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?
I’m sorry that happened to you. I set my iPhone to save one year’s worth of texts now and then auto-delete. Impermanence is a feature of life, not a bug. Think of the Buddhist monks that have their hundreds of hours of sand drawings erased by a kid stomping through it. It teaches them not to hold on too tightly to what was, but instead live in the moment. It’s tempting to save every last interaction with loved ones, but rewinding will never beat reaching out or reliving your favorite memories instead. Maybe life is telling you to let go.