How To Stop WhatsApp Backup On iPhone And Android In WhatsApp, Google Drive, iCloud, Or In Settings

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With WhatsApp being the go-to messaging app for over a billion users, it becomes imperative to take care of your privacy.

Hackers can gain unauthorized access to the WhatsApp chats in your WhatsApp backup on iCloud or Google Drive. As the backup is not encrypted, anyone with access to your iCloud or Google Drive account can read your messages.

To prevent that from happening, all you can do is stop WhatsApp backup.

In our tutorial, we have listed the ways showing how to stop WhatsApp backup for both Android devices and iPhones.

Also Read: How To Export Contacts On WhatsApp

Stop WhatsApp Backup On Android

If we talk about Android, WhatsApp messages are sent as a backup to Google Drive.

It can sometimes become really necessary to stop the backup. The main reason is when we have some confidential information sent in the chats. Keeping this fact in mind, here are a couple of ways that we can use to disable WhatsApp backup using the WhatsApp Android app and Google Drive.

Read on!

Using WhatsApp Settings

Using the WhatsApp settings for preventing WhatsApp backup is really easy and doesn’t take much time. Just follow the simple steps given below.

  1. Open WhatsApp on your device and tap on the three dots at the top right corner.
  2. After that, select the Settings option.
  3. Now tap on the Chats option.
  4. In the next step, select Chat backup.
    Prevent WhatsApp backup on Google Drive
  5. Now in Google Drive settings, tap on Back up to Google Drive.
  6. Now Finally, select the Never option.
    Stop WhatsApp backup on Android

With these simple steps, your WhatsApp will no longer do an automatic backup to Google Drive.

However, if you want to start the backup again, follow the same steps and choose the option according to your choice, like daily or weekly.

Using Google Drive

Another simple method to switch off the WhatsApp backup is doing so directly in Google Drive. The following are the steps to make this method work.

  1. Open the Google Drive app on your device.
  2. Tap on the Hamburger (three-line) icon at the top left of the screen.three line icon
  3. Now select the Backups from the various options available.select backups
  4. In the next step, click on the three-dot icon available in front of the WhatsApp Backup.
  5. Now select Turn off backup. With this, the automatic backup will be stopped.turn off WhatsApp backups on Google Drive

You can also watch our video:

YouTube player

How To Restart WhatsApp Backup On Android

You can start the backup again if you want. For that, the steps are given below.

  1. Open WhatsApp and tap on the three dots icon at the top right of the screen.

    three dot icon
  2. Now tap on Settings.

    select settings
  3. After that, tap on Chats and then Chat backup.

    select chat and chat backup
  4. Now if you try to back up your chats by selecting the Back Up option, a yellow window will appear and ask for permission.
  5. Tap on that window to give permission for Back up.Permission to backup disabled

Finally, your WhatsApp messenger backup has started again.

Turn Off WhatsApp Backup On iCloud

In the case of an iPhone, WhatsApp data is backed up on iCloud. But as the messages and other data that we backup are not encrypted, it is better to prevent them from being backed up.

Using WhatsApp

The steps to stop WhatsApp backup using the app are given below.

  1. Launch WhatsApp and go to the Settings at the bottom right corner.
  2. Now select the Chats option.
    Stop WhatsApp chat backup
  3. In the next step, tap on Chat Backup.
  4. Now, tap on Auto Backup and select Off.
    Prevent WhatsApp Backup

Now your WhatsApp data will stop backing up on iCloud. Although you can turn on the backup option whenever you want.

Using iPhone Settings

There is one more way to do so. For this, you don’t need to open up your WhatsApp account. Follow the steps given to disable WhatsApp backup on iPhone.

  1. Open your iPhone Settings and tap on your name at the top.
  2. Now, select iCloud.
  3. Scroll down until you find WhatsApp.
  4. Toggle it off.
    how to stop whatsapp backup on iphone

Doing either one of the above will disable your WhatsApp data from uploading to iCloud.

Also Read: WhatsApp Pros And Cons

How To Stop Whatsapp Chat Backup In Progress On Android Or iPhone

Unfortunately, the app does not have a backup feature setting that allows stopping a WhatsApp backup that is already in progress.

But you can still do it with a simple trick. You can turn off the network connection on your device during the backup process.

Please note that this method may leave you with a partially damaged backup that you won’t be able to use for restoring WhatsApp. If your phone gets damaged, you won’t be able to use this backup to recover your WhatsApp messages.

It is similar to the case when WhatsApp backup gets stuck.

Also, this method may affect other functions, features, and apps running on the device. For example, the auto-update of apps might be interrupted or your chat won’t work anymore.

FAQs

Where is WhatsApp backup stored?

To find the local WhatsApp backup in your phone, go to File Manager, tap on Browse, and search for WhatsApp. The list of files shown on the screen. Tap the meatball menu of any of the items and tap File Info. You will see where it is in your phone internal storage.

How do I stop WhatsApp backup in progress?

To stop WhatsApp backup in progress, turn off your network connection. It will immediately stop any backups you might have in progress.

Now You Know How To Stop WhatsApp Backup

Everything has some pros as well as some cons, the same case goes with the WhatsApp backup feature. Sometimes, the feature can do more harm than good. That’s why we wrote this post about how to stop WhatsApp backup on various devices using multiple ways.

WhatsApp backup is important as it helps us recover deleted messages on WhatsApp. You can even move your WhatsApp backup from one phone ecosystem to another, for example from iOS (iCloud) to Android or from Google Drive to iCloud.

However, as we exchange personal and confidential information on WhatsApp, turning off backup might be a good idea when it comes to security.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

About The Author

  • Hemant Mendiratta

    Hemant Mendiratta is a co-founder of TechUntold and a passionate tech blogger, avid gamer, and social media guru who keenly monitors useful apps and gadgets. He is the ideator of our Instagram tool StoryHoot which allows watching Instagram stories anonymously. You can connect with him on: Facebook, Twitter.

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Hemant Mendiratta

Hemant Mendiratta is a co-founder of TechUntold and a passionate tech blogger, avid gamer, and social media guru who keenly monitors useful apps and gadgets. He is the ideator of our Instagram tool StoryHoot which allows watching Instagram stories anonymously. You can connect with him on: Facebook, Twitter.

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