WhatsApp 2.12.45 Adds The Option To Back Up And Restore From Google Drive

I know it seems that we have a new WhatsApp post every couple of days on Android Police lately, but it ain't our fault. The app's developers, specifically the Android team, appear to be drinking the good kind of kool-aid and kicking one new version after the other with not only bug fixes, but also lots of new goodies. So first there was the Web "client", then the saga of the voice calling featurerollout, followed by the Material design update, and now Google Drive is being implemented as a backup option inside the app.

It was only a few weeks ago that we received translation strings that hinted at WhatsApp's potential plan to enable backing up and restoring your conversation history and media to Google Drive. But the function just went live in the app's most recent version 2.12.45 which can be found on APK Mirror — the official WhatsApp Android download page still lists 2.12.44 at the time the article is being written.

Once you install the update, head into the app's Settings, Chat settings, Chat Backup, and you'll see a new screen that shows your last backup time and a list of greyed out Google Drive settings. Change the frequency from off to daily (or weekly or monthly), and you'll be able to pick up a Google account for the backup as well as choose whether you want it to use Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

You'll then have to wait for 4:00 am when WhatsApp usually does its daily backup for the magic to happen. If you're impatient, you can initiate it by tapping the top Back up now option, which first does a local backup then starts sending the data to Google Drive. However, you should be aware that there's no stopping the backup once it starts and the size is quite large if you have received and sent a lot of media through the app. Even though I had the app set to only use Wi-Fi, I tried turning Wi-Fi off, but the backup had already initiated and it kept chugging along using my data connection. I'm not sure if it's a bug only on my phone or if it's a widespread one, so proceed with caution.

For now, my personal backup hasn't finished uploading so I don't know what data is exactly sent during the process. Comparing the size of the backup to my local WhatsApp folders, I'm certain it doesn't just contain the conversation history and I'm pretty confident that all images are included but videos aren't (just like the translation strings hinted at). I'm also not sure if the data will be visible inside Google Drive or kept hidden and only accessible when the app initiates a restore. We'll update the post when we have more information.

More information

To answer some of our (and your) questions regarding the backups:

Backups are incremental, which means that WhatsApp will upload everything once, then only the changes daily/weekly/monthly.
Backed up data is hidden inside Google Drive. Open your Drive on the web, go to Settings, Manage Apps and you'll see WhatsApp listed as having hidden data.
Videos aren't backed up, only conversations and photos.
When you install WhatsApp again (on a new or the same phone), after you log in with your phone number, the app will check to see if there's a Google Drive backup (it will still check for local backups too) associated with your account and offer you one shot to restore your entire data from the cloud.

Comments

Google is using machine learning to teach robots how to grasp random objects

Using your hand to grasp a pen that’s lying on your desk doesn’t exactly feel like a chore, but for robots, that’s still a really hard thing to do. So to teach robots how to better grasp random objects, Google’s research team dedicated 14 robots to the task . The standard way to solve this problem would be for the robot to survey the environment, create a plan for how to grasp the object, then execute on it. In the real world, though, lots of things can change between formulating that plan and executing on it. Google is now using these robots to train a deep convolutional neural network (a technique that’s all the rage in machine learning right now) to help its robots predict the outcome of their grasps based on the camera input and motor commands. It’s basically hand-eye coordination for robots. The team says that it took about 3,000 hours of practice (and 800,000 grasp attempts) before it saw “the beginnings of intelligent reacti...

How ad-free subscriptions could solve Facebook

At the core of Facebook’s “well-being” problem is that its business is directly coupled with total time spent on its apps. The more hours you pass on the social network, the more ads you see and click, the more money it earns. That puts its plan to make using Facebook healthier at odds with its finances, restricting how far it’s willing to go to protect us from the harms of over use. The advertising-supported model comes with some big benefits, though. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Ads lets Facebook remain free for those who don’t want to pay, and more importantly, for those around the world who couldn’t afford to. Ads pay for Facebook to keep the lights on, research and develop new technologies, and profit handsomely in a way that attracts top talent and further investment. More affluent users with more buying power in markets like the US, UK, and Canada command higher ad prices, effectively...

Sonatype Snares $30 Million Investment Led By Goldman Sachs

Sonatype , a company that helps customers create automated, policy-driven software component security, announced a $30 million round today led by Goldman Sachs. The investment was a mix of debt and equity financing and was handled by Goldman’s Principal Strategic Investments Group, rather than Goldman’s venture capital arm, Sonatype CEO Wayne Jackson explained. Although this may seem a subtle distinction, he says that Strategic Investments only makes investments in products that are central to the company’s mission (as the name implies), whereas the venture arm makes lots of different kinds of investments. Sonatype works to ensure that open source components used in much of Goldman’s (and just about every company’s) software are safe and up-to-date in an automated fashion. “Today, open source components underpin a vast majority of our most mission-critical applications at the firm. As we work to build, maintain and update these applications, w...

Amazon Is Giving Away Unlimited Cloud Storage For $5.00

Amid a slew of deep discounts appearing on the web today as a part of the shopping holiday Black Friday, Amazon has introduced one deal that’s sort of a no brainer. The company is giving away unlimited online storage on its cloud servers for just five dollars. The normal price for this is $60 per year, so this – 92% off – represents a significant savings. The deal is aimed at promoting Amazon’s Cloud Drive service – an online storage site that competes with similar services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft’s OneDrive, and more. Cloud Drive allows you to store documents, music, photos, videos and other files in the cloud, which you can access from any web-connected device, including smartphones and tablets by way of Amazon’s Cloud Drive mobile applications. However, be aware that if you’re planning to use the now $5 service primarily for photo backups, you may already have that option enabled. Amazon Prime currently offers free, unlimited pho...

Web Designer in Pondicherry

It where provide responsive designs at low cost get your Quote at Itwhere Send your Requirement at info@itwheretech.co.in

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog