It usually downloads the files sent by our contacts, all without permission from us, something that may or may not be positive. On the one hand, it is fine that it does so, but on the other, it is not, since it usually stores files on our phone and thus occupies memory.
Surely you have ever deleted a photo or video by mistake in WhatsApp, although it has to be said that there are several ways to recover it. It can be done with or without an application, so we are going to see how to do it and not waste our lives on it, because it is easier than you think.
When recover whatsapp photos and videos, the natural thing is to see if the image or the clip is maintained in the specific conversation, it is what many would do. If after checking it is not there, the solution is to see if with a program you can save that file again.
First step, check the contact's chat and gallery
It usually happens on rare occasions that we can see it in the contact's chat, if so, we can make a copy of it, as long as it is not shown blurred. If it is not seen in the person's chat, we will have lost the possibility, at least in this solution, but recoverable in another way.
To try to recover it, go to the contact, check if it is one of the last photos and if you can view it, you will be able to download it again. You can also go to the specific contact information and look in “Multimedia”, if you view it here, it can also be retrieved manually.
Another option is to check the gallery of the device, you can check the “WhatsApp” folder, if it does not appear in the magnifying glass, write “WhatsApp images” and open it. Here you have to do a search for the image, you can also search for WhatsApp Video, in case what you want to locate is a clip.
Try to recover files with WhatsApp Web
WhatsApp Web can be a good solution when trying to recover files, through it there are many people who have been able to rescue a photo or a video. It does not usually happen as long as you can recover it, but there is the option to try it in case it is possible.
To see if you can recover that file you lost, try opening the WhatsApp Web page, follow the steps to log in to your phone. It will be necessary to scan the code, in addition the previous step is to open the application, click on the three dots in the upper right, access settings and then click on “Paired devices”.
After reaching “Linked devices” the camera will open, focus on the QR from the WhatsApp Web page and wait for the application to open via page. After this, go to the conversation where you want to recover the photo, to do this open the file and hit “Save” on the device.
This is usually just as effective as doing it from a normal conversation, it is advisable to access it once you realize that you have lost the image or video. It can be valid for any phone user, whether you use Android or come to have Apple's iOS operating system.
with the backup
Another way and probably the most tedious is using the backup, the application usually makes a backup always at dawn. You have to check the date of the backup, therefore it is the important data, knowing when the image, video or document has been downloaded to the device.
In WhatsApp you can see the latest backup created, all this by accessing the application options and which is done as follows:
- Launch the WhatsApp application
- After starting it, go to “Settings” and then to Chats
- Within Chats you will see the option “Backup”
- You will see the one created by the application, it is usually the last one, the one from the morning of that day
To restore the backup you have to uninstall the app, fresh install the app and restore the backup created by the tool. This will make it possible to recover everything, including photos, videos, documents and other files, all thanks to the backup.
Use a file manager
Despite not having a powerful file manager, Android phones usually store a lot of information, which we can see if we use an application. The phones have a folder called “Files” where we will be able to investigate if that photo or video accidentally deleted by you or another person is stored.
A powerful file explorer is Google Files, although it has a lot of competition in this market, one of them is Solid Explorer, but also «Files Explorer». With any of the three mentioned, it is enough to find those images and videos that are stored.
For example, to search with Google Files Do the following:
- Download and install Files by Google from the Play Store en this link
- Go to the “Explore” tab, now go to “Internal Storage”
- You must look for the “WhatsApp” folder, then once inside click on “Media”, and finally click on “WhatsApp Images”, it is where the photographs you receive will be stored
- Search and locate those photos that you may have lost, if you want to search for videos, do the same and look in the “WhatsApp Video” folder, here you can do the same task, to locate a lost file in MP4 format and many others
Find previous backups
It often happens that the daily backup created by WhatsApp is not the one you are looking for, but a previous one, this also has a solution. You can reuse one from days ago, since Android usually stores previous ones and it will be up to you to reload it whenever you want.
You can use the browser of your normal phone, to do this go to “Files”, look for the “WhatsApp” folder and finally “Databases”, finally you will see it with the name of mgstore.db. Check the date of each of them, if you remember having the photo or video at one point, copy the file and put it somewhere you can upload it later.