How to Backup WhatsApp Chats to iCloud on iPhone & iPad

Want to make sure your WhatsApp chats and conversations are backed up? You’re in the right place. Regardless of what instant messaging platform you may use, your messages and other media are of huge importance. These could include work-related conversations with colleagues, important plans with family, friends and the list just goes on. This is exactly why you should consider backing up these data to cloud storage services, so you don’t exactly lose them because of a corrupted software update or a simple uninstall/reinstall of the messaging application.

The stock Messages app that’s baked into iOS devices automatically backs up your conversations to iCloud as long as it’s turned on. However, popular third-party messaging services like WhatsApp take a slightly different approach when it comes to backing up your chats.

Did you want to learn how to back up your WhatsApp chats to the cloud? Well, look no further, because in this article we’ll be discussing exactly how you could use Apple’s iCloud service to back up all your WhatsApp messages and media to avoid accidentally losing your data for good.

How to Enable iCloud Drive to Backup WhatsApp Data

Before you back up your WhatsApp chats and media, you need to make sure iCloud Drive is enabled on your iPhone and iPad. Although iCloud backup is turned on by default, it doesn’t necessarily mean iCloud Drive is enabled as well, because they’re both different.

1. Open “Settings” app located on the home screen of your iPhone or iPad.

   

2. You’ll be able to head over to the Apple ID section by tapping on “Apple ID Name” located right above the Airplane Mode option, as shown in the screenshot below.

   

3. Now, tap on “iCloud” to adjust your settings for Apple’s iCloud.

   

4. Here, scroll down for a bit and tap the toggle next to “iCloud Drive” in order to enable it. Additionally, make sure the “iCloud Backup” option right above it is turned on as well.
   
   
5. If you scroll further down to the bottom, you’ll notice the iCloud Drive setting for WhatsApp. Tap the toggle next to it in order to enable it, just in case if it’s turned off.

   

How to Back Up WhatsApp Chats to iCloud on iPhone & iPad

Now that you’ve enabled iCloud Drive, you can choose to back up your data either automatically or manually within WhatsApp. Simply follow the steps below to get this done.

1. Open “WhatsApp” from the home screen of your iPhone or iPad.

   

2. Once you open WhatsApp, you’ll be taken to the chat section. Now, tap on “Settings” located right next to the highlighted Chats icon at the bottom of your screen.

   

3. In this menu, tap on “Chats” which is indicated by the same icon as WhatsApp.

   

4. Now, tap on “Chat Backup”.

   

5. Here, you’ll be able to back up your chats. If you want to manually back up your conversations and media, simply tap on “Back Up Now”. You’ll also notice a toggle to include videos in your iCloud backups right below it.

   

6. If you want to further adjust how often WhatsApp automatically backs up data, tap on “Auto Backup” which is located right above the toggle to include videos.

   

7. Here, you could set WhatsApp to back up your conversations on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Additionally, if you don’t prefer automatic backups or if you want to save data, it can be turned off altogether.

   

That’s pretty much all the steps required to back up your WhatsApp chats and media to Apple’s iCloud servers.

From now on, even if you uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp at a later point, you’ll be able to restore your conversations in a matter of seconds. The app will prompt you to restore your data from iCloud, right after you enter your phone number. Additionally, you will also be able to get back your data if you lost it due a corrupted iOS software update.

That being said, it’s worth noting that a single backup would be hundreds of megabytes in size, especially if you’re a regular WhatsApp user. So, if you’re often using cellular data, we highly recommend you to either turn off Auto Backups or just disable cellular data access for iCloud altogether, in order to avoid excessive data charges.

Remember that what exactly is backed up may depend on your individual settings, so if you’re regularly clearing WhatsApp data storage or stopped WhatsApp from saving photos and videos to iPhone then you obviously won’t be backing up data that is not stored by WhatsApp in the first place.

We live in an age where we don’t need to constantly rely on physical storage anymore. Services like iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. make it easier for the users to store all their data conveniently on the cloud and access them whenever they want to, within a matter of minutes. Even if the physical storage on your phone gets erased, you could recover all your data as long as there’s a complete backup of it on the cloud storage. That’s obviously extremely convenient, so if you can and want to, why not take advantage of cloud backups?

Did you successfully back up your WhatsApp chats to iCloud? If not, what issues did you come across during this procedure? Let us know your thoughts and opinions on WhatsApp backups and cloud storage services in the comments section down below.