How To Restore WhatsApp Messages On Your Samsung Phone (2026 Guide)

Lost WhatsApp messages on your Samsung Galaxy phone? Whether you accidentally deleted a conversation, factory reset your device, or switched to a new Galaxy, there are several ways to get your chats back. This guide covers every restore method available in 2026 — from Google Drive backups to local database files — with Samsung-specific steps and troubleshooting for when things go wrong.

How WhatsApp Backups Work on Samsung Phones

Before jumping into restore methods, it helps to understand how WhatsApp stores your data on Samsung Galaxy devices. WhatsApp uses two backup systems simultaneously: cloud backups to Google Drive and automatic local backups saved to your phone’s internal storage.

Google Drive backups are the primary method for most Samsung users. When enabled, WhatsApp uploads your chat history, media, and settings to your linked Google account. These backups can be configured to run daily, weekly, or monthly through WhatsApp → Settings → Chats → Chat backup.

Local backups happen automatically every day at 2:00 AM, regardless of your Google Drive settings. WhatsApp saves these files to your phone’s internal storage in the WhatsApp/Databases folder, and it keeps the last seven days of local backups. These local files use encrypted database formats (currently .crypt14 or .crypt15) and serve as a fallback if your Google Drive backup fails or is unavailable.

One important detail: Google reserves the right to delete WhatsApp backup data from Google Drive if the backup hasn’t been updated in five months. If you turned off auto-backup a while ago, your cloud backup may no longer exist.

Method 1: Restore From Google Drive Backup (Most Common)

This is the standard restore method and works when switching Samsung phones, after a factory reset, or after reinstalling WhatsApp. Here is how to do it:

Step 1. Make sure you are signed into the same Google account that was used to create the backup. Check this at Settings → Accounts and backup → Manage accounts on your Samsung phone.

Step 2. Uninstall WhatsApp from your Samsung phone. Long-press the WhatsApp icon, tap Uninstall, and confirm.

Step 3. Reinstall WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.

Step 4. Open WhatsApp and verify your phone number. You must use the same phone number that was linked to the backup — WhatsApp backups are tied to specific phone numbers.

Step 5. When WhatsApp detects a Google Drive backup, you will see a “Restore” prompt. Tap Restore to begin downloading your chat history.

Step 6. Wait for the restore to complete. Depending on the size of your backup and your internet speed, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour for large chat histories with lots of media.

Step 7. After the restore finishes, tap Next. WhatsApp will begin downloading your media files in the background.

Important: If you enabled end-to-end encrypted backups, WhatsApp will ask for your 64-digit encryption key or the password you set when you turned on encrypted backups. Without this key or password, the backup cannot be restored — not even WhatsApp can unlock it for you.

Method 2: Restore From a Local Backup

If your Google Drive backup is missing, corrupted, or you never set one up, you can fall back to the automatic local backups stored on your Samsung phone. This method works as long as you haven’t factory reset the device (which erases internal storage).

Step 1. Open a file manager app on your Samsung phone. Samsung’s built-in My Files app works, or you can use Google Files.

Step 2. Navigate to Internal storage → WhatsApp → Databases. You will see files named like msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt15 (the date indicates when each backup was created).

Step 3. Identify the backup you want to restore. The file without a date — msgstore.db.crypt15 — is the most recent backup.

Step 4. Uninstall WhatsApp.

Step 5. Reinstall WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.

Step 6. Open WhatsApp and verify your phone number. When prompted to restore, WhatsApp will automatically detect the local backup file and restore from it if no Google Drive backup is found.

Note: WhatsApp prioritizes Google Drive backups over local backups. If you specifically want to restore from a local backup instead of Google Drive, temporarily remove your Google account from your phone (Settings → Accounts and backup → Manage accounts → Google → Remove account) before reinstalling WhatsApp. You can re-add the account after the restore completes.

Method 3: Restore From an Older Local Backup

WhatsApp keeps up to seven days of local backup files. If the most recent backup doesn’t contain the messages you need — for example, if you deleted a chat two days ago and the latest backup was created after the deletion — you can restore from an older backup file.

Step 1. Open My Files or Google Files on your Samsung phone.

Step 2. Navigate to Internal storage → WhatsApp → Databases.

Step 3. Find the backup file with the date that predates the deletion. For example, if you deleted messages on April 15, look for msgstore-2026-04-14.1.db.crypt15.

Step 4. Rename the current msgstore.db.crypt15 file to something like msgstore-BACKUP.db.crypt15 (so you do not lose it).

Step 5. Rename your chosen dated backup file to msgstore.db.crypt15.

