How to recover deleted videos from WhatsApp Android

You decided to clean up the memory on your Android device, and as usual, you deleted all the videos you received from the many WhatsApp groups you belong to. After a few minutes, however, you remembered that you had every intention of keeping some of those videos, as they depicted memories that were important to you. The problem is, since you don't have another copy, you just don't know how to fix your mistake. Let me guess, that's exactly how it is? Then I've got great news for you: you're in the right place, at the right time!

In today's guide, I'm going to tell you how to recover deleted videos from WhatsApp Android by explaining a series of steps that, in most cases, allow you to regain access to your videos in a matter of seconds. After that, I'll give you some more information about programs and apps for scanning Android memory, just in case something goes wrong.

So, what are you still doing standing there? Take some free time for yourself and read carefully everything I have to explain on the subject: I can guarantee that, at the end of this guide, you'll have acquired the necessary skills to get the result you set yourself. At this point, there's nothing left for me to do but wish you a good read and good luck with everything!

Recovering deleted videos from WhatsApp Android via Gallery

If you have deleted the chat message containing the video you are interested in, but have not checked the Delete media from phone box, there is a good chance that the video is still there in the Android Gallery, ready to be retrieved.

By default, WhatsApp saves all received images and videos in a dedicated folder in the operating system's Gallery, so unless you have turned off the automatic photo saving feature of WhatsApp, your files are safe.

To access them, launch the Google Photos app (or any photo storage app) from the Android drawer, tap on the Albums tab, and you are done. Then, all you need to do is go to the WhatsApp Video album and you will be able to view the videos you have sent and received on WhatsApp, including those related to deleted messages.

On some versions of Android, videos received on WhatsApp may not be displayed in the photo and video management app, due to a specific setting in the operating system. However, this does not mean that they are no longer on your phone.

To access them, you need to use a file manager, such as Google Files (which is pre-installed on all recent versions of Android): after opening the app in question and granting it permissions to operate on your device's memory, tap on the Browse tab at the bottom, tap on the Internal Storage folder (or SD Card, if you have chosen to save files to microSD), and, in order to view videos received via WhatsApp, go to WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Video.

If the video you are interested in recovering was made and sent by you, you can find it in the Sent folder under the WhatsApp Video path.

Recovering Deleted Videos from WhatsApp Android via Backup

If the videos you received or sent on WhatsApp were also deleted from your smartphone's memory, you can try to recover them by backing up your conversations, provided that you have previously enabled WhatsApp's autosave feature on Google Drive and/or locally, as I explained in my guide dedicated to the topic, or manually made a backup of your conversations.

It goes without saying that the date of the backup, whether automatic or manual, must be before the date you deleted the video: to verify this, start the WhatsApp app, tap on the button (⋮) located in the upper right corner and tap on Settings in the menu that opens.

Next, go to Backup > Chat backups, and finally, check the date and time indicated next to the word Last backup. If the date the backup was created was actually before the date you deleted the video, you can easily recover the video using WhatsApp's restore feature. Please note, however, that you will lose all messages (along with their media files) that you have received and sent since the backup date.

It is also imperative that you include saving videos in your backups (this can be accomplished by turning on the Include Videos toggle in the Settings > Chats > WhatsApp Chat Backup panel).

Is this clear? OK, let's proceed. First, uninstall the WhatsApp app from your phone using the "classic" procedure provided by Android: in principle, you must make a long tap on its icon (the one located in the drawer), tap on Uninstall attached to the menu that appears on the screen (or "drag" the icon to the trash can that appears at the top of the screen) and, finally, click on the OK button. For more in-depth information on uninstalling apps on Android, you can consult the guide I dedicated to the topic.

Now, follow the instructions that are most appropriate for you, depending on whether you have backups stored on Google Drive or on your phone's local storage.

• Backing up to Google Drive - re-download WhatsApp from the Google Play Store, launch the app and follow the usual initial setup steps: verify your phone number, wait for theconfirmation SMS to arrive (enter the security code in the field provided if necessary) and confirm your intention to restore chats from your previous backup data. Once the files have been restored, you simply need to choose the name you want to display and your profile photo in order to use the application again.
• Local backup - before you can even proceed with restoring the app, you must "force" WhatsApp to read the data from your local backup. To do this, go to your Google Drive dashboard and sign in with your Google account on Android. When you are logged in, click on the WhatsApp Messenger tile and click on the Remove Sign In and OK buttons to temporarily stop the app from using Google Drive to save/restore data. Once this is done, reinstall and configure WhatsApp again by following the same steps I gave you in the previous step.

