WhatsApp is alerting users to an important change. Some users are receiving a warning to back up their chats, which should not be ignored.
The change affects Android users who back up their chats and contacts using a Google account. Previously, this didn’t use any additional storage space in Google Drive, but that’s now changing.
For many WhatsApp users, the default 15 GB of storage space on Google Drive may not be sufficient to back up all their data. This space is quickly used up with long chat histories and larger files.
If you want to continue backing up all your chats, messages, and pictures from WhatsApp, you need to act quickly – you only have 30 days to back up your data after receiving the warning.
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You have these options to back up your WhatsApp data:
Before the 30-day period expires, you still have the opportunity to adequately back up your WhatsApp chats. There are several options for this.
Firstly, you can check how much storage space your data actually takes up. To do this, go to the settings, then to Storage and data. At the Manage storage point, you can see directly how many gigabytes are currently occupied by chats and the like.
If you tap on it, you can also see which files and chats are taking up the most storage space. If you don’t need some of them, it might be worth clearing them out.
Another option is to use self-deleting messages, which have been available on WhatsApp since 2020. Or you can deactivate the option to automatically download images, GIFs, and videos in your group chats to use less storage space in the future.
Alternatively, you can book more storage space in Google Drive, which costs extra but provides 100 GB for just €1.99 a month. Or you can back up your chats using another method, such as an external hard drive.
WhatsApp recently tested a beta version to make it even easier to transfer chats and files to another device. In this version, Google Drive is not required to create a backup; instead, the transfer takes place directly using a QR code.
