https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryiCnDzgpjQ

The latest Tech Insight video is up on YouTube, and if you use WhatsApp, this is a must-watch.
You can now (potentially) lose years of stored WhatsApp media on your phone with one click, thanks to a new WhatsApp update.

WhatsApp is one of the biggest messaging apps in the world right now but they just did something that will shock all WhatsApp users. A New WhatsApp Update That Can Wipe All Your Data In One Click is here to stay.

Before now, if you clear WhatsApp app data or uninstall the app, only your chat history will be lost and all your WhatsApp media will still be in your phone gallery but not anymore. WhatsApp has moved the WhatsApp folder in your Android phone root storage to Android/media/com.WhatsApp/WhatsApp
Unfortunately, everything stored in Sdcard/Android folder will be wiped off completely if you clear app data or uninstall the WhatsApp app. All these things happened silently without WhatsApp, Facebook or Meta saying a word to its customers.
It took me about 5 months to figure out why they did this. Thanks to Google locking down Android 12, apps are no longer allowed to scan all the internal storage. Telegram has also moved its internal storage folder to Android folder but since it stores everything in its server, you can't lose your media even if you wipe app data.

So please make a manual backup of the WhatsApp folder and let me hear from you in the comments section

Thanks for the information
So let's say I sell my current phone and I get a new one,how do I restore my chats history in the new phone?

Jirilistic:
Thanks for the information
So let's say I sell my current phone and I get a new one,how do I restore my chats history in the new phone?

I've made few videos on that
HOW TO BACKUP AND RESTORE WHATSAPP WITHOUT INTERNET OR GOOGLE DRIVE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfNyeJ4rRs

HOW TO TRANSFER FULL WHATSAPP CHAT HISTORY AND MEDIA TO A NEW PHONE WITHOUT INTERNET:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yv9kSIDUKc

You need to do backup inside WhatsApp from settings inside the WhatsApp app. Then go to the following location in your internal storage
SDcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp
Copy everything in or the entire WhatsApp folder. To a safe place outside your phone.
In the new phone, install WhatsApp, open the app and Close it again. Copy the WhatsApp folder back to SDcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/
And paste the WhatsApp folder there.
Open WhatsApp app, do your phone number verification give permission to the app to use storage. Allow it to search for backups in your phone select your recent backup from internal storage and restore.

Thanks for the guidelines

Smartdepotng:

I've made few videos on that
HOW TO BACKUP AND RESTORE WHATSAPP WITHOUT INTERNET OR GOOGLE DRIVE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfNyeJ4rRs

HOW TO TRANSFER FULL WHATSAPP CHAT HISTORY AND MEDIA TO A NEW PHONE WITHOUT INTERNET:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yv9kSIDUKc

You need to do backup inside WhatsApp from settings inside the WhatsApp app. Then go to the following location in your internal storage
SDcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp
Copy everything in or the entire WhatsApp folder. To a safe place outside your phone.
In the new phone, install WhatsApp, open the app and Close it again. Copy the WhatsApp folder back to SDcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/
And paste the WhatsApp folder there.
Open WhatsApp app, do your phone number verification give permission to the app to use storage. Allow it to search for backups in your phone select your recent backup from internal storage and restore.