Mumbai, November 13: WhatsApp has confirmed that from November 12, users who have not backed up their stored data and chats on Google drive will lose their chat histories. According to an IANS report, the messaging app reached an agreement with Google in August to store user content on the Google Drive cloud storage service without the data affecting the user's maximum memory limit. WhatsApp Update: You Can Lose Your Old WhatsApp Data From Google Drive; Here’s How You Can Prevent It.

While this came as good news for cloud users, WhatsApp in an earlier statement, "WhatsApp backups that haven't been updated in more than one year will be automatically removed from Google Drive storage." Which means users who have not yet backed-up their data weekly or monthly could potentially lose all their valuable data.

Here are a few steps that will help you save your data.

Step 1: Open 'Settings' through the three dot icon on the top right corner. Then select ‘Chats’.

Step 2: You will be taken to a new page. There select 'Chat Backup'. The window will show you your last backup date and time.

Step 3: If the last back date is too old one, select 'Back Up' to manually back up your data to your Google Drive storage.

Step 4: It is also recommended to change your 'Google Drive Settings'. Change your backup setting to your preference like daily, weekly or monthly and even select to include video files if need be.

This year, WhatsApp has introduced several new features to curb the spread of fake news. One of which has been, the messaging app has introduced the forward label in India to identify messages which are not original and have been forwarded.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 13, 2018 10:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).