Cannot transfer WhatsApp messages from old phone to new phone through SD card. Please need help bad!

[Naomi969]

I had an old Samsung Galaxy Xcover which had hardly any internal memory so I was backing up my whatsapp messages to my SD card. The phone started giving problems so I got another cheap "emergency" phone whatever I could afford n tried to transfer messages from the back up that's on SD card to the newly installed Whatsapp on the new phone but when I installed the Whatsapp the new phone is not finding the back up.
Finally I bought a Samsung phone (J1 prime mini) tried to do the same hoping it will find the back up since the other phone was also Samsung n it's a better brand so I was hoping to get a better results with it but it's not finding it either.

I noticed both phones have different local back up systems. It's not backing up to external storage like my old one but inside the phone itself whereas my old Samsung had to have SD card inserted in order for the local back up to be possible.

Can anyone tell me what on Earth can I do to get my messages transferred to this new phone?

I am using the same phone number I used before so that is not the problem.

And I haven't backed up to Google previously so it shouldn't matter which account name this phone is registered on n I'm pretty sure I used the same account on this phone anyway.

The SD card is functioning perfect n nothing is corrupted so that is also not the reason.

So what is it then?

I noticed that since these phones have so much more internal memory seems like it's not really looking into the external storage or something.

The new Samsung allowed me to transfer files from SD to device so I copied the Whatsapp folder from my SD into the phone.

I am thinking to try reinstall whatsapp again now n see if it will find the Whatsapp folder with the back up I copied to phone n restore from there or would that be just a waste of time?

There's over 1000 messages on this back up n I can't imagine losing it. This will be a disaster for me. This chat history is really important for me. I feel like I'm facing losing a lot of important files n I don't know why it has to be this way! I took very good care to not lose this information. Made sure it was being backed up n everything.

Please help me.

 

[El Presidente]

Do you have Google Drive installed on both devices? There's an inbuilt option to back up whatsapp messages to Google Drive that's worked pretty much flawlessly any time I've needed it.

 

[Naomi969]

I

Do you have Google Drive installed on both devices? There's an inbuilt option to back up whatsapp messages to Google Drive that's worked pretty much flawlessly any time I've needed it.

I couldn't use the Google Drive on the old phone because of little internal memory storage so I was backing it up to an SD card. The new phone I have has the Google drive n enough space n I can back up new message to Google drive on my new device. However I am trying to retrieve the data that was backed on the SD card to a new phone.

 

[A bochur]

No need to download again but you should clear cache (which would help as much as downloading again) simply go to
settings>manage apps> WhatsApp >storage> clear cache
Also just making sure, on your old phone did you press back up like in screenshot below (if you're in airplane mode it will only backup to sd as that's what you want) or did you archive all chats? (which is the wrong option for what you're looking to do)

 

[Naomi969]

Yes this is what my back up looked like except it was only being backed up to local drive n local drive being the SD card.

And few times that I had to factory reset my old phone I had NO PROBLEM recovering files back from the SD card to the same old phone.

I couldn't imagine it would be a problem on the new phone.

 

[Naomi969]

N after clearing the cache what's next?

 

[A bochur]

When you transfer from sd to phone make sure you transfer the folder called WhatsApp and not just the back up

 

[A bochur]

And now try again see if it shows up

 

[Naomi969]

I am trying to attach screen shots to this messages n it's giving me error saying cannot be done due to low memory. Must be problem with this site cause I got plenty space on my phone. I cleared the cache but that didn't do anything.

 

[Naomi969]

Screen shots of what my back up looked like on the old phone

 

[Naomi969]

Nothin happened

And now try again see if it shows up

 

[Naomi969]

The folder that is named WhatsApp is the one that contains files I copied from the SD card. Which is the back up from old phone.

And the one called WhatsApp2 is the one that the new phone created to back up the current Whatsapp which I renamed from Whatsapp to Whatsapp2

 

[A bochur]

Everything looks right, so I'm really not sure why it's not detecting it.
Let's see if someone else has suggestions

 

[A bochur]

Btw u mentioned that it doesn't detect backup, so i assumed till now that when searching for backup it doesn't find anything. Is it possible that you left out that it detected a Google drive backup but you don't want to use it cuz it's not the latest backup? Or is it that it doesn't detect any backup whatsoever

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

This is how to transfer WhatsApp chat history to another phone:
-WhatsApp Settings >> Chats >> Chat Backup >> Hit "Back Up"
-Open File explorer/manager and goto this directory:
{default storage drive}>>WhatsApp>>Databases
-Copy all the files, they all end with the extension "crypt12"
-Paste them on the external SD card
-Unmount the SD card and insert it on the new phone
-Once the SD card is detected by the new phone, open the file explorer
-Copy those files that ended with extension "crypt12" to this directory (create the directory if it doesn't exist):
{internal memory}>>WhatsApp>>Databases
-[NOTE: If you have a PC and 2 USB cables you can do it without the need of an SD Card]
-Now goto play store and install WhatsApp
-Make sure WhatsApp is installed in the internal storage. Check in Settings>> Apps>> SD Card
-Start the WhatsApp setup process. You should find an option for backup, hit it and make sure your internet connection is stable.
-If everything went fine, your messages should be restored.

OPINION: Since you logged in and tried backup, and it didn't work, WhatsApp may consider that backup as outdated because you logged in without it. However, it's still worth trying to use it again.

BTW, "Clear Cache" just deletes temporary data. Use "Clear Data" if you want to give the app a 'reinstall'.

 

[William Marsh]

I had an old Samsung Galaxy Xcover which had hardly any internal memory so I was backing up my whatsapp messages to my SD card. The phone started giving problems so I got another cheap "emergency" phone whatever I could afford n tried to transfer messages from the back up that's on SD card to the newly installed Whatsapp on the new phone but when I installed the Whatsapp the new phone is not finding the back up.
Finally I bought a Samsung phone (J1 prime mini) tried to do the same hoping it will find the back up since the other phone was also Samsung n it's a better brand so I was hoping to get a better results with it but it's not finding it either.

I noticed both phones have different local back up systems. It's not backing up to external storage like my old one but inside the phone itself whereas my old Samsung had to have SD card inserted in order for the local back up to be possible.

Can anyone tell me what on Earth can I do to get my messages transferred to this new phone?

I am using the same phone number I used before so that is not the problem.

And I haven't backed up to Google previously so it shouldn't matter which account name this phone is registered on n I'm pretty sure I used the same account on this phone anyway.

The SD card is functioning perfect n nothing is corrupted so that is also not the reason.

So what is it then?

I noticed that since these phones have so much more internal memory seems like it's not really looking into the external storage or something.

The new Samsung allowed me to transfer files from SD to device so I copied the Whatsapp folder from my SD into the phone.

I am thinking to try reinstall whatsapp again now n see if it will find the Whatsapp folder with the back up I copied to phone n restore from there or would that be just a waste of time?

There's over 1000 messages on this back up n I can't imagine losing it. This will be a disaster for me. This chat history is really important for me. I feel like I'm facing losing a lot of important files n I don't know why it has to be this way! I took very good care to not lose this information. Made sure it was being backed up n everything.

Please help me.

I always just used the archiving option built into Whatsapp, when i got a new phone and downloaded Whatsapp again all of my old messages came through. Have you tried contacting Whatsapp support? They might be able to help.