If you have gotten the new iPhone 16, it is important that you know how to back-up and transfer your WhatsApp chats. Picture: Indranil Mukherjee / AFP
You can now get your hands on the new iPhone 16 range since it has been launched in South Africa, but what about your WhatsApp chats?
WABetaInfo offers advice on how you can back-up and restore your chats and media which will allow you to choose the best way to safely migrate them to your new iPhone.
There's a rare bug that might prevent them from properly restore WhatsApp chats from iCloud back-ups, according to WABetaInfo.
The bug has resulted in some users losing their images, videos and voice messages, leaving only text messages intact after restoring their chat history.
Therefore, it is crucial that users take precautions when transferring their data to avoid losing important media files.
Users have different options to restore their chat history if restoring it directly from the app causes issues with media files.
To help users avoid potential issues, here is a guide on how to back-up and restore WhatsApp chats. These suggestions also apply to the WhatsApp Business app.
According to WABetaInfo, Quick Start is the most reliable method to transfer data from your old iPhone to your new one. If users decide to choose this method, they follow these steps:
1. Prepare both devices: Ensure that the old iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth is enabled. Turn on the new iPhone and place it near the old device.
2. Initiate Quick Start: Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the new iPhone using Quick Start. If the prompts disappear, then restart both devices and try again.
3. Choose the transfer method: Users can either transfer data directly from their old device or download it from iCloud. Users need to choose the "Transfer from iPhone" option to securely move their data directly from the old device to the new iPhone.
4. Keep the devices near each other: Make sure that both devices are close and connected to power until the transfer is complete. Transfer times can vary, based on the amount of data and network conditions.
When setting up a new iOS device for the first time, people can transfer their apps and data, including WhatsApp chat history and media, directly from another phone starting from the Hello Screen.
WhatsApp also offers a Chat Transfer feature to allow users to move their data directly between iPhones without relying on iCloud.
Chat Transfer ensures the full transfer of a user’s chat history, media, and account information, excluding peer-to-peer payment messages, call history, and media from WhatsApp Channels.
In order for this feature to work, certain prerequisites must be met: Both iPhones should have the latest iOS version and WhatsApp build installed, plus the new iPhone must not be registered on WhatsApp before the transfer begins.
Make sure both iPhones:
– are close to each other
– connected to a power source
– connected to WiFi
– have local network permissions enabled.
On your old iPhone, go to Settings > Chats > Transfer chats to iPhone > Start, and later scan the QR code displayed on the new phone.
On the new iPhone, open WhatsApp, verify the phone number, and confirm the chat history transfer. Accept local network permissions and use the WhatsApp camera on the old device to scan the QR code on the new device.
During the transfer process, a progress bar will display the completion percentage. Once the transfer is complete, users will be directed to the Chats list on their new iPhone, with all their conversations and media intact.
In case users experience issues during the transfer, they should turn off both devices, wait 30 seconds, and turn them back on. Then, retry the chat transfer process.
If the transfer fails, gets stuck, or there is an error, the data will still be available on their old iPhone, allowing them to retry the process without losing anything.
If users choose to back-up their chat history directly from WhatsApp and restore it later, it's important to open each chat to ensure all files have been restored.
If any media files are missing or the chat history is unavailable, users should consider using an alternative method to restore their chat history.
As long as users have not deleted the app, they can always log into WhatsApp on their old iPhone and access their chat history to try a different recovery option.
End-to-end encrypted back-ups have an impact on how WhatsApp backups are handled.
When end-to-end encrypted back-ups are enabled, iPhone does not include WhatsApp chat history in its full iCloud back-up due to privacy policies. If encrypted back-ups are enabled, WhatsApp data won't be fully backed up through iCloud.
Instead, users need to back-up their chat history directly within WhatsApp, which may lead to incomplete chat history if the bug occurs.
To prevent issues, users should temporarily disable end-to-end encrypted backups. By disabling encrypted back-ups temporarily, users ensure that their WhatsApp chat history is always included in the back-up process and can be more reliably restored.
After restoring the chat history on the new iPhone, users can then re-enable encrypted backups in WhatsApp.
IOL Technology
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