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I recently uninstalled and installed WhatsApp on my Samsung Galaxy S2, and it started to restore my chats. I'm fine with my chats but after being done with the chats, it automatically started to restore the old media too, which would cause my phone to download data of 2 GB.

I want to stop it, but I can't find how to stop it. It used to restore only messages before having the Google Drive backup.

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11 Answers 11

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7

So disconnecting WhatsApp from Google Drive didn't exactly work out because my chats were also in that Google Drive backup.

However, here is how I was successful in restoring only the chats. (No media).

  1. Install WhatsApp and verify the number.
  2. Make sure your data connection is active. WiFi should be OFF.
  3. Click on restore backup (Entire backup, including Media).
  4. It will restore the chats first.
  5. Then it prompts that the media will be downloaded over WiFi. Click yes (or next) and it takes you to your profile name and then you have all your chats.
  6. At this point, go to Google Drive and disconnect WhatsApp from the Setting - Manage apps. (Settings - Data and Privacy - Apps and Services - Apps with access to your account, Third-party apps with account access)
  7. Connect WiFi, or force it to try to resume with data.
  8. It would try to restore the media but it would fail.
  9. It would ask you if you want to skip it. Might have to try to dismiss the reconnect prompt first.
  10. Click skip.

There you go. Only chats were restored. No media. It will prompt that media won't be restored anymore. You can then reconnect aka relink the Google backup again in the WhatsApp settings.

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I'm having the same problem. So far, the only working solution that I discovered is to disconnect WhatsApp from your Google Drive (during the restoration).

In a browser, go to your Google Drive → Setting (the gear icon) → Manage Apps → look for WhatsApp Messenger → click Option next to it → click Disconnect From Drive.

The media restoration will stop.

If you don't want to restore your media, you don't need to use Google Drive. Disconnect WhatsApp from it (like shown above) before you begin to reinstall WhatsApp and it will restore your chat history (no media) from your local backup, which is located in ../WhatsApp/databases/ directory in your phone.

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2

Easy.

  1. Restore your WhatsApp as normal, also restoring the media.
  2. On PC, go to Google Drive > Backups > right-click on selected WhatsApp backup, and choose "Turn off backup". Google Drive will prompt you either to delete the backup file in the drive, but you may choose to cancel, so it stays there.
  3. Go to your phone and force stop WhatsApp.

Now the media restoring will show fail status.

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It's very simple and 100% working:

  1. Click Restore your messages and wait for loading all the messages
  2. After the chat has been loaded, turn off the internet connection. Restoring media will now pause.
  3. Go to Settings > Permissions > WhatsApp, and turn off the permission of storage.
  4. Open WhatsApp. It will tell you to set the permission on. You have to close that pop-up window.
  5. They will ask you to skip the restoration, and it skipped, but all messages will be loaded.

That's it.

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Open Google Drive on your phone. Gear button > Settings > Backups. There you'll find WhatsApp backup with the date mentioned. Tap on it and it shows details of the backup. Use the gear button beside it and delete that backup folder. That's it. Give your WhatsApp a force stop and open. You're done ✓

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  • Note: this answer might be outdated. Backups on Google Drive are now listed on Storage - Backups
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 8:54
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You could simply delete WhatsApp, then delete your Google account from your phone. So that when you install WhatsApp, it won't download the media but the chats only. Then link your account again and it won't download the media.

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Google Drive stores WhatsApp media backup files in hidden mode following this change in the Drive.

Delete or stop backups:

  1. Using a computer, go to https://drive.google.com.

  2. In the top right, click the gear icon > Settings.

  3. On the left, click Manage Apps.

  4. Find "WhatsApp" in the list. Note: If your backup is large, WhatsApp might take a few minutes to display.

  5. Click Options > Delete Hidden App Data.

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  • Note: this answer might be outdated. The current WhatsApp backup doesn't seem to have hidden app data anymore.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 8:51
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Go to Google settings app → Connected apps → check where WhatsApp is, then disconnect it.

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I think you should try to follow these steps;

  1. Uninstall WhatsApp.
  2. Download the APK from WhatsApp's official site.
  3. Sign out Google account from your phone.
  4. Install WhatsApp. Now, it may ask you to restore chats and media from the SD card.
  5. Click OK, you may get your chats and media restored, whichever is on your SD card.
  6. Done.
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    The question asks how to AVOID restoring Google Drive backup!!
    – Robin Green
    Commented Nov 8, 2022 at 9:28
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Delete the media after it has been restored. Media is located in WhatsApp\Media.

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  • 2
    I guess this could be helpful in most places, but from the question it looks like the problem is to avoid downloading 2 GB of data.
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 8:22
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First of all, don't open WhatsApp. Make your device's internal storage full. It will ask you to try again or cancel (automatic cancel).

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  • This doesn't seem practical for those who still have more than 10GB of free storage...
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2023 at 9:04

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