XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.os.windows-11
From: mariasophia@comprehension.com
PSA: Emergency backup of WhatsApp to Windows PC when Android USB is kaput
I. No Cloud Storage (for the obvious privacy reasons)
II. No Google Account on the phone (for immense privacy advantages)
III. No Internet whatsoever (privacy is the name of the game)
Tested only on Android 13 Samsung Galaxy A32-5G on Windows 10 with adb.
I am "new" to WhatsApp because I only use it for two reasons:
a. Communicate with people in Germany who don't use SMS/MMS
b. Receive hundreds of videos per week of the grandkids
As far as I know, WhatsApp stores three categories of data:
1. Message databases (encrypted .crypt14 files)
2. Media (photos, videos, audio, documents)
3. Local backup metadata (inside Backups/)
If you have all three, you have everything WhatsApp itself would use
(I think) in order to restore your chats on a new phone.
1. Databases -> encrypted message history
2. Media -> all photos, videos, audio, documents
3. Backups -> metadata WhatsApp uses during restore
4. Hidden folders (.Thumbs, .StickerThumbs, .Shared, .trash)
(this is normal WhatsApp internal stuff)
On my non-rooted Samsung Galaxy A32-5G 64GB+128GB, Android 13
a. Wireless debugging is already paired & connected
b. FOSS "adb devices" shows my phone as a "device"
c. The backup directory H:\AndroidBackup\WhatsApp exists
STEP 1: Verify adb connection
C:\> adb devices
List of devices attached
192.168.1.4:33467 device
STEP 2: Confirm whatsapp storage location
C:\> adb shell ls /sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp
WhatsApp
C:\> adb shell ls /sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp
Backups
Databases
Media
STEP 3: Back up all whatsapp data to Windows
C:\> adb pull /sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp H:\An
roidBackup\WhatsApp
/sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/: 2604 files pulled, 0
skipped. 2.4 MB/s (2298923038 bytes in 896.170s)
This copies all WhatsApp local data: messages, media, backups)
Including WhatsApp/Media/ & WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore-*.db.crypt*
STEP 4: (Optional) Check that we got the entire database
NOTE: adb pull creates a nested folder if the destination already exists.
Example: pulling "WhatsApp" into an existing "H:\AndroidBackup\WhatsApp"
resulted in "H:\AndroidBackup\WhatsApp\WhatsApp".
a. Check that 3 main folders (plus other stuff) exists
C:\> dir H:\AndroidBackup\WhatsApp\WhatsApp
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .Thumbs
02/04/2026 06:22 PM Databases
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .StickerThumbs
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .trash
02/04/2026 06:22 PM Backups
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .Shared
02/04/2026 06:22 PM Media
0 File(s) 9 Dir(s)
b. Check the databases folder
C:\> dir H:\AndroidBackup\WhatsApp\WhatsApp\Databases
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 6,735 msgstore-increment-1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 32,456 msgstore-increment-2-2026
01-19.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 7,551 msgstore-increment-2.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 15,266 msgstore-increment-2-2026
01-25.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 2,911 msgstore-increment-3.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 12,485 msgstore-increment-3-2026
01-25.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 19,955 msgstore-increment-3-2026
01-19.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 17,303 msgstore-increment-4-2026
01-25.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 10,481 msgstore-increment-4-2026
01-19.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 18,471 msgstore-increment-5-2026
01-25.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 9,523 msgstore-increment-4.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 3,562,081 msgstore.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 6,943 msgstore-increment-5-2026
01-19.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 25,678 msgstore-increment-1-2026
01-25.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 3,322,618 msgstore-2026-01-19.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 3,443,686 msgstore-2026-01-25.1.db.crypt14
02/04/2026 06:22 PM 31,975 msgstore-increment-1-2026
01-19.1.db.crypt14
17 File(s)
The presence of both the full backup & the incremental backups tells
us WhatsApp was actively maintaining its local history.
a. msgstore.db.crypt14 [current full message database]
b. msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt14 [daily automatic snapshots]
c. msgstore-increment-*.db.crypt14 [storage optimization incremental
backups]
Apparently 3,562,081 bytes msgstore.db.crypt14 is a normal size for a
light
WhatsApp user such as I am. The dated backups are in the same size range,
which is exactly what we want. The incrementals are small by design.
c. Check the media folder
C:\ dir H:\AndroidBackup\WhatsApp\WhatsApp\Media
02/04/2026 06:22 PM WhatsApp Bug Report Attachments
02/04/2026 06:22 PM WhatsApp AI Media
02/04/2026 06:22 PM WhatsApp Sticker Packs
02/04/2026 06:22 PM WhatsApp Backup Excluded Stickers
02/04/2026 06:22 PM WhatsApp Stickers
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .udDHFY8K4Eqg
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .Statuses
02/04/2026 06:22 PM .Links
02/04/2026 06:23 PM WhatsApp Profile Photos
02/04/2026 06:23 PM WallPaper
02/04/2026 06:23 PM WhatsApp Documents
02/04/2026 06:23 PM WhatsApp Images
02/04/2026 06:29 PM WhatsApp Video
02/04/2026 06:37 PM WhatsApp Video Notes
02/04/2026 06:37 PM WhatsApp Voice Notes
02/04/2026 06:37 PM WhatsApp Animated Gifs
02/04/2026 06:37 PM WhatsApp Audio
0 File(s) 19 Dir(s)
Here's an explanation of the various files listed above.
WhatsApp Images -> all photos we sent and received
WhatsApp Video -> all videos
WhatsApp Audio -> audio files
WhatsApp Voice Notes -> push-to-talk recordings
WhatsApp Video Notes -> the new circular video messages
WhatsApp Documents -> PDFs, spreadsheets, etc.
WhatsApp Animated Gifs -> GIFs
WhatsApp Profile Photos -> profile pictures of contacts
WallPaper -> chat wallpapers
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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