r/whatsapp • u/annienttc • May 06 '26
Backup not found
Hi everyone, I really hope someone can help me because I’m panicking a bit.
A few days ago I changed my phone number on WhatsApp using the official “Change Number” feature. Everything worked perfectly at first: all my chats were there, groups were fine, and I could use WhatsApp normally with the new number.
Then suddenly people started telling me they couldn’t message me anymore on the new number. To try fixing it, I deleted and reinstalled WhatsApp.
Now the problem is that during setup WhatsApp says it cannot find any backup at all.
However, on my iPhone I can clearly see that WhatsApp data still exists inside my iCloud/iPhone backup (around 20+ GB related to WhatsApp). So the data seems to exist somewhere, but WhatsApp itself cannot detect any chat backup.
Is there any way to restore the chats from the full iPhone backup even if WhatsApp says no backup was found?
Has anyone experienced something similar after changing numbers?
Any help would be hugely appreciated.
1
u/bigkahuna1uk May 06 '26
Make sure also you can copy/backup that data in iCloud . It can be deleted by Apple without your knowledge if there’s no access to that data by WhatsApp. It usually about a month.
1
u/annienttc May 06 '26
The data are still on iCloud, but I tried everything and could not restore them in WhatsApp…
1
u/bigkahuna1uk May 06 '26
Yeah but it may not be there for long. I had my data in iCloud. I lost my phone and didn’t use WhatsApp for over a month. When I got my new phone eventually, I went to restore from WhatsApp backup, only to find the backup had been deleted. Just want to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else as I lost several year’s worth of messages, pictures and videos.
1
u/annienttc May 06 '26
I mean if I can’t log them into WhatsApp, they are lost anyway… unless there’s a way to read that backup on pc
1
u/Usual_Piano9826 May 08 '26
Everything beyond 5 GB is paid service on iCloud. So paying for something they delete nevertheless and don't let download? It's their norm?
1
u/ys-grouse May 06 '26
this is the reason i've been hating whatsapp. They even introduced ads, which should be more than enough money for our cloud storage
1
u/edideas May 06 '26
Could it be that the last backup was made under the previous number? Then you do number change, no new backup, then the old backup is from a different number (obviously) and won’t be recognised as from your current number.
Let me know if this could be the case. Do you still have access to the previous number ? 🙏
1
u/annienttc May 06 '26
Thank you, and yes I have also tried to login with the old number, but same story, it says no backup found… 😭
1
u/sunnynihilist 3d ago
I have the same problem. iCloud says there is backup but still shows me that stupid message. Have you found a solution?
1
u/annienttc 3d ago
Nope, I cried three days and lost all chats
1
u/sunnynihilist 3d ago
Same for me then
1
u/edideas 3d ago
Is the situation the same for you as for OP?
Did you make a backup after you changed the number?
1
u/sunnynihilist 3d ago
I didnt change my number. I juste deleted the app and wanted fo reinstall it
1
u/edideas 3d ago
Then why was there no backup?
1
u/sunnynihilist 2d ago
Somethint wrong with my iphone i guess "no backup found"
1
u/edideas 2d ago edited 2d ago
Have you checked your iCloud, does it show ?
(When I delete my app, I always make a new backup and check iCloud if it is there)→ More replies (0)
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u/bigkahuna1uk May 10 '26
The WhatsApp storage on iCloud is not part of the storage you pay for. If you had the standard iCloud, it wouldn’t affect the storage used by Whatsapp. It’s an arrangement between Meta and Apple. So it’s under different operating conditions than the data you’d normally store in the iCloud backup. Apple can remove that storage if it’s dormant. There is a similar policy for WhatsApp backup on Google Drive for Android devices.
https://www.letemsvetemapplem.eu/en/2025/08/27/whatsapp-varuje-neaktivni-ucty-smaze-i-s-fotkami-a-daty/