WhatsApps - going from Android to iPhone

[NiceCupOfTea]

About a year or so ago my wife changed her Android phone for an iPhone. At the time it was a real pain getting WhatsApps across, after a great deal of research and stress I used an app called Dr.Fone which, although a bit clunky, seemed to do as asked with no data loss.

I’ve just bought myself an iPhone so I am looking to do the same. However, I see Move-to-iOS is now offering to transfer if for me - so it looks like there is finally some functionality to transfer things without a lot of jiggery-pokery.

However, after a little reading it doesn’t seem all that - I’ve seen an app called TenorShare iCareFone recommended on XDA Developers as it does everything (including display name/WhatsApp call history). Obviously it’s paid for, but at $25 for a one off I am not worried if I know that everything has been backed up and is transferred and safe.

Has anybody done this recently and give me a steer?

[MitchT]

I have WhatsApp on my iPhone and on my MacBook Pro. The chat is synchronous across both devices, so it must be stored somewhere else and served to both devices so they both contain the same stuff. That being the case, surely logging in to WhatsApp on a new phone would sync all the existing chat to it regardless of the OS?

[NiceCupOfTea]

MitchT said:

I have WhatsApp on my iPhone and on my MacBook Pro. The chat is synchronous across both devices, so it must be stored somewhere else and served to both devices so they both contain the same stuff. That being the case, surely logging in to WhatsApp on a new phone would sync all the existing chat to it regardless of the OS?

It’s not quite that simple. On Android it’s store on Google Drive, on iOS in iCloud. So it needs to be migrated…

[MitchT]

Fair enough. I assumed WhatsApp had it in their own back end.

Found this...
https://faq.whatsapp.com/686469079565350

[NiceCupOfTea]

Thanks, yes I read that as well. I doesn’t reference that it used not to be supported, and I have read elsewhere that although “official” it doesn’t transfer everything and I really don’t want to take the risk; I have loads of messages from my dad who died a couple of months ago so I need to get it right…

[Corso Marche]

Open the text chat from your Dad in WhatsApp.

Export the full chat to a file (three-dot menu at top right, More, Export Chat).

Backup, transfer using whatever service you choose - but at least you'll have a saved copy of that other text chat saved elsewhere.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Cheers, will do that.

Just realised that the XDA developers page seems to be a sponsored post

It’s surprisingly hard to find anything on the internet that is an unbiased write up, they are all sponsored or on the software developers’ sites.

I used Dr.Fone last year which worked but was a real hassle, TenorShare iCareFone does look good but I’ve not seen anything independant about it.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Quick bump - anybody done this recently.