How to transfer whatsapp from android to iphone reddit

I've just migrated from Samsung Galaxy A3 to iPhone 8. Liking it so far, but my first major hurdle was transferring my WhatsApp messages over. Officially this is impossible. In practice it is possible but tricky. Here are some of my notes which might help others doing the same thing. There may be other working approaches, so take this for what it's worth.

My approach used https://www.backuptrans.com/tutorial/transfer-whatsapp-messages-from-android-to-iphone.html which cost me £27 -- it has been worth the money to me to retain past content.

The notes on that page do kind-of take you through it all, but there are various things it asks you to do at different stages that it's useful to know about in advance, so you can do it more smoothly. I did all this on a Windows 10 PC.

1. Android phone: first perform a WhatsApp backup to local storage. You can also backup to Google Drive if you wish, but it won't help here. That's what you'd do if migrating to another Android.

2. Put Android phone into Flight mode, move your SIM to iPhone.

3. Enable Developer Mode and USB debugging on Android.

4. Install WhatsApp on iPhone, activate it and send at least one picture/video. I found this was critical to allow pictures to be transferred properly: otherwise I just ended up with thumbnails. Sending a picture prompts to allow access to photos & camera, which seems to be important.

5. Install iTunes on your PC

6. Disable Find My iPhone and iCloud backups. This will allow BackupTrans to use iTunes to copy stuff to/from the iPhone. Switch both those back at the end

7. Now start working as per the HOWTO for BackupTrans

8. It takes several steps, broadly: connects to Android, capture your backup, send it to iTunes, then restore that backup over to the iPhone. Details are on the web page.

I went round the transfer cycle a few times before I stumbled upon step 4, which in my experience appears to have made all the difference.

Happy to answer questions, but YMMV and my experience may just be specific to my particular hardware combination.

Edit: highlight most important step from my experience

Hi all,

Trying to move whatsapp messages from S9 to iPhone 13 which I've been using for 7 months. I've been holding on to both phones specifically because I didn't want to lose my whatsapp messages. I want to keep all of the past 7 months worth of iPhone usage and incorporate the whatsapp history to the iPhone. I was hoping that I could:

1. backup all messages/files/apps/settings/photos/etc. on my iPhone to my macbook (don't want to lose 7 months worth of usage)

2. do the Move to iOS transfer including whatsapp (assuming that whatsapp messages would be automatically saved on iCloud)

3. factory reset/restore the backup from macbook

4. reinstall whatsapp and restore chats from iCloud

I did all the above steps, and after the original Move to iOS transfer (step 2), all my whatsapp chats were successfully transferred (yay!). I then did another factory reset and restored the backup from macbook. I then reinstalled whatsapp, but got the message that there were no back up chats found. I was assuming it would be like for my android where I could restore backup from google drive anytime.

This is the first time I've used apple products so admittedly, I'm not as familiar. I'm thinking I did something wrong/missed something and am hoping someone can help!

Before I spend another 2 -3 hours re-doing the factory reset/Move to iOS, I wanted to see if someone did something similar and can advise what I missed. Do I have to manually do a whatsapp backup after step 2? Should I not install whatsapp until after I restore the backup from the macbook?

Appreciate any advice. Thanks!

I found this: "On your Android device, open WhatsApp and go to 'Settings'. Click on 'Chats' and then select 'Chat history'. Click on 'Export Chat' and select the contact whose chat you want to transfer. Now, you can select whether you want to include the media in the backup or not."

Obviously if you're looking to transfer more than 5 chats, it might not work/is a hassle.

Edit. I did a little digging and looks like this method isn't supported due to files being easily modified. However exporting the chats and saving them allows you to have some kind of backup.

Posted by

iPhone 13

4 months ago

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level 1

If only they did it one month ago! 🥲

level 2

I jumped ship recently too but I bought a third party software to migrate my chat history 🙃

level 2

Yeah got mine a month ago as well:(

level 2

Saying the same thing. Spent $10 already

level 2

It's so weird. The instructions say the iPhone needs to be new or factory reset in its Setup Screen (before you even add your Apple id) but also requires the latest WhatsApp installed. How do I install WhatsApp before I set it up. 💁‍♂️

level 1

Bought an IPhone 13 3 days ago and already lost all my chats, thank you for the timely support zuck :’)

level 2

you can just reset it, at least this is what i will do with my iphone i achieved yesterday. Its painfull, but its still possible to transfer the chats after already using the fresh whatsapp on the iphone... the current icloud save gets overwritten with the imported save from the android, when you transfer it

level 1

· 4 mo. ago · edited 4 mo. agoiPhone 13 Pro

whatsapp doesn't even fully support iOS 15 ... like ...

level 2

For real. Their PiP feature sucks so much. Can’t minimize the app or the video will be paused. Oops you pulled down the Notification Center…video paused! It’s not true Picture in Picture

level 2

WhatsApp got HDR+ support for the Pixel 2, but it reverted back to taking shitty pictures within like a year and kept on taking shitty pictures until I upgraded my phone a year ago. now it's fixed apparently

This app is so lacking in many ways, but so many people use it.

level 1

Not sure when this gets released to android, but i assume the ‘move to ios’ will get an update.

level 1

This should've been a feature back in 2016. As always, they're late to adding new and useful features. Telegram is so much better.

level 1

I figured that was happening when the web client went server-based instead of phone-based

level 1

is it already possible for everyone? or just for beta testers? when will we get the Whatsapp/Move to IOS update?

level 2

We've been able to transfer from iOS to Android for around a year already.

level 1

Is it possible to do this on an already set up iphone ?

level 1

Since the features uses the Move to iOS App it will be useless. The App is just garbage.

I’ve tried to use the App last year with multiple attempts and didn’t work a single time. I was faster to transfer everything manually.

level 2

By "manually" what do you mean? How do I do it manually?

level 1

Got my iPhone today. Everything is updated on both but I don't get the option to transfer whatsapp data. Is it a whatsapp beta option only? Am I missing something here? Thanks

level 1

Great News for when I buy my first iphone in September. It was about time that is possible (officially)

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