According to Bloomberg, WhatsApp’s popularity is due to the vast social infrastructure built around the world in recent years. As it happens, a considerable number of people have this app installed. So if one person needs to communicate with another person over the Internet, they will most likely find each other on WhatsApp.
It turns out that WhatsApp’s popularity is essentially looped – the more popular it is, the more popular it is. The same works with the online casino for real cash. The more people use it, the more other users will install it.
Some WhatsApp users who are overly concerned about the privacy of conversations in this messenger delete messages shortly after sending them. You can delete WhatsApp messages both in personal statements and in group chats using the “Delete for all” feature.
If desired, the user can also set up automatic deletion of messages after a specific time after sending (hour, day, week, and so on). An icon will appear in place of an erased message to notify you that it’s been deleted.
Many people think restoring correspondence after deletion is impossible, and that’s almost always true. However, there are several ways to read messages – they may be stored, for example, in backups and other places. So let’s talk about all known methods to recover deleted messages.
Is it possible to see deleted messages on WhatsApp?
To put it very briefly, you can. For example, you can study notifications or try to recover data from a backup. Let’s consider each method in more detail.
Backup – a valuable thing to recover messages
A backup of all WhatsApp correspondence is stored in cloud storage (Apple iCloud for iOS device users and Google Drive for owners of Android smartphones and tablets). Synchronization of data, i.e., downloading the most recent version of correspondence with all changes (including new messages sent, deleted, etc.), is carried out by the settings in the WhatsApp application itself.
The user can back up chats daily, weekly, or monthly – it’s enough to specify once in the settings, then the whole process will be done automatically. Usually, the backup starts around 2 a.m. local time.
Backup can also be disabled, but if you change the device, you will not be able to restore correspondence from the “cloud,” and all chats will be empty.
Reinstalling the application
It is the first way to recover data. Below are the detailed steps for its implementation:
Uninstall WhatsApp from your Android or iOS smartphone.
Go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and reinstall WhatsApp.
Enter the same phone number that you used before, and then enter the password that comes in the text message.
You will then have the opportunity to restore deleted messages from a backup copy (it must be created beforehand and in advance). WhatsApp itself will offer to start the procedure of restoring the correspondence.
After downloading chats from the cloud copy, all the messages saved during the last synchronization will be downloaded to your smartphone. Messages whose deletion information has not yet been backed up will be automatically restored. If the backup were created after you deleted the messages, you wouldn’t be able to restore them this way. And if the login information is forgotten and access to the account is denied, it might be necessary for users to hack their WhatsApp account and try the process of message recovery once it has been opened.
Using the notification history
Viewing deleted messages through the notification history works on Android and iOS devices. How does it work?
Swipe down from the top edge of the screen to open the notifications and toggle bar.
Among the notifications, find those related to the WhatsApp messenger – marked with the corresponding “trademark” icon in green with an image of a telephone handset.
Click on any of them and then hold down to open the preview window built into the system. If it doesn’t, you need to set the appropriate option in Android through the “Settings – Notifications” menu.
You can see the messages in the preview window that opens, even if the sender has deleted them. But it’s worth remembering that you can’t just tap on a message and then remove your finger from the screen – then the WhatsApp app will open, which will no longer have the messages you want (because they have already been deleted), and the notifications may automatically disappear.
Restore via local storage
The third way only works on Android. So what do you need to do about this?
Open the WhatsApp settings and go to the “Database” section. You will find copies of chats created locally and ready to be uploaded to the cloud storage.
Find the file named msgstore.DB.crypt12. The file contains the most up-to-date correspondence information not yet uploaded to the cloud.
Click and hold on to it to change its name (this function will appear in the open menu).
Change the filename to msgstore_backup.DB.crypt12. This way, you will turn on the overwrite protection.
Find the latest backup file (msgstore22-06-2022.1.db.crypr12 for example) and change its name to msgstore.DB.crypt12. It is to replace the latest version with a slightly outdated version which still contains messages that have been deleted.
Open the Google Drive app and find the “Backups” section in the top menu, which opens by clicking on the icon with three lines.
Delete the WhatsApp backup from the cloud storage.
Uninstall the WhatsApp app itself and download it again from the Google Play Store. After that, log in and restore chats from the local copy (there will be no such copy in the Google cloud).
The method works on Android. How to use it?
Open the Google Play Store directory, find the WhatsRemoved+ app, and install it.
Launch WhatsRemoved+ and allow it to access notifications the first time you launch it.
After that, you can read deleted messages – the app will “intercept” them from the notifications section and copy them. Necessary clarification: only those deleted messages that were sent (and deleted) after WhatsRemoved+ was installed can be read.
It is also worth remembering that such applications may carry certain security risks. For example, it is known that notifications may also contain personal information. At the same time, there is no firm guarantee that WhatsRemoved+ and other similar tools do not copy it to themselves as well.
Notisave is an application similar to WhatsRemoved+ and works on a similar principle.
What should you do if you accidentally delete a message just for yourself?
If this message contains important information, you can use the first method, which involves reinstalling WhatsApp. If the most current correspondence version has not yet had time to send to the cloud, you can download a previous version from Apple iCloud or Google Drive, where the messages may have remained.
Even if you or the interlocutor have deleted an essential part of the correspondence, do not despair. Often erased messages can either be recovered or at least see their contents. Try our methods to see if you can read what might have been lost forever.
