How to transfer WhatsApp conversations to new devices: the easy way

WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication tools on the planet. But if you get a new phone, and want to transfer your account to a new device, your old messages don't automatically come with you. Thankfully we're here to help. In our tutorial, find out how to transfer WhatsApp conversations to a new device, and immediately pick up where you left off. 

How to transfer WhatsApp conversations to a new device – it's easier than you think! 

When I recently upgraded my smartphone I was struck with this WhatsApp problem too. For some people, it isn't much of an issue, they don't care about losing their old conversations, they're quite happy to start over. But I don't fall into this category, I like to back up everything, and I really wanted to be able to save my chat history.
Note that since I first wrote this article, WhatsApp has been slowly updating the app to a version that includes automatic Google Drive backups. This makes the process even easier. You simply tap the trio of dots at the top left of the screen and go through Settings > Chats and calls > Chat backup. From here, you can backup manually, or set it to automatically backup as regularly as you like. When WhatsApp is reinstalled, it will prompt you to recover your chats and multimedia from Google Drive. That's it.

The ability to make Google Drive backups in the latest version makes life easier. 

If you've yet to receive the Google Drive WhatsApp update, it's luckily still quite easy to create a backup. I managed to transfer my entire chat history onto my new phone and seamlessly chat where I had left off the night before. If you also want to save your chats and continue as normal on a different device, simply proceed as follows:

• Create a backup of your chat history on your old phone. To do this you open the Settings menu of WhatsApp, tap on Chats and calls and then tap  Chat backup.

Tap the three dots (options) button. Go to Settings > Chats and calls > Chat backup.

• Connect your smartphone via USB cable to the PC and navigate to the internal memory of the device to the folder WhatsApp / Database. Here are all the backup files saved with a date. They will look something like "msgstore-2013-05-29.db.crypt". Copy the file with the latest date of creation (it will have a different name compared to the automatic backups created, mine is "msgstore.db.crypt8") onto your PC in an easy to find location (like your desktop). 
• Install WhatsApp on your new device but do not start the app!
  
• Connect your new device via USB to the PC. Because you've already downloaded WhatsApp onto your new handset, the folder WhatsApp / Databases should now exist. If not, you can manually create a new Databases folder in the WhatsApp folder yourself.
  

You can use a folder browsing app like File Commander to navigate to your internal storage on your phone (above), just like you can on your PC. 

• Copy your WhatsApp conversation backup file into this folder.

Now start WhatsApp on your new phone and verify your phone number. You should now get a notification that a message backup was found. Just tap Restore, and you're done. After a few seconds, all of your messages should have safely returned.
Let us know in the comments if you have any trouble, or find any better solutions!