Accessing the whatsapp database on android

[mosheduminer]

Hi!

I discovered HPI not that long ago (via this HN comment) and was inspired by it. I would like to create an app (intended for myself and friends) to better search through my whatsapp groups (where a lot of information goes back and forth) as the built in search has proved insufficient (especially in terms of UX). I saw that there is a python module for this (which I would like to use as prior art), but I'm stuck the point of getting access to the database, which according to this code comment should be in Android/data, but I'm unable to see anything in there using the google file explorer (for safety reasons I assume). I see the backup databases in Android/media which would be fine for my purposes, but they're encrypted (despite me not having encrypted backups turned on in my settings?) and I can't figure out how to unencrypt them (I assume the key is in Android/data somewhere).

So, I'm wondering how you get ahold of the whatsapp database?

[karlicoss]

Hey! You need root on your phone unfortunately. The data used in HPI is taken from /data/data/com.whatsapp, don't think there is anything useful in media folder.