How to Recover Deleted WhatsApp Documents on iPhone/Android

WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app in the world because of its convenience when it comes to communication. We can not only send messages but also pictures, videos, documents, PDFs, TXT, etc. In addition, it also offers they way to back up WhatsApp to ensure data safety.

When you accidentally lose documents, how to get them back? Well, if you have backed up your WhatsApp in advance, then you can simply restore the backup that contains the documents you need. However, what if there is no available backup? How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents without backup?

Fortunately, whether you have a backup or not, there are ways to help you retrieve lost documents. Read on to see how to recover deleted WhatsApp documents on iPhone and Android phone.

• Part 1. How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents on iPhone
• Part 2. How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents on Android
• Part 3. How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents without backup

Part 1. How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents on iPhone

On an iPhone, WhatsApp backup is connected to iCloud. You can check if you have a backup by going to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup. You can infer whether the backup contains the files you need based on when the backup was completed.

If there is a backup you need, then you can uninstall and install the WhatsApp app to restore that backup. But if there is no backup, please do not uninstall your WhatsApp, otherwise, you will lose all existing data. See how to recover deleted WhatsApp documents from iCloud.

1. Delete and install WhatsApp on your iPhone.

2. Open WhatsApp > Enter your phone number to verify your account.

3. Choose Restore Chat History and wait for the process to complete.

★Tips:

Make sure that you have signed in with the Apple ID you use to create the WhatsApp backup.

You must have at least 2.05 times more free space in your iCloud account and on your phone than the size of the backup.

Part 2. How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents on Android

On an Android phone, WhatsApp backup is connected to Google Drive. You can open Google Drive to check your WhatsApp backup files. But actually, WhatsApp will also create a local backup every day at 2:00 AM. That’s to say, you can choose to recover deleted WhatsApp documents from Google Drive or internal storage.

Way 1. Recover deleted WhatsApp documents from Google Drive

If you have backed up your WhatsApp with Google, see how to recover deleted documents from WhatsApp via Google Drive.

1. Reinstall WhatsApp on your phone.

2. When asked, enter your phone number to verify your account.

3. Tap Restore and wait for the recovery to be completed.

Way 2. Recover deleted WhatsApp documents from internal storage

Your phone will save backup files for the past 7 days. You can open the file manager app and navigate to Internal Storage > WhatsApp > Databases to view the backup files. If there is no file manager app on your phone, you can go to the Store to download one.

When WhatsApp can't find a backup on Google, it restores a local backup. In addition, it will restore the latest backup. If you want to restore a previous one, you can delete the date and number in the name. In short, WhatsApp will restore a file named msgstore.db.crypt12.

Here are the steps about how to recover deleted documents from WhatsApp via local backup.

1. Go to Google Drive and delete WhatsApp backup files.

2. Reinstall WhatsApp on your phone.

3. Open WhatsApp and verify your number.

4. Choose Restore to confirm.

Part 3. How to recover deleted WhatsApp documents without backup

When there is no backup, you can rely on a data recovery tool to get back deleted WhatsApp documents. iMyFone ChatsBack is recommended here. This tool will deeply scan your phone to find all deleted files in WhatsApp.

Key features

• Recover lost WhatsApp files from iPhone and Android phone.
• You can preview and then select the files you want to recover.
• Recover lost documents to phone or export them to computer.
• Retrieve WhatsApp data to PC as HTML/PDF/Excel/CSV files.

Let’s see how to recover deleted WhatsApp documents without backup.

1. Launch the tool > Connect your phone to computer via the USB cable > Choose Device Storage and go to Recover WhatsApp Data.

2. For iPhone: Select WhatsApp Messager and click OK to start. For Android phone: Select Start and enter your phone number to verify your account.

3. When the scanning is complete, you can go to WhatsApp Chats or WhatsApp Attachments to find the documents you need > Select the documents and recover them to phone or PC.

Final words

That’s all about how to recover deleted WhatsApp documents. If the backup contains the documents you need, then you can reinstall WhatsApp to restore the backup to get them back. If there is no backup available, you can rely on WhatsApp data recovery tool to scan your phone and find the deleted documents.

PS: We'll never know when data will be lost. To ensure data security, you can export WhatsApp chat from iPhone to PC as backup.