Whether you are switching from an older Android to a new one, or moving between Samsung, Xiaomi, Pixel, and OnePlus phones, WhatsApp gives you three real options for moving your chat history. This guide walks through each of them and covers the two problems that trip most people up.
Before you start: plug both phones in. Every method here is faster and more reliable when neither phone is fighting battery-saver mode.
Method 1: Google Drive backup (the standard way)
This is the option most people use, and if the old phone is still working, it is the least stressful.
- On the old phone, open WhatsApp.
- Tap the three-dot menu, top-right → Settings → Chats → Chat backup.
- Confirm the Google account listed there is one you can log into on the new phone. If not, tap Account and pick another.
- Set Include videos on if you want them (this can push the backup from a few hundred MB to several GB, so make sure you are on Wi-Fi).
- Tap Back up. Wait until the backup finishes — the last-backup timestamp updates when it does.
- On the new phone, install WhatsApp from the Play Store, open it, and verify your phone number.
- When WhatsApp offers to restore from Google Drive, sign in with the same Google account and tap Restore.
Common failure mode: the restore screen appears but says “unable to find backup”. Nine times out of ten, this is because the Google account signed into the phone during restore is not the account the backup was made to. Sign out of the wrong Google account in Settings → Accounts, sign in with the right one, then reopen WhatsApp and re-verify — the restore prompt returns.
Method 2: WhatsApp phone-to-phone transfer
WhatsApp added a direct device-to-device transfer that skips Google Drive entirely. It is faster than the Drive method for large chat histories, and it moves media that the Drive backup sometimes leaves behind.
- On the new phone, install WhatsApp and verify your number.
- When it asks about restoring, choose Transfer chats from an old phone and follow the on-screen instructions.
- On the old phone, open WhatsApp → three-dot menu → Settings → Chats → Transfer chats.
- The old phone shows a QR code; scan it with the new phone.
- Keep both phones on the same Wi-Fi network. The transfer happens over your local network — no data goes through WhatsApp’s servers.
The transfer typically takes a few minutes for text-heavy chats and up to 20 to 30 minutes for a history with many videos.
Method 3: Google’s phone-to-phone setup wizard
When you first turn on a new Android and choose to copy data from your old phone (either wirelessly or with a cable), the setup wizard now includes WhatsApp among the apps whose data it can move. This runs entirely as part of the “welcome to your new phone” flow and does not need a Google Drive backup.
The catch: this only works on the very first setup of the new phone. If you already got past setup and were using the phone for a week before deciding to move WhatsApp, you have to use Method 1 or 2.
Media that does not restore
The second most common problem: chats restore fine but individual photos and videos are missing. This happens because Google Drive backups can quietly skip large files, and because WhatsApp media stored on an SD card is not always included in the backup.
Two fixes:
- Before backing up on the old phone: move WhatsApp media from the SD card to internal storage. Open a file manager, go to the SD card’s WhatsApp/Media/ folder, and move it to Internal storage/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media/.
- After restoring on the new phone: use Method 2 (phone-to-phone). The direct transfer moves media that Drive backups miss.
WhatsApp Business
Every step above works for WhatsApp Business as well, but the backup and transfer are separate from personal WhatsApp. If you use both, back up and restore each one on its own.
What to do with the old phone
Once the new phone has your chats and you have verified they are all there, open WhatsApp on the old phone → three-dot menu → Settings → Account → Delete my account. That fully signs out and prevents anyone who later gets the phone from stepping into your chats. If you plan to keep the old phone as a backup, at least clear WhatsApp data from Android’s Settings → Apps → WhatsApp → Storage → Clear data before you set it aside.