How to Backup WhatsApp to SD Card on Android Phone
Want to backup WhatsApp to SD card? This guide will tell you how to backup WhatsApp messages to SD card and how to restore WhatsApp backup from SD card.
Want to backup WhatsApp to SD card?
If you use WhatsApp a lot, there may be a lot of important files. To make sure you don't lose them, it’s a good choice to back up WhatsApp regularly. By default, WhatsApp will be backed up to Google Drive. However, Google Drive only offers 15GB of free storage space. In addition, Google Drive requires Internet connection to backup WhatsApp. What if there is no Internet connection? In these cases, you may want to know how to backup WhatsApp messages to SD card.
Can you backup WhatsApp to SD card?
The answer is YES! You can set it to backup WhatsApp to SD card. Let’s learn more about WhatsApp backup rules.
📍 In general, WhatsApp will back up to your Google Drive. You can check the backup in your drive under Backups. This is usually the first choice when you want to perform a restore.
📍 In addition, WhatsApp will also make a local backup every day. The backup files will be saved on the SD card. If there is no SD card, then the backup file will be saved to the internal storage of your phone. When Google Drive backup is unavailable, then WhatsApp will use the local backup for a restore.
In short, as long as you have an SD card inserted and have enough space for backup, then you can backup WhatsApp data to SD card.
How to backup WhatsApp to SD card
WhatsApp will always try to back up to Google Drive first. If you want to backup WhatsApp to SD card, you disable this preference. After that, you can force a lock backup.
Step 1. Disable WhatsApp backup to Google Drive
- Open WhatsApp > Tap the three-dots icon > Choose Settings > Choose Chats.
- On the Chats screen, tap Chat backup and then tap Back up to Google Drive.
- On the pop-up menu, choose Never.
Step 2. Backup WhatsApp to SD card
Go to the Chat backup screen > Tap BACK UP to backup WhatsApp to SD card immediately.
How to find WhatsApp backup in SD card?
If you want to copy the backup file to other places, you can go to the file explorer app to find it.
- Open My Files/Files/File Explorer app.
- On My Files screen, choose SD card.
- Choose WhatsApp > Tap Databases and then you will see your backup files. The previous backup files will feature the backup date in their names.
You can download a file management utility from the store. You can also connect your phone to computer > Go to This PC > Open your phone > copy the backup files to other place.
How to restore WhatsApp backup from SD card
Usually, WhatsApp will try to restore your data from Google Drive. When there is no backup available in the cloud, WhatsApp will check the local storage to find a lock backup. So after you have backed up WhatsApp to SD card, you can easily restore the backup on your current device or on another device.
1. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp on your phone.
2. Open WhatsApp > Enter your phone number to verify your account.
3. After that, WhatsApp will searh the backup > Tap RESTORE button.
If you want to restore the backup to your new phone, here are the steps.
- Take out the SD card and insert it to your new phone.
- Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
- Open WhatsApp > After verification, tap RESTORE button.
Can you move WhatsApp to SD card?
WhatsApp can take up a lot of internal space of your phone. Can you move WhatsApp to SD card to free up space and improve your phone's performance? The answer is No.
You can only set SD card as the default storage of WhatsApp on a rooted phone but there are some workarounds: move images, videos or the entire Meida folder to SD card. For more details, you can refer to this guide: How to move WhatsApp photos to SD card.
Final words
That’s all about how to backup WhatsApp to SD card. By default, WhatsApp uses Google Drive to backup and restore your data. If you don’t like this, you can disable the backup to Google Drive feature and force WhatsApp backup your data to SD card.
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Lena is an editor of FoneTool, she covers backup & restore,hard disk & partitions management and cloud files transfer and so on. She enjoys helping people find solutions to their problems. She loves traveling, eating, reading and so on. She takes most of time with her family when she is not working.
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