This December brought a momentous change for those of us who use WhatsApp: the end of unlimited backups on Google, meaning that the chats, photos, videos and other documents we want to keep safe now occupy from space. . , a problem if the backup is of considerable size or if our Google account is free and we do not have additional storage. Although we always have the possibility of freeing up space on WhatsApp, for me this change in save storage didn’t cause any drama for me thanks to this tip.
When you already consider that your WhatsApp has what you want saved and nothing more (personally, I generally apply good cleaning practices on my phones and their respective applications), I am not ready to pay for storage Google and disable the copy security is not an option, the best thing you can do is simply use another Google account to save your WhatsApp backup.
This tip is simple, quick and costs nothing, so for me it is the best option available. On an Android phone, having a Google account is essential for tasks as basic as downloading apps from the Play Store or using Google Photos. But don’t panic: we will keep our main Google account for our needs like Gmail and we will have another secondary account for WhatsApp backup, so we will have up to 15 GB more to store our stuff.
How to Create a Second Google Account and Set It Up for WhatsApp Backup
To create a Google account, you don’t even need to open the browser: in ‘Settings‘ > ‘Passwords and accounts‘, we play on ‘Add an account‘ then we select ‘Google‘. At that time the interface to log in to Google will appear and, if you look carefully, in the upper area there is a blue message of ‘Create an account‘, precisely what interests us.
The procedure will now be the same: enter our data, choose an address and password and confirm the process. Once finished, on your Android phone there will be two Google accounts available for your use (assuming you only had one before).
The main account is still there and configured for everything else, but you need to change the WhatsApp settings so that backups are saved to the new account.
We open WhatsApp and tap on the icon with the three vertical dots in the upper right corner, following the route ‘Settings‘ > ‘Discussions‘ > ‘Security copy‘.
In the available options we enter ‘Google account‘ to verify that the account that appears intended to save the backup is our original account, but if we enter we will see that in the menu that appears is the new account created for this mission. We will only have to select it, press ‘To allow‘ and that’s it, after confirming the operation, the WhatsApp backup will be saved there, freeing up space on our main Google account.
The process does not stop there: it is about getting rid of the remains of WhatsApp copies (which take up space and which in fact can be critical if they are already rare) by going to the Google Drive site and tapping on settings (the gear icon), in ‘Manage apps‘, locate WhatsApp and in ‘Possibilities‘ > ‘Sign out of Drive‘.
Cover | Xataka Mexico
By | The Spanish
In Xataka Android | How to migrate your WhatsApp conversations when you launch a new Android
