Google has been facing the heat ever since the news regarding the location tracking broke the internet a while ago as it affects around two billion users who are using smartphones based on Android operating system and millions of iPhone users worldwide who rely on Google for Maps or search. Going by the famous saying ‘Privacy is a myth on the internet’ no data is secure once it is on the internet as it is a common practice for companies to learn about human habits from the data it collects and use it generate content and revenue out of it. While we are not totally against the idea, but there should always be a threshold limit.
If you are the one who is following tech world closely then you are aware of the fact that Google recently announced that it no longer counts WhatsApp data in its free 15GB quota. Meaning, your WhatsApp backup files will no longer take up the free 15GB allocated to every Gmail account but will be synced with your Google Drive using a Google account. It is a known fact that Google’s Drive among all the other things it stores, there is WhatsApp data as well. Since there’s always a possibility of privacy infringement and data theft when it is stored in the cloud, data is never completely safe. To address this concern of users, we are here to show you how you can delete your WhatsApp data from Google Drive. Follow these steps if you wish to completely delete WhatsApp data from Google Drive and stay in peace.
Here’s how to delete your WhatsApp data from Google Drive:
- To remove your WhatsApp data from Google Drive, head over to the Google Drive website on your desktop and login to your Google account where your WhatsApp data is stored.
- If you are accessing the URL from a smartphone, you will be redirected to a mobile site where you will have to tap on the top left corner and select the “Desktop Version”
- From there, click on the Gear Icon which is present on the top right corner.
- Now tap on settings and click on manage apps.
- Now you will be shown a huge list of apps that are connected to your Google Drive, so, scroll down until you find WhatsApp on the list.
- Once you find WhatsApp, tap on it and wait for it to show the “Hidden app data” size to appear below the WhatsApp Messenger.
- Click on the options and here you will find ‘Delete hidden app data’ tap on it to delete.
- As a step for precaution, Google Drive will confirm with you for the final time saying ‘XGB’ of hidden app data from WhatsApp Messenger will be deleted from Drive. So think twice and confirm by tapping on Delete.
- Now all your hidden WhatsApp data will be deleted from Google Drive. There is no way you can retrieve the data back again after deleting.
Conclusion: That’s how you can delete WhatsApp data from Google Drive. The process is simple and quite easy. Since privacy is of utmost concern to many of us, this method really comes in handy so you can stay doubt free whether or not your data is secure.
Do note that all your WhatsApp data from time to time will be backed up to Google Drive if you are turned on the setting in your WhatsApp. So to stop the Google Drive backup altogether, head over to your WhatsApp, then to the settings menu, then to the chats section. Here you will find ‘Chat Backup’ tap on it and among the other settings, you will find ‘Back up to Google Drive’ tap on it and select ‘Never’ from the list of options which includes ‘Only when I tap Back up’, Daily, Weekly, Monthly. This change will stop WhatsApp from backing up data to Google Drive until you turn it back on. So, do try this out and let us know your experience without any WhatsApp backups.
