WhatsApp: Delete Messages Older Than 6 Months

Hear about WhatsApp auto delete messages features but don’t know how? Let this guide give you an detailed information as well as how you can make use of WhatsApp delete messages older than 6 months feature.

Demi by Demi Updated April 23, 2023
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Overviews of WhatsApp delete messages older than 6 months

WhatsApp enables a feature that can delete messages, photos, and videos from its servers that are older than 6 months, which is necessary to free up space on its servers and ensure that you can have the best possible experience when using the WhatsApp app.

WhatsApp icon

With this feature, all the WhatsApp messages, photos, or videos that are old than 6 months and have not been backed up to your device or cloud storage, and they will be permanently deleted from WhatsApp servers.

In this article, we will explain how to make use of the feature WhatsApp delete message older than 6 months on iPhone and Android phone, as well as something you may concern about it. Let’s get started.

How to use WhatsApp delete messages older than 6 months

It saves time to enable WhatsApp delete messages elder than 6 month feature. Once it is enabled, all messages older than 6 months will be automatically deleted from your chats. This can assist in keeping your chat history well-organized and preventing clutter from accumulating.

It’s worth to be noted that once the messages are deleted, it can be hard to get them retrieved. Therefore, before deleting any messages, ensure you want to eliminate them or backup WhatsApp messages just in case.

How to enable WhatsApp delete messages older than 6 months
This feature can be enabled by going to Settings > Storage and data > Manage storage > Settings (gear icon) > Storage settings > Delete messages older than 6 months.

This feature can also help you quickly delete chat histories that are less than six months old if you wonder how to delete WhatsApp messages for everyone after a long time. What you need to do is just follow these steps to set the time on your Android phone or iPhone.

WhatsApp delete old messages on iPhone
Step 1. Get to the message that you’d like to delete and note down the time and date when it was sent.

Step 2. Quit the WhatsApp > Turn off the cellular data. If your iPhone is attached with a wireless connection, then turn on the airplane mode.

Step 3. Go to iPhone Settings > General > Tap Date & Time.

Date & Time

Step 4. Manually change and set the date and time before the time of the old WhatsApp messages.

Step 5 Finally, select the messages that need to be deleted and click on Delete For Everyone.

delete for everyone

When successfully deleting unwanted old messages, you can revert Date & Time changes back to Set automatically and use Wi-Fi or your cellular data.

WhatsApp delete old messages on Android
Step 1. Check the date and time of the old message to be deleted, and quit the WhatsApp app.

Step 2. From the Control Center of your Android phone, disable roaming as well as mobile data, and activate the Airplane mode.

Step 3. Go to the Android Settings > Locate and tap Date & time > Disable Automatic date & time and select a time before the message was sent.

disable set time automatically

Step 4. Back to WhatsApp > Tap and hold the message you want to delete > Tap Trash icon > Choose DELETE FOR EVERYONE.

Delete for everyone Android

FAQs about WhatsApp old messages

You may have other concerns about WhatsApp and WhatsApp delete messages feature. And some of the frequently asked questions are listed below.

Q1. How to delete WhatsApp messages for everyone after delete for me?
After selecting the Delete for Me option, you will have 5 seconds to undo this action. Tap Undo to re-display the messages in your conversation. Then you can choose Delete for Everyone option.

Instead, you may recover the messages from a backup or use a WhatsApp recovery app to restore the messages before deleting them for everyone.

Q2. Does the delete WhatsApp chat feature delete messages for all user?
Only your WhatsApp messages on your phone will be erased. Messages received on the receiver’s mobile phone will be preserved.

Only if you delete WhatsApp messages for everyone will they be removed from both phones. You may also remove all previous WhatsApp messages.

Q3. How can you delete all chats on WhatsApp at a time?
If you want to delete all chats on WhatsApp at a time, just go to WhatsApp Settings > Choose Chats > Tap Clear/Delete All Chats.

clear all chats

Bonus: Backup WhatsApp messages in advance 

Just in case, it can be a tricky thing to do if you find out you've lost some information that you still need. You just need to back up WhatsApp in advance to avoid any possibility of important data loss.

You can use a simple and professional WhatsApp backup tool - FoneTool., which enables you to backup many kinds of WhatsApp data to computer, including messages, videos, photos, call logs, etc. Even support backing up all iPhone data without limiting storage space.

Step 1. Download, install and launch FoneTool> Connect your phone to computer with USB cable. Click WhatsApp Manager > Backup WhatsApp > Get Started.

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Secure Download

Backup WhasApp

Step 2. Enable backup encryption and enter the password code,  and then click Start Backup.

Start Backup WhatsApp

Step 3. When the backing up is complete, you can click View to check your WhatsApp backup files.

FoneTool backup done

Conclusion

That’s all for WhatsApp delete messages older than 6 months. Hope you will know how to delete old WhatsApp messages in a simple and quick way now.

Please don’t forget to regularly backup your WhatsApp chats so that you won’t lose anything important. For more queries or feedback, please feel free to contact us.

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