Step 6. Uninstall WhatsApp, reinstall it, and verify your phone number. Make sure to temporarily remove your Google account first (as described in Method 2) so WhatsApp restores from the local file instead of Google Drive.

Step 7. WhatsApp will detect the renamed local backup and restore from it.

Warning: Any messages received after the date of the backup you are restoring will be lost. This method essentially rolls back your chat history to the date of the selected backup file.

Method 4: Restore WhatsApp on a New Samsung Phone

When you buy a new Samsung Galaxy phone and want to bring your WhatsApp chats over from your old device, you have two options depending on what kind of phone you are switching from.

Switching From Another Android or Samsung Phone

The simplest method is using Google Drive backup. On your old phone, open WhatsApp → Settings → Chats → Chat backup → Back Up to create a fresh backup. Then set up your new Samsung phone with the same Google account and phone number, install WhatsApp, and restore from the backup during setup.

Important note about Samsung Smart Switch: While Smart Switch is excellent for transferring most data between Samsung phones, it does not transfer WhatsApp chat history between Android devices. WhatsApp data is protected by the app’s own encryption and privacy policies, so you must use WhatsApp’s built-in Google Drive backup to transfer chats between Android phones.

Switching From iPhone to Samsung

Samsung Smart Switch does support transferring WhatsApp from iPhone to Samsung, but only under specific conditions. The transfer must be done via a USB cable connection (not wireless), it must be completed before you activate WhatsApp on the new Samsung phone, and both devices must be running compatible OS versions.

To transfer WhatsApp from iPhone to Samsung with Smart Switch, connect both phones with a USB-C to Lightning cable, open Smart Switch on your new Samsung phone, follow the prompts to select WhatsApp data, and complete the transfer before opening WhatsApp on the new device.

Troubleshooting: WhatsApp Restore Not Working

If WhatsApp fails to restore your messages, here are the most common issues and how to fix each one on a Samsung phone.

“No Backup Found” Error

This usually means WhatsApp cannot locate a backup associated with your phone number and Google account. Check the following:

You must be signed into the exact same Google account that created the backup. Go to Settings → Accounts and backup → Manage accounts to verify. You must also verify with the same phone number that was used when the backup was created. If you changed numbers, the backup will not be detected.

Your Google Drive backup may have expired. Google deletes WhatsApp backups that have not been updated in over five months. You can check if a backup exists by opening the Google Drive app → Menu (three lines) → Backups.

“Couldn’t Restore Chat History” Error

This error typically points to a connection or storage issue. Start with these fixes:

Check your internet connection. Switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data to see if one works better. Large backups require a stable connection throughout the entire download.

Free up storage space on your Samsung phone. Go to Settings → Battery and device care → Storage to check available space. WhatsApp needs enough room to download and unpack the backup, which can be significantly larger than the compressed backup file.

Clear the cache for both WhatsApp and Google Drive. Go to Settings → Apps → WhatsApp → Storage → Clear cache. Repeat for Google Drive.

Update WhatsApp to the latest version from the Google Play Store. Older versions may have bugs that prevent proper restoration.

Restore Stuck or Taking Forever

Large backups with many photos and videos can take a long time, but if the restore appears frozen, try these steps:

Restart your Samsung phone by holding the power button and volume down button simultaneously for about 10 seconds until the phone reboots. Then reopen WhatsApp to resume the restore.

Make sure your phone is connected to Wi-Fi rather than mobile data for large backups. Also keep your phone plugged in — if the screen turns off and the phone enters deep sleep, the restore may pause.

Disable Samsung’s battery optimization for WhatsApp. Go to Settings → Apps → WhatsApp → Battery → Unrestricted. This prevents One UI from suspending WhatsApp’s background activity during the restore.

End-to-End Encrypted Backup Password Lost

If you enabled end-to-end encrypted backups and cannot remember your password or 64-digit encryption key, the backup is permanently inaccessible. Neither WhatsApp nor Google can recover encrypted backups without the key. Your only option in this situation is to start fresh or restore from a local backup (which does not require the encryption key).

Things to Remember

Cancel any automatic backups before attempting to restore deleted messages. If WhatsApp creates a new backup after you deleted the messages, the new backup overwrites the old one on Google Drive, and the deleted messages will be gone from the backup too.

Never manually back up WhatsApp after deleting messages you want to recover. The automatic local backup created at 2:00 AM is your safety net — performing a manual backup will overwrite it.

If none of these methods work, you can contact WhatsApp support directly through the app (Settings → Help → Contact us) or via email at [email protected]. However, WhatsApp cannot recover messages from their servers since messages are end-to-end encrypted and not stored by WhatsApp after delivery.