• Off TopicPixel 6a
  • Trying to recover/find lost WhatsApp message history after OS update

Hi. I have a pretty serious problem with loss of needed WhatsApp history that occurred yesterday, with the same timing an automatic OS update was installed. Didn't get anywhere with a lot of fiddling around and web searching, hopefully someone will have an idea for the right direction(s) to try.

The solution should involve finding and copying for safekeeping my WhatsApp message database or more likely its backups that WA makes, either from /Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases or /data/data/com.whatsapp, but I have no idea how to access the latter (if it's even possible without modifications which require data wiping first, through stock recovery, adb, or anything, tried some things which didn't work; WhatsApp release is not a debuggable app) and the former folder strangely doesn't include any recent databases/files (and hadn't before this problem happened, either, to my puzzlement), or otherwise I can't see and access them through the stock file manager or other file managers due to Android access weirdness, but that'd be extra weird because I can see other files there fine (/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media contains recent files as it should, as does the /Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Backups folder, the contents of which unfortunately are just small files which aren't relevant to message history).

So seemingly, although that's the folder that's supposed to store message history backups, unless there are some files there I can't see after all, /Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases was never used for me on GrapheneOS by WA past the initial WA install - the only files visible there are old files I placed manually myself about 6 months ago to restore my messages on the first WA install on GrapheneOS, copied from my previous phone. It could be that backups were never made at all and I'm screwed, or that they're somehow somewhere else, or that there's something useful under /data/data which is supposed to hold the current in-use database at the least.
Under /Android/data/com.whatsapp I only see some cache files, and there isn't a WhatsApp folder that I can see under /Android/obb.

WA is installed in the Owner profile, which doesn't have Google Play installed currently, so no Google Drive backup, unfortunately. The scenario that happened yesterday was: I unlocked my phone, saw a notification from about 30 minutes ago saying a GrapheneOS update was installed and to restart. I immediately opened WhatsApp to send something, and WA showed me a message popup I've never seen before, something along the lines of "Something went wrong with your chat history. You can restore chat history from backup. If you don't restore now, you won't be able to restore later.", with an option to restore and to cancel. Maybe my fatal error was that I tapped "restore", after which the app crashed. I opened the app and did the same thing again, crash again. Then I restarted the phone to complete the OS update. Maybe it would've been fine if I immediately restarted when WA first showed that message. After the restart, WA opened and worked normally, except all my message history was gone.

If I can find any copy of a recent database, it would solve the problem. Normally it's supposed to be an easy fix, normally just to copy from /Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases for safekeeping, reinstall WA or clear data for it, ensure the pre-copied database is placed under that path where it should be, then start WA and have it restore from file. But there seems to be nothing for me in that Databases folder.

2 months later

Were you able to figure out anything? I just installed and setup Whatsapp in a similar fashion to you and (while I don't need it yet) would like to ensure I have a good backup without using google play.

I noticed that the /Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases wasn't updating - and that when I click the button to create a new backup it looks like it works from within the app, but I was unable to find it.

Already had messages from people today so hopefully I don't have to lose them with a reinstall or something.