Transferring WhatsApp Data from Android to iOS… after setting up your iPhone

WhatsApp Chat History from Android to iOS is here but it is stupid. Here’s how to work with the official tool.

WhatsApp finally released their long awaited tool to allow Android users to move their data to iOS.

However, the tool has one big asterisk.

You can only do it to a iPhone that is currently in its set up process. The moment the iPhone has hit the Home Screen, you can no longer do the process.

And that’s where I was at. My phone had been set up with all my apps, settings, logins and more.

So, pay for a third-party tool? Nah. There is a way around this while still using the official tool.

There are two key things to this process: trigger the setup progress again and utilise WhatsApp alternative restore options.

We can’t trigger the setup screen again on the iPhone once we have finished setup, and restoring from a backup skips the screen for you to transfer from an Android phone…

But there is still a way to fuse your current iPhone (or its backup) and an Android’s WhatsApp data.

WhatsApp iOS has two restore options, restore through a full phone backup, or restore from iCloud Drive. We can utilise the second restore method to our advantage.

Technique 1: Old iPhone

If you have a spare or old iPhone lying around that can be updated to iOS 15 (so 6s, SE or newer), you are in luck. ( if you don’t, it’s still possible, see technique 2.)

You also need enough free space in iCloud to temporarily store your backup (If you don’t have enough space, you might be able to bypass this with a new Apple ID just for the restore process). You also need to have the Transfer to iOS app ready on your Android Phone.

First, reset your old iPhone to factory settings. During the setup process, do not restore from a backup. Instead, choose to transfer from an Android Phone. Transfer your WhatsApp data as mentioned in the official WhatsApp transfer guide here. You should only choose to transfer WhatsApp data.

The tool is a bit buggy. It might fail for unknown reasons like mine did. Just cross your fingers and try again.

Once that process has completed and your old iPhone is back at the Home Screen, login into your Apple account if you haven’t already done so, then open WhatsApp on the old iPhone and login.

iCloud Drive Backup

Now, backup WhatsApp data to iCloud Drive ( found in WhatsApp > Settings > Chat > Chat Backup ) and let it do its work.

Now, log into your new iPhone’s WhatsApp. You should now be able to restore your new backup data from iCloud Drive.

Technique 2: Backup Fusing

If you don’t have a spare iPhone, we can still use the same technique, but the process is more tedious as you’ll need to reset your new iPhone.

Make sure to tick “Encrypt Local Backup” !

First, make a backup of your phone through iTunes (Windows) or Finder (Mac). Make sure to encrypt it so that it saves as much passwords as possible.

While you can use iCloud, a local backup is faster and does not eat up precious iCloud storage.

Next, fellow the previous technique steps regarding reseting your phone to initiate the transfer process and backup your new WhatsApp data to iCloud Drive.

Once you have done so, reset your iPhone again and restore the backup from your computer.

And bam. There you go. Your old data + WhatsApp data.

My plea to WhatsApp

WhatsApp. Please make this easier. There are alternative ways to do transfers like this without the Transfer to iOS app.

You could ask people to connect to the same wifi (or force the android user to turn on hotspot), and then give them a barcode or something to scan so that the devices could discover each other and transfer the data. Signal and WeChat do something similar.

Another possible solution is to set up a way for people to temporarily store their WhatsApp Chat History in the cloud encrypted.

There are so many better ways to do this. Please make it better!