Find out how to get back accidentally deleted pictures and videos on WhatsApp using one of the tools in the app. Here’s how to do it
The “Delete for All” feature of WhatsApp is one of the most loved by users. It allows you to immediately delete messages sent by mistake or clean up chats from older messages. Unfortunately, in many cases due to an oversight or human error you delete pictures and videos that you care a lot about. On WhatsApp we receive and send dozens and dozens of multimedia content every day and in many cases they are funny photos or movies that we want to keep on our smartphone.
What to do when you delete a photo or video by mistake on WhatsApp? Is it possible to recover them or have we lost them forever? Fortunately, the instant messaging application allows you to recover contents and messages deleted by mistake. However, there are certain requirements that must be met and you must have a fairly recent backup of the application. Only then will you be able to get the photo or video back. Here’s how to do it.
How to activate WhatsApp backup
Before starting with the recovery procedure you need to check if WhatsApp backup is active on your Android and iOS smartphone. If you have a device with the green robot, you need to check that you have activated the backup with Google Drive, while if you have an iPhone the backup is done on iCloud.
To check that you have activated the WhatsApp backup you need to enter the application, press on Settings, then on Chats and finally on “Chat backup”. A page will open with all the information about the backup and you have to check the date present next to the “Google Drive” or “iCloud” entry. If the date is earlier than when you deleted the image, then you can proceed with the recovery of the deleted content.
How to recover accidentally deleted images and videos
If you have all the requirements in order (i.e. the backup date is earlier than when you accidentally deleted the image) then you can get back the accidentally deleted media content and videos. How to do this? Very simple: you have to delete WhatsApp from your smartphone and re-install the application from scratch.
First, delete the application and download it again from the online store (Google Play Store or App Store). During the profile registration phase, the application will ask you if you want to use the available backup: answer yes. WhatsApp will take a couple of minutes to activate the backup and once it’s done, you’ll get back the image or video you deleted by mistake.
Before proceeding with all the steps, however, consider carefully whether it is worth doing so. If the backup is a few weeks old, it means that you will lose all the messages you have received and sent in the last period. And there will probably be some important business or personal messages.