Once you have restored your backup, you can find your previously deleted videos (as well as photos and other files) in the chats in which you received them: to do this, open the chat you are interested in, tap on the (⋮) button in the upper right corner, and tap on Media in the menu that appears.

Recover deleted videos from WhatsApp Android via the cloud

If you have activated automatic saving of WhatsApp media folders to Google Photos, or manually uploaded (and then deleted) videos to other cloud services, such as Dropbox or OneDrive, there is a good chance that the videos you deleted from your phone are still there, ready to be recovered.

If you have previously set up Google Photos to upload images and videos to the cloud (by activating the Backup & Sync toggle when you first access the app) and then enabled automatic saving of the WhatsApp video folder (by answering yes to the onscreen notification), then the deleted videos are almost certainly safe on Google's dedicated space.

To access them, all you have to do is open the Google Photos app, go to the Albums tab (below) and select the WhatsApp Video album.

If you have also deleted whatsapp videos from Google Photos, you can attempt to retrieve them from the app's Recycle Bin (where deleted items remain for 30 days before being permanently deleted). To access the Recycle Bin, tap the ☰ button in the upper left corner of the screen and choose Recycle Bin from the menu that appears.

Next, tap on the video you wish to restore and tap the Restore button to return it to your WhatsApp Video album. Please note that deleted files are stored in the recycle bin for 30 days, after which they are permanently deleted from the cloud.

If you are reading this guide as a preventative measure, you can turn on WhatsApp Video folder backup in Google Photos as follows: after launching the app, tap the ☰ button in the upper left corner, choose Settings and Backup & Sync, and if necessary, turn on the toggle at the top of the new panel that appears.

In order to take advantage of the free storage space, set the Upload size option to High quality (unlimited storage space). Next, tap on the Device Folders option and move the toggle next to WhatsApp Video (and any other folders you wish to back up) to ON.

For more information on automatic backups and how the Google Photos app works, I encourage you to read my guide dedicated specifically to this service.

Excuse me? You had WhatsApp videos stored on Dropbox or OneDrive, but in a moment of anger, you deleted them there as well? Don't worry, you can also use the recycle bin on both cloud platforms to restore deleted videos.

As for Dropbox, the recycle bin is not integrated within the app but can only be visited via the service's web panel. The files remain for 30 days inside it, before being permanently deleted.

To access it, start the browser you use to browse the Internet (e.g. Chrome), go to dropbox.com, tap on the Sign In button in the top right corner and enter your email address and password in the fields provided.

Once you've logged in, tap on the ☰ button in the top left corner, choose File from the new panel that appears, then tap the ☰ button again and select Recently Deleted. Once you've located the movie you want to recover, tap on its icon and then the Restore button, located at the bottom of the displayed pane, to restore it to your Dropbox files.

If you have the OneDrive app, however, you can access the Recycle Bin by tapping on the Me tab (bottom right) and selecting Recycle Bin from the menu that appears. Once you've located the video you want to recover, tap on its icon and, to restore it, tap on the circular arrow icon with the clock that appears at the top.

Other methods to recover deleted videos from WhatsApp Android

Wait a minute, are you telling me that you do not have any useful backups and there is no trace of the videos you want to recover on the cloud, so you could not recover deleted videos from WhatsApp Android?

At this point, the best advice I can give you is to use some specific software aimed at recovering deleted files. Since the chances of recovery vary depending on your use of the device (the more files that were created/edited after the video was deleted, the less likely it is that the recovery will be successful), I cannot guarantee you a 100% success rate, but it is still worth a try.

To get detailed information about the programs available for the purpose and their methods of use, I invite you to read my guide on how to recover data from mobile phone, in which I had the opportunity to deepen the issue.

Finally, if you don't have a computer at your disposal, you can try to perform the recovery using some specific Android apps, which I told you about in my tutorial on how to recover deleted videos on Android: again, I can't guarantee the success of the file recovery, but it's better than nothing.

Frequently asked questions and answers