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I recently changed smartphones from an unknown to Samsung, and I've lost my WhatsApp conversations. I want them on the new phone. I have reinstalled it on the new phone, and the msgstore.db.crypt files are there, but WhatsApp does not read the older conversations back.

What I would like to do is have WhatsApp appear as an unbroken list of chats so that the date that I changed phones is not apparent in the list of chats.

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3 Answers 3

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In case you didn't come right, I had the same issue. Uninstall Whatsapp from the NEW phone (start blank) Copy the /Whatsapp folder from your SD card to the new phone (I had to do this because Whatsapp on my new phone was installed to the INTERNAL card, not the SD card, so the upgrade didn't find the old store) I also copied the android/data/com.whatsapp folder for good luck Install Whatsapp on the new phone. After account creation, it should detect the old messages and restore them.

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  • Worked for me, I didn't copy the android/data/com.whatsapp (the modification times of files and directories inside were quite old anyway)
    – golimar
    Commented Jan 25, 2015 at 15:37
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Yes. WhatsApp Messenger offers backup and restore options. You can backup your chats to an encryted file(now *.db.crypt5) or restore chats from backup file back to your android. But restoring history from a backup would wipe your current chats with those in the backup.

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If you want to install Whatsapp on a new phone, you have to make a backup on the old phone, then copy the Whatsapp directory on the new phone, install Whatsapp and when prompted choose to recover from existing backup.

When you start the app for the first time the directory with the backup must already be there, otherwise you won't be prompted to recover.

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  • I can't do that. I have transferred the SD card in question to the new phone already. The old phone is working as a tablet, without a SIM card. I put in a new, smaller SD card. Before doing all this, I had backed up everything on my phone (I thought) using the backup function in settings. But I don't think whatsapp was backed up that way. I do have all the encrypted msgstore files both from the old phone and my new one. Is there a way out of this mess?
    – mhguda
    Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 22:02
  • In Whatsapp there's a function to backup your conversations, something like Settings->Chat->Backup, it creates a backup either on the sd card or on the internal memory. You will have to copy the directory "Whatsapp" on the new phone and start the app. Remove and reinstall Whatsapp if you already started it before. If you start the app for the first time and it founds a backup directory on the phone, it will prompt you to restore the backup Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 22:07
  • OKIfound the backup function in whatsapp. But it's not clear to me what you are suggesting I do. Should I make a backup now, of the new chats, and will that add the older chats that are in the whatsapp folder on the internal sdcard (the phone won't let me install to the external card)? So that when I remove and reinstall whatsapp, all my chats will be there? To make my confuson clear, I found several msgstore.d.crypt files in the whatsapp folder. I copied them to the internal whatsapp folder hoping whatsapp would open them and add them to the listed chats, but that did not happen.
    – mhguda
    Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 22:49
  • Do you still have the old conversations on the old phone? Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 22:51
  • No but I guess I could put them back. One problem is that I cannot activate whatsapp there, I had to cut the SIM and it no longer fits in the old phone. Could I run a backup without activating whatsapp?
    – mhguda
    Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 22:55

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