Being one of the most used apps for daily conversations, WhatsApp now plays an important role in everyone’s life not only to stay in touch with friends, relatives, and colleagues but also to keep records of official communications, media files, and documents. Due to its significance, many iOS users might be curious and think, does iTunes backup include WhatsApp?
Well, if you are one of them, you’re at the right place. In the following sections, not only this question will be answered but you will also learn a lot more about that.
Does iTunes backup include WhatsApp?
A quick and straightforward answer would be, YES, it does.
People who have already tried it know that iTunes does back up your WhatsApp chats and almost all the other iOS data to your computer unless any particular app has been exclusively configured not to do so for security reasons. And obviously, WhatsApp isn’t among those programs.
So, once again, yes, iTunes does back up your WhatsApp chat messages along with other WhatsApp data such as photos, videos, audio, files, and more.
How to check if your iTunes backup includes WhatsApp chats
If you follow the method that Apple recommends, the only way to check this is by restoring the iTunes backup on your iOS device. However, this might not be something that you want, at least not every time. Do you?
This is where an efficient third-party tool comes into play. A program that does the job best is iToolab WatsGo. Although WatsGo is a paid software, its free trial version allows you to scan your iTunes backup, look into it, and lets you preview the contents of the backup file which also includes WhatsApp messages.
The step-by-step process of how to check whether iTunes backup includes WhatsApp chats with iToolab WatsGo is explained as follows.
Step 1: Install the App
Download and install iToolab WatsGo from the official website. Launch the program. Click to select WhatsApp Restore from the home page.
Step 2: Select an iTunes Backup
On the next window, select the iTunes Backup tab and choose the backup you want to view. Then click View Backup.
Step 3: Preview WhatsApp Data
Wait while WatsGo scans your iTunes backup for available WhatsApp chats. It will be soon shown on the next window. You can preview your WhatsApp chats including media files to confirm if iTunes backed up the chats you need.
Note: If you purchased a license key for the app, you can safely restore the WhatsApp messages and attachments to your device or export the data you want to your computer.
How to restore only WhatsApp chats from iTunes backup
After knowing the answer to the question ‘does iTunes backup include WhatsApp’, the next thing that you may ask is, how to restore only WhatsApp chats from iTunes backup?
As described in the previous section, while the free version of iToolab WatsGo lets you preview the contents of iTunes backups in detail, its paid version enables you to restore WhatsApp data from the backup file to your device or export the data to your computer. What’s more, it transfers WhatsApp data across devices of different platforms, i.e., from iOS to Android and vice versa, and also restores WhatsApp data from Google backup.
Being particularly designed and developed to transfer, back up, restore, and export WhatsApp chats and other data, iToolab WatsGo is considered one of the most efficient programs that do a good job of managing WhatsApp data.
You can learn how to use WatsGo to restore only WhatsApp chats and attachments from iTunes backup by following the instructions given below.
When the scan of the iTunes backup is complete (the guide is offered in the above part) and the WhatsApp chats and other data are displayed, you can click to select the chats individually to preview their contents. Optionally, you can also preview the media files and other attachments under the Media & Documents category in the left pane.
Once you’re done previewing, click Restore to device from the bottom-right corner. On the next window, when WatsGo prompts, use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to the PC, and click Restore to restore WhatsApp chats from iTunes backup to your device.
Conclusion
While the question ‘does iTunes backup include WhatsApp’ haunts many iOS users, the answer is YES, it does. However, if you ever want to access those WhatsApp conversations by following the method that Apple recommends, you must restore the entire iTunes backup which will also bring back many unwanted details and files that might be useless to you. If you don’t want this, you should use an efficient third-party application that enables you to preview your WhatsApp chats, and then allows you to selectively restore them directly on your device or to a PC.
