Back up/Whatsapp

[Dany1994]

Hi all! Just migrated from Apple to Samsung S24 Ultra last night! I was able to transfer my Whatsapp chats and data perfectly but I have a question now and I wanna make sure I get it right before running my first backup. My Whatsapp is currently displaying everything correctly including the media and when I go to Chats > Manage Storage it displays the right number which is 19GB. However when on my Samsung S24 Ultra I go to Settings > Storage > WhatsApp it says I have 536MB of data. Why is it displaying a completely different number? Does it not recognise my 19GB of data on whatsapp and furthermore I'm really scared to do a backup and potentially only have 536MB backed up and the rest lost?? HELP PLEASE!! 

[Dany1994]

Samsung settings- storage VS on whatsapp - manage storage and data. I want to make sure if I do my first backup it'll actually backup the whole 19GB!

[Reylob · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dany1994 

Welcome to the community forum.

The 536MB that you see on that screenshot is the storage the application itself uses on the disk. It does not include the chat data.

Open WhatsApp.

Settings -> Chats -> Chat backup

Select or add account to backup WhatsApp's chat. e.g. Google account.

Select the frequency for the backup, Never, Only when I tap back up, Daily, Weekly or Monthly

Toggle on Include videos

Toggle on "Back up using cellular", if you wish to do it over mobile data.

You should be able to see how much data will be backup to your backup account. It should be close to your 19GB.

If you select "End-to-end encryption", please make sure you do not lose the encryption password or you may lose all the data. You will need it for restoring your data.

[Dany1994]

Hi @Reylob , you were so so helpful thank you very much for explaining this to me! I tried doing a backup but honestly found it so confusing! When I go on whatsapp and clicked on Manage Storage it says 19.4GB but when I clicked on Backup it says the backup was 18GB, do you know why that is? Is it not going to backup all data in the app? Also it took 1.5hrs which I found strange (on a super fast Internet connection) and at the end it said couldn't complete backup (but I purchased the 100GB option on Google drive) and when I opened the app afterwards it says Last backup and then the time so it appears to be done...I'm so confused ha!

[Dany1994]

It does appear to have been completed?

[Reylob]

I am glad you could solve your issue.

By the way, it takes a bit of time to backup that much data. The speed is not determined by your internet speed, but by the slowest of the links in the chain and how far the data needs to be transferred to.

All the best.

[Dany1994]

You're amazing thank you so much!!! Is it normal that when I delete a picture from my phone gallery that was downloaded from whatsapp I can no longer see it on whatsapp? I checked and if I delete one from the gallery it just stays blurry on whatsapp and if I click on it it says This media isn't in your internal storage. I find that very strange as ideally I would like to just keep it and be able to see it on whatsapp not really on my gallery to use even more memory and have to keep them on my phone forever

[Reylob]

Yes, that is intended. If you delete a picture from the gallery WhatsApp does not know the picture is gone. If you delete it from WhatsApp it will give you the option to deleted from the device gallery.

You could set WhatsApp not to show media in the Gallery app.

Settings -> Chats -> Chat settings -> Media visibility (toggle off)

In that way, the gallery will not show the WhatsApp media.

[Dany1994]

Thank you! And that way if I have a picture in my gallery downloaded from Whatsapp from years ago and I delete it I will still be able to see it and open it properly on whatsapp?