WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, with over two billion users. However, sometimes you may accidentally delete a photo from WhatsApp, or lose it due to some other reasons. For example, you may have cleared your chat history, formatted your phone, or deleted the photo from your gallery app. In such cases, you may wonder how to recover deleted photos from WhatsApp.
Fortunately, there are some methods that can help you restore deleted photos in WhatsApp. In this article, we will show you five ways to recover WhatsApp images on Android and iPhone. Some of these methods require a backup, while others do not. Depending on your situation, you can choose the best method for you. Let’s get started.
How to Restore Deleted Photos and Videos in WhatsApp
It should be noted that WhatsApp has no dedicated feature to restore deleted photos from chat. But users can still recover deleted files from file manager or cloud storage. Here’s how.
Method 1: Check Your Phone’s Photo App
The first and easiest method to restore deleted photos from WhatsApp is to check your phone’s photo app. By default, WhatsApp automatically downloads and saves the photos from your chats to your phone’s internal storage or SD card. This means that even if you delete a photo from WhatsApp, you may still have a copy of it in your phone’s gallery app or Google Photos app.
Method 2: Recover WhatsApp Photos from a Backup
If you don’t have the photo in your phone’s photo app or your chat partner doesn’t have it either, you may need to recover WhatsApp photos from a backup. WhatsApp allows you to back up your chats and media files to Google Drive on Android or iCloud on iPhone. If you have enabled this feature and created a backup before deleting the photo, you may be able to restore deleted photos it from the backup.
However, there are some drawbacks of this method. First of all, you need to make sure that your backup includes the photo that you want to recover. Follow this step to restore deleted photos you can check this by going to Settings > Chats > Chat backup in WhatsApp and seeing when the last backup date and time. If the backup was made after deleting the photo, then this method will not work. Secondly, restoring a backup will overwrite your current chats and media files in WhatsApp. This means that you will lose any new messages or photos that you have received or sent after creating the backup. Therefore, this method should be used as a last resort.
Option 1: Restore WhatsApp Backup on Android or iPhone
To restore WhatsApp backup on Android, follow these steps:
- Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.
- Launch WhatsApp and verify your phone number.
- Tap on Restore when prompted to restore your backup from Google Drive.
- Wait for the restoration process to complete.
- Check if you have recovered the deleted photo in your WhatsApp chat.
Method 3: Use a Third-Party Recovery Tool
If none of the above methods work for you, you may need to use a third-party recovery tool to recover deleted photos from WhatsApp. There are many such tools available online, but not all of them are reliable or effective. Some of them may require root access or jailbreak, which can void your warranty or damage your device. Some of them may also contain malware or viruses that can harm your data or privacy.
Therefore, you should be careful when choosing a third-party recovery tool and only use the ones that are trusted and reputable. One of the best tools that we recommend is iMyFone ChatsBack, which is a professional and powerful software that can help you recover WhatsApp photos and other data on both Android and iOS devices. It has many features and advantages, such as:
- It can recover WhatsApp photos from device storage, local backup, or cloud backup without overwriting any data.
- It can recover not only photos, but also videos, audio files, documents, stickers, emojis, and more.
- It can recover WhatsApp data selectively or in bulk, depending on your preference.
- It can preview and export WhatsApp data to your computer in various formats, such as HTML, CSV, or PDF.
- It is compatible with all Android and iOS devices and supports the latest versions of WhatsApp and operating systems.
- It is easy to use and has a user-friendly interface.
- It is safe and secure and does not contain any malware or viruses.
Depending on whether you use an Android or an iOS device, there are different steps to use iMyFone ChatsBack to recover deleted photos from WhatsApp. We will explain both options below.
Option 1: iMyFone Chats Back for Android or iPhone
Follow this step to restore deleted photos
- Download and install iMyFone ChatsBack for Android or iPhone on your computer from its official website.
- Launch the software and connect your Android device to the computer using a USB cable.
- Select Recover WhatsApp Data from Device Storage on the main interface.
- Click on Start to scan and fetch your WhatsApp data. You may need to enable USB debugging on your device and grant some permissions.
- After the scan is completed, you will see all your WhatsApp data categorized by file types. You can preview them by clicking on each category.
- Select the photos that you want to recover and click on Recover. You can also choose to recover all photos by checking the box at the top.
- Choose a location on your computer to save the recovered photos and click on OK.
Method 4: Recover WhatsApp Photos from Local Storage
The last method that we will show you is how to recover WhatsApp photos from local storage. This method is only applicable for Android devices, as iOS devices do not store WhatsApp data locally. This method involves using a file manager app to access the hidden folder where WhatsApp stores its data on your device. However, this method is not very reliable, as it depends on whether the photo has been overwritten or not by other files.
Follow this step to restore deleted photos
- Download and install a file manager app on your Android device, such as ES File Explorer or File Manager.
- Open the file manager app and grant it the necessary permissions to access your device storage.
- Navigate to the folder where WhatsApp stores its data. The default location is /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/.
- Look for a subfolder named WhatsApp Images or WhatsApp Images/Sent.
- In this subfolder, you will see some files that have a .nomedia extension. These are the hidden files that WhatsApp does not show in your gallery app or photo app.
- Rename these files by removing the .nomedia extension. For example, if the file name is IMG-20210930-WA0001.jpg.nomedia, rename it to IMG-20210930-WA0001.jpg.
- Now, you can open these files with your photo app or gallery app and see if you can find the deleted photo.
- If you find it, you can save it to another location or share it with someone else.
- Tap this to see new WhatsApp feature like this WhatsApp Video Messages
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
In this article, we have shown you five methods to recover deleted photos from WhatsApp on Android and iPhone. You can try any of these methods depending on your situation and preference. However, we recommend that you always back up your WhatsApp data regularly to avoid losing any important photos or other files in the future. You can also enable the auto-download feature in WhatsApp settings to make sure that you always have a copy of the photos on your device storage.
We hope that this article has helped you recover your deleted photos from WhatsApp. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you for reading.
How to Restore Deleted Photos in WhatsApp