There’s a WhatsApp security feature you’ve probably turned on without knowing it, and it can now give you a headache. We are talking about WhatsApp backups in Google Drive, which, with a new change, will begin to be taken into account in the total calculation of the space used in our Google account.
Many people don’t know this, but WhatsApp backups have been “free” on Google Drive since 2018. These copies are made periodically and include both the chats that we have started in the application, as well as multimedia files such as photos (videos can also be included as an option).
The great advantage of this system is that it does not matter if our mobile phone breaks down or if we lose the data stored in its memory; We will always have a backup copy available in the cloud, which will be recovered automatically when we log in on another mobile phone. It’s no exaggeration to say that this feature has saved many people; Unfortunately, many users will have to deactivate it now
Since 2018, Google has offered free storage for WhatsApp backups, but it started changing its mind in 2022; Finally, in November 2023, Meta announced that WhatsApp backup will be counted as storage in Google Drive in early 2024. This means that Google will count all the gigabytes of data that these files occupy in our personal storage for the limit that we have contracted . If we have a free Google account, it means that We will have a maximum of 15 GB for all our files, including WhatsApp files.
If we have accumulated files and videos on WhatsApp over the years, it is very likely that we reach 15 GB; and if this is our case, we will suddenly start experiencing problems with Google Drive. To start, Google will block downloading more files once 15 GB is exceeded, which may affect the functioning of other applications such as Google Photos which have automatic photo uploads and Gmail due to email attachments.
But the worst, without a doubt, is that Google can delete all our files, including WhatsApp files and the rest of applications like Google Photos, to recover the space we have occupied; Although this extreme measure is only applied if we exceed our space quota for more than two years, it is something to take into account because we could lose absolutely all of our files stored in the cloud, such as photographs, videos and documents. For this reason, Google promises that it will always inform us through notifications and emails before deleting files from Google Drive.
How to avoid deleting chats
Although Meta did not give a specific date, some users are already seeing that the change has been made and that their WhatsApp files are already reflected in Google Drive storage; although it appears to be a gradual change that will gradually affect all users.
Meta guarantees that WhatsApp will notify us with a notification when the change is made; although the first affected users claim not to have received it. To find out if the modification has already been made to our account, we must open the Google One application and enter the “Storage” section; There, where it is shown how our storage is used, we will see a new entry called “Others”, and if we click on it we will see “WhatsApp”. This will indicate the amount of space occupied by our WhatsApp files, and we can delete or download them by clicking on the name of the application, which will take us to a new window where we can see the WhatsApp files.
If we have so many files that they already take up all the space we have in Google Drive, we have two options. We can download the files to our computer, mobile phone or tablet using the Google One application or the Google Drive page; Then you need to remember disable automatic backup on WhatsApp before deleting Drive files so that they do not take up more space. This way, at least we won’t lose our WhatsApp files.
The second option is buy more Google Drive space, with a paid subscription; The standard 200GB plan at $2.99 per month should be enough for most users, although there are also 2TB, 5GB, and 10TB plans with additional benefits.
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