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This answer explains how to save your chat on google drive and recently I got that option on WhatsApp. It says the backup will be stored on Drive as well as on my sd card, ok fine.

When I started my Google drive backup even it showed Backing up 110MB but I don't want to backup the whatsapp media (I just want to backup the text messages). Even if I backup entire 110MB to Drive and delete all my media and text messages (to clear up the space consumed by whatsapp), what will happen on next backup? Will it overwrite the last backup and substitute a new backup consisting of nothing?

I got to know that there is some third party apps like Helium which can do this work. But is there something I can do without consuming more of my phone memory?

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  • Well, this isn't 1 question, it is a barrage of questions. Which do you want us to answer? Hint: Make sure it's the most important one. On this site, you have higher chance of getting your question answered if you ask them one at a time.
    – Tamoghna Chowdhury
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 6:55
  • Say I backup chats (through Drive) consisting of 10k messages, then delete all my whatsapp content (to free up the space) and after a time I need to backup my new 1k messages. After I backup, what will happen? The backup will contain 11k messages or 1k?
    – Ritwik
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 11:35

2 Answers 2

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WhatsApp automatically makes backups every day at 3 AM and stores them in the WhatsApp folder of your Android phone. This folder is either located in your device's internal memory or external SD card. You can set the automatic backup in WhatsApp or manually use the "Back up chats" option in Whatsapp Settings,

  Whatsapp > Settings > Chats and calls > Backup up chats

This will store a backup file(usually named msgstore.db.crypt8) in your Main storage > Whatsapp > Databases directory which includes only the text messages in an encrypted format.

For individual export of chat messages without including media, as mentioned in the Whatsapp FAQ:

To export a copy of the history of an individual chat or group, use the Email chat feature:

  1. Tap and hold on the conversation or group.
  2. Select Email chat.
  3. Choose whether to Attach Media or not.

An email will be composed with your chat history attached as a .txt document.

Note:

  • If you choose to attach media, the most recent media sent will be added as attachments.
  • When sending with media, you can send up to 10,000 latest messages. Without media, you can send 40,000 messages. These constraints are due to maximum email sizes.

Backup_w_w/o_media_Whatsapp

You can now keep this backup in your mail or download it to your phone for later use. If you want to restore the messages, read this article, How do I restore my messages? for more information.

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  • How can I restore the conversation which I emailed to myself? (in that .txt format)
    – Ritwik
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 11:53
  • @Ritwik I've searched for it and found that there's no official source which say how to do that. As one needs to reinstall Whatsapp and have the backup files in crypt8 format in the Databases directory, I can't check that for now to assist you.
    – Lucky
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 12:26
  • You can try moving your Whatsapp media to a computer, and then backup normally using Whatsapp as it will only take a backup of the available text messages. And once you restore it will restore the text message. Once restored you can move back your Media to the appropriate Whatsapp directories.
    – Lucky
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 12:31
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Simple rename Whatsapp>Media folder to any other name. After backup rename it back. You may lose the media files, which whatsapp get until back renaming. Therefore look in new Media folder created in Whatsapp folder, and move they into old folder.

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