Can't back up chats

[goldfan]

My phone stopped backing up whatsapp in May and will not back up manually. The phone is doing all sorts of odd things and needs factory reset but I don't want to lose chats between May and now. It is expensive to use a third party app just for one backup, I can access the whatsapp folder on the sd card but it only has actual backups so where do I find chats between the last backup and now?

 

[KarmaHunter]

My phone stopped backing up whatsapp in May and will not back up manually. The phone is doing all sorts of odd things and needs factory reset but I don't want to lose chats between May and now. It is expensive to use a third party app just for one backup, I can access the whatsapp folder on the sd card but it only has actual backups so where do I find chats between the last backup and now?

WA chats are encrypted and copy and paste the folder will not restore your chats. You need to find out why is not backing up to Google otherwise, no luck!!!

But if you only need the information on the chats, you can Export Chat (under Chat History) and chat will be saved as a text file.

 

[goldfan]

WA chats are encrypted and copy and paste the folder will not restore your chats. You need to find out why is not backing up to Google otherwise, no luck!!!

But if you only need the information on the chats, you can Export Chat (under Chat History) and chat will be saved as a text file.

 

[goldfan]

Thanks for the reply. Problem is the phone is doing so many odd things, wont download apps, wont open attachments (email or WA) won't save photos etc so the only common thing I can think of that will cause several seemingly unconnected things is a corruption somewhere which is why I want to do a factory reset.
I had considered the text file route although I would prefer the in app history. Maybe a third party app is the answer.
Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

[Milo Williamson]

Thanks for the reply. Problem is the phone is doing so many odd things, wont download apps, wont open attachments (email or WA) won't save photos etc so the only common thing I can think of that will cause several seemingly unconnected things is a corruption somewhere which is why I want to do a factory reset.
I had considered the text file route although I would prefer the in app history. Maybe a third party app is the answer.
Thanks again for the suggestions.

Third party is always the downfall to cells.

 

[Hadron]

Third party is always the downfall to cells.

I use almost entirely third party apps. But not the sort that is being referred to here.

What actually happens when you try to back up? All you've told us is that it's not backing up, but not what the symptoms are or what you've tried to fix it. That might help with identifying the problem.

 

[goldfan]

I use almost entirely third party apps. But not the sort that is being referred to here.

What actually happens when you try to back up? All you've told us is that it's not backing up, but not what the symptoms are or what you've tried to fix it. That might help with identifying the problem.

When I press the 'update' button in chat backup, it says 'unable to backup messages'. I have tried all the suggestions from googling 'unable to back up whatsapp message' eg google account, phone number etc etc, but the thing is it was backing up fine until mid May so that is what leads me to suspect a corruption somewhere. The thing I havent tried is uninstalling and reinstalling playstore, or other apps because as I mentioned earlier, the phone now won't install or update apps so if I uninstall play store I might not be able to reinstall it. I have tried unmounting the SD card, then remounting it, all to no avail. Hence my belief that the phone wants resetting.

 

[Hadron]

Is it backing up to a removable sd card then? I stress "removable" because /sdcard isn't actually an sd card, it's part of the internal storage. If it is backing up to a removable card can you try backing up to internal storage (if you have space)?

Of course one of the commonest reasons people lose the ability to install apps is lack of space in the internal storage, so given your other problems that may not be an option. The phone needs some internal free storage as working space, so will block installs before it runs out. The limit varies, but if you have just a GB or so left that's very likely the problem.

 

[goldfan]

Is it backing up to a removable sd card then? I stress "removable" because /sdcard isn't actually an sd card, it's part of the internal storage. If it is backing up to a removable card can you try backing up to internal storage (if you have space)?

Of course one of the commonest reasons people lose the ability to install apps is lack of space in the internal storage, so given your other problems that may not be an option. The phone needs some internal free storage as working space, so will block installs before it runs out. The limit varies, but if you have just a GB or so left that's very likely the problem.

Yes, the SD card is fomatted as internal so it can't be removed and checked. There is about 1.5G free but I can't free up any more because for some reason, it doesn't seem to delete stuff, even junk files, photos etc, it just says it is deleting them but doesn't. I deleted all the apps on the SD card and file manager says they are gone but it still reports the same amount of memory is used as before the apps were deleted. It looks like the whole thing is corrupted so I guess the answer is to export the chats as text files and media and do a factory reset.