete.
This will completely remove your WhatsApp backup data from the respective storage location. You can then create fresh backups if needed.
Conclusion
To summarize, WhatsApp on Samsung phones gives you multiple backup options:
– Back up to Google Drive – Stores in your Google Drive cloud storage
– Back up locally – Stores in WhatsApp/Databases folder on your device
– Back up to Samsung Cloud – Stores in your Samsung Cloud account (if supported)
Carefully manage your backups by periodically creating new ones and deleting old ones you no longer need. This will ensure you always have a copy of your precious WhatsApp data!