Whatsapp files to new phone I just bought a new phone. when installed whatsapp my last back up was over a month ago so my chats are old. I moved my files to the new phone but the file are encrypted and can't open. Do I need to delete and reinstall whatsapp for it to detect that I have whatsapp back up files now on the phone. or do I need to go back to my old phone, upload those files to google drive and then go back to my new phone reinstall whatsapp and have it detect the new back up from google drive. frankly I am not sure where the files are on my new phone but I received a verification that they were there when i transferred from my old phone  and was able to view them temporarily. I don't know where Edge S7 stores files. There's no files icon that I can see only gallery. But the files are there.



I reinstalled whatsapp but it didn't detect the whatsapp files transferred to my phone.  I found the files sitting under my samsung tab under files. 
I am trying to back the files now to google drive from my old phone but it seems to be stuck in "preparing backup" mode for whatsup for over an hour now. any tips?

thanks,
You can probably install WhatsApp in your old phone again and check if the chats are still available. 
If they are available, save a backup to Google drive as well as on your phone and then try again by reinstalling on your new phone.

Check when the latest backup was created automatically by whatsapp either on your old phone or Drive. If there's a recent copy you can copy it into your new phone and try retrieving the chats while reinstalling.

If none of the above works, I think you lost your chats.