Difference Between Export and Back Up in WhatsApp
Exporting chats is a manual process that must be done every time you want to transfer one, and it must be done individually. On the contrary, backing up is an automatic process and is done for every chat on your account. WhatsApp will automatically create a backup on Google Drive (Android) or iCloud (iPhone) at the desired frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly). You can even choose to update backups manually. Secondly, the exported chats can be read on any device. You can open them on Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android. Once the chat history is exported, it becomes separate from the original chat, and can be viewed by anyone. But when you back up WhatsApp chats, they will connect back to the original WhatsApp account, and no one else can view them. In a nutshell, exporting chats comes in handy when you want to send the chat history to someone else or want to import it to Telegram, whereas backing up can help you store and retrieve your chat history if you change or lose your phone.
How to Export Whatsapp Chats from Android to PC
How to Export WhatsApp Chats from iPhone to PC
Tip: a second way to export WhatsApp chat history from an iPhone is “Settings → Chats → Export chat.” Tap on the chat to be exported. Note: you can only export WhatsApp chat history from mobile the mobile app. The WhatsApp web and desktop apps don’t support this feature. But if you scroll up to the first message in the chat and press Ctrl + A (Windows) or Cmd + A (macOS), the entire chat will be selected. Use the copy-paste commands to transfer the selected chat to a text editor.
How to Back Up WhatsApp Chats from Android to Google Drive
Before we jump to the steps, please keep in mind the following things about WhatsApp backups on Google Drive.
Your WhatsApp backups from an Android device to your Google Drive personal account will not count towards your Drive storage.You can stop and delete the backups from Drive but cannot open or view the files inside a backup.If you don’t update the WhatsApp backup within a year, it will be deleted automatically from Google Drive.
To back up to Google Drive, follow the steps below:
How to Back Up WhatsApp Chats from iOS to iCloud
Before backing WhatsApp chats to iCloud, the iCloud Drive feature must first be enabled in the Settings app. Note: you only need to perform the first three steps before backing up your chats for the first time. If you want WhatsApp to automatically create and update the backup in the future, select the desired frequency under the Auto backup option instead of the Off option. By default, videos aren’t included in the backup to reduce the size of the backup. If you want to include them as well, enable the toggle next to “Include videos.” A few things to note about WhatsApp backups on iCloud:
Your iPhone must have iOS 10 or later to create a WhatsApp backup on iCloud.There must be at least 2.05 times the space available on your iCloud account and iPhone than the size of the backup.
1. How can I export my WhatsApp chat history to a PDF?
Download the chat history in the “txt” format as shown above to export to, your PC. Open it in Word or a similar editor and click on “File → Save as” and select a destination. Choose PDF from the “Save as” drop-down box. Alternately, open it in Google Docs and go to “File → Download → PDF.”
2. Are there any limitations on the number of chats that can be exported?
You can export a chat multiple times. However, exported chats with media will only have up to 10,000 of the latest messages. Without media, you can export up to 40,000 messages.
3. How can I restore WhatsApp chats?
You can restore chats from a backup while registering the WhatsApp account. Install WhatsApp on a new device and make sure you are logged in to the same Google (Android) and iCloud (iPhone) accounts on the phone that were used for the backup. Register with the same phone number you use for WhatsApp. You will be asked if you want to restore the backup. Tap on “Restore.”
