When we are about to move to a new mobile device or to an altogether new mobile number, we generally take special care to ensure backup, as well as transfer, of contacts and important media from the old device to the new one.
With WhatsApp, it is possible to start fresh on your new mobile phone (or new mobile number) by launching WhatsApp using the old mobile number with none of the recent chat history being restored. However, many of us would want a continuity of the old chats and you will be glad to know that it is possible to restore old WhatsApp conversations on our new mobile phone.
Make sure that the WhatsApp backup process is implemented successfully on your old phone. Next, get your old phone connected to a PC using a USB cable. Navigate to the database folder of your SD card at /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases.
At this location, you will be able to see plenty of backed up files with the name format as “msgstore-2017-02-17.db”, with the difference being the date format (YYYY-MM-DD) in the middle being replaced by the relevant dates on which that particular file was backed up. You need to copy the backup file with the latest date and save it on your PC/Laptop.
Next, you can download / install the WhatsApp application on your new mobile device without actually launching it. Before you start it on your new smartphone, get your phone connected to the same PC where you had saved the WhatsApp backup file from your old device.
Since the WhatsApp app is installed on your new phone, you may already see the folder ‘WhatsApp Databases’ existing in the database. If it doesn’t, you can manually create the database ‘folder’ in ‘WhatsApp’ folder. Once the path WhatsApp/Databases exists on your new phone, you can simply copy / paste the backed up file that was saved on your PC into this new folder on your new phone.
You can now initiate the WhatsApp app launch on your new mobile device and you will find a message backup notification message. You need to press the ‘Restore’ option in order to get your entire WhatsApp chat history transferred to your new phone.