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General advice on how to backup Whatsapp

Some general advice on how to backup Whatsapp and get the database file:

Android:

- In Whatsapp go to settings - more - Backup Chats

- Copy the folder "Whatsapp" on the SD card to your backup location (e.g., PC)

- (ideally also) use the app Titanium Backup to backup the full whatsapp application together with its data, copy the backup from the folder "TitaniumBackup" on the SD card to your backup location (e.g., PC)

- Use this tool Whatsapp Backup Extractor (download in this thread) to show the chats in a friendly readable format. The necessary files "wa.db" and "msgstore.db" you will find inside the Titanium Backup archive "com.whatsapp-[Date]-[some digits].tar.gz", alternatively (without Titanium Backup) you can use the msgstore.db.crypt file from the folder Whatsapp/Databases on the SD card.

Iphone:

- use Itunes to create an unencrypted Backup

- use an Iphone Backup Tool to get the file net.whatsapp.WhatsApp/Documents/ChatStorage.sqlite, e.g. I-Twin or Iphone Backup Extractor. Make sure to create an unencrypted backup with Itunes, as these tools can't handle encrypted backups. Another possibility are forensic tools like UFED Physical Analyzer.)

Blackberry:

- sync your blackberry with desktop manager and then copy the messagestore.db file from SD

- however, it seems that this file is encrypted? Currently we don't know how to get the unencrypted messagestore.db file

- Blackberry not supported yet!

Nokia:

- not known yet

- Nokia not supported yet!

CHECK IF DATABASE FILE CAN BE OPENED / EDIT CHAT MESSAGES INSIDE DATABASE

You may want to open the decrypted whatsapp database (ChatStorage.sqlite, msgstore.db or msgstore.plain.db) without this tool, e.g. if something goes wrong to check if it can be opened at all or to edit chat messages.

For this use SQLite Database Browser ( http://sqlitebrowser.sourceforge.net/ ).

However it is much more confusing and the messages are ordered by date, not by conversations. Also you won't see the smileys and media files...

IF DATABASE CAN'T BE OPENED: REPAIR DATABASE

Update: This function is now included in Whatsap Xtract 2.1.

If you get an error like this: Error: file is encrypted or is not a database and you tried to open the unencrypted database with SQLite Database Browser but it can't be opened with it, then try the following:

Open the database with Editor, can you see it starts with "SQLite format 3"? Then you may try to repair the database.

Thanks to hape70 for the instructions on how to repair (I translated it from German to English):

MEDIA FILES

If you want to watch the videos, audios and images, you can click on the thumbnails and media links. Popups should open displaying the media.

However, online media files are available only for the last ~ 3 weeks.

But you still can open the offline media files, they are linked as well.

For this it is necessary to at first copy the folder "Media" from /sdcard/Whatsapp (Android) or net.whatsapp.WhatsApp (Iphone) to the certain folder of your computer where this tool is installed. Then run the script. Now the media files should be correctly linked.

HOW TO MERGE MULTIPLE DATABASE FILES WITH SQLite Compare

Merging of multiple backup files is still on the feature request list, but you can use the tool SQLite Compare as a workaround, see howto in this post by ztedd.