How to encrypt your WhatsApp backups on Google Drive

How to encrypt your WhatsApp backups on Google Drive

For a few years, WhatsApp communications have been encrypted end-to-end. This means that the sender and recipient’s chats cannot be observed or intercepted by a third party. This significantly improves the safety of conversing on the Meta-owned platform. The issue is that WhatsApp backups on Google Drive are not encrypted by default, which means that a hacker or law enforcement agency might download and examine your chat history.

End-to-end encryption for cloud backups has been put out by WhatsApp, but it is not enabled by default. If you want to make your WhatsApp backups on Google Drive even safer, you should encrypt them.

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There are a few things you should know before encrypting your WhatsApp cloud backups. To protect the backups, you’ll need a seven-character password with at least one number or a 64-digit encryption key. You must never forget this password/encryption key since else you will be unable to restore your backups. Even if you want to change the encryption key/password, you must first enter the old one.

If you disable end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp will stop backing up your chat and media history to Google Drive. You’ll have to manually turn on cloud backups once more.

How to encrypt your WhatsApp backups on Google Drive

How to Enable End-to-End Encryption for Google Drive Backups for WhatsApp

Before you begin, make sure you have the most recent version of WhatsApp downloaded from Google Play.

  • On your Android smartphone, open WhatsApp. Navigate to Settings > Chats > Chat backup using the 3-dot overflow menu button.
  • Turn on the End-to-end encrypted backup option after you’ve selected it.
  • You’ll be required to generate a password or a 64-digit key to encrypt your WhatsApp backups.
  • Continue by tapping Build and then wait for WhatsApp to create an encrypted backup. This backup will then be uploaded to Google Drive, depending on your backup preferences. To start the cloud backup procedure, you may need to charge your phone.

You’ll have to enter the password/encryption key every time you restore your WhatsApp cloud backup to another device. You won’t be able to restore the backup without it. The encryption key/password acts as a lock for your Google Drive-stored WhatsApp backup. There’s no way to unlock the backup if you ever forget it.

You may disable end-to-end encrypted backups for your WhatsApp chats using the same instructions, albeit you’ll have to enter the password/encryption key first for confirmation purposes.

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