I was so confident that WhatsApp was backing itself up to Google ever since I got my new pixel but I just wasn’t. Then yesterday I factory reset my phone to fix something else and I lost it all. Years worth of chats from so many times in my past just aren’t there, all my texts with my mom and my family, group chats with old friends… I can’t even look at the app anymore, I’ll never use Whatsapp as much as I used to. I just don’t feel right with this change. There’s no way to get those chats back and now it doesn’t feel like there’s any point backing up WhatsApp now! I really wanna cry like this is so unfair!! And all I had to do was check Whatsapp before I did a factory reset… the TINIEST THING I could have done and prevented this and I didn’t fucking do it!!!
How do I get past this?
It’s going to take some time. I’ve been there as have plenty of people who came to me for support when it happened to them.
While right now you’re thinking of it in terms of loss, you can also celebrate the lightness that comes from not having the data anymore.
There’s more…
What was the funniest thing you remember that was in there?
Now consider that you remember it. You don’t need to check, you remember the things that made that memory funny.
So, take a deep breath, add it to the list of stupid things you’ve done to date that didn’t kill you and then go and drink a glass of water and go for a walk.
This too will pass.
For years after my son’s suicide I backed up our texts. From one daily android update to the next, phone after phone. I always bought a phone that I knew I could root so I could ensure the ability to restore these backups. Then I got careless during one rom flash and lost them. It was a huge weight lifted when that happened. I realized that I had never once gone and reread any of them since the week after his death. And the constant backing up caused so much stress.