WhatsApp iOS migration restore issue

Eddie_DS

I’m trying to migrate WhatsApp from iOS to GrapheneOS on a Pixel 10 Pro, following this post:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/13124-whatsapp-how-i-restored-my-backup-ios-to-android-android-to-android

What I've done so far:

Migrated WhatsApp from iPhone to Android stock.
Confirmed that the chats were present on Android stock.
Created a local WhatsApp backup on Android stock.
Pulled the WhatsApp folder to my PC with ADB.
Installed GrapheneOS.
Created a secondary user profile which will be my daily.
Installed WhatsApp in that secondary profile.
Copied the backup into the secondary profile with ADB:

The active user is the secondary profile:
adb shell am get-current-user 10

The backup appears to be in the expected location:

/sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore.db.crypt14
/sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Backups
/sdcard/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media

Then I installed WhatsApp but it does not offer to restore the local backup. After verifying my phone number and granting permissions, it goes straight to a new/empty chat list. I tried clearing WhatsApp storage, uninstalling/reinstalling WhatsApp, and opening it only to the welcome screen before continuing, but it still does not detect the local backup.

Is local restore from Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore.db.crypt14 still expected to work on current WhatsApp/GrapheneOS? Or is Google Drive / official transfer now the only reliable method?

What can I do now? Any realiable method to migrate that is working at the moment? I've seen a few apps for this use case, however I don't trust them as a general rule of thumb, don't know if there is some "reputable" option.

I've been checking the forum and see various approachs, however I'm unsure wether they are still working or not anyway.

Thanks in advance!

userofgos

Eddie_DS Is local restore from Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases/msgstore.db.crypt14 still expected to work on current WhatsApp/GrapheneOS?

Yes, but you have to replace the entire directory Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp and do it in the right sequence otherwise WhatsApp will immediately overwrite it and will not you have an option to restore from backup. See here: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/422-how-to-restore-a-whatsapp-backup/43
Note: ADB is not required and not recommended to use as it adds increased attack surface.

Eddie_DS

userofgos I'm trying to follow that process, however I'm quite stuck at the moment.
I can't manage to get the backup to the phone: If I use straight file transfer from the PC it gets stuck in over 24h, left it overnight and advanced around a 10%. I manged to transfer the folder in a .zip, however, extracting it only squeezed around 20% after all night too.
I've tried using an USB, I formated it on the phone itself (exFAT according to Windows) and plugged in to the PC to transfer the backup. For some reason, it is not detected by the phone when I plug it back. Now, the PC detects "errors" with the USB too, but after pressing "repair" it sais that no errors where detected. I'm gonna try a different USB, this was brand new anyway and seems to be working otherwise.

I believe that at my first attemp I used ADB to transfer the files to my daily profile, however in my last attemps I can only do it to the Owner profile.

Any idea of what can be going wrong? The backup folder is roughly 10GB, so I believe it shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks.

Johnnyloans

Eddie_DS I can't manage to get the backup to the phone: If I use straight file transfer from the PC it gets stuck in over 24h, left it overnight and advanced around a 10%

The issue may be this:
Settings > security > exploit protection > usb-c
Anything that is not ON, will turn off USB data transfer when your phone locks.

So the auto-locking feature over at Settings > display > screen timeout will trigger if the phone isn't in use.
Adjust one of these and test it again.

Remember to change the settings back if you wish.

I can't manage to get the backup to the phone: If I use straight file transfer from the PC it gets stuck in over 24h, left it overnight and advanced around a 10%.

I've tried using an USB [drive that] I formated it on the phone ... and plugged in to the PC to transfer the backup. For some reason, it is not detected by the phone when I plug it back.

Been trying with another USB. ... However, whenever I place the backup on it the phone stops detecting it properly and asks me to format it again.

You might want to try another computer or another usb port/plug on the computer that is far away from the one you've been using.

Eddie_DS

To add some information:
Been trying with another USB. It works properly. Detected by both the PC and the phone and can transfer files.
However, whenever I transfer the backup, the phone stops detecting it properly and asks me to reformat.

Eddie_DS

Johnnyloans I had checked that Settings > security > exploit protection > usb-c was on from the beginning. I set it in Owner tho, since I can't find an option to do it on the other profile. I also had set screen timeout to 30 min, which is the longest I can select. I had been trying also with some Developer option called Active Screen.

At this point I've tryied with 3 different USBs and an external SSD, also tried using different ports, bot USB A and USB C. Most of them in the back of the PC.

No difference whatsoever with anyof these configs.
Thanks for answering.

Johnnyloans

You could try this.

Install Termux via this link then go to releases or use F-Droid
give the app storage permissions & set battery background usage to unrestricted.
open it and run termux-setup-storage & pkg install rsync

ls -la storage gives us an idea of what we are working with. The folders in here are your phone's storage.

ls -la storage/
total 7
drwx------. 2 u0_a155 u0_a155 3452 .
drwx------. 5 u0_a155 u0_a155 3452 ..
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 u0_a155 u0_a155    dcim -> /storage/emulated/0/DCIM
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 u0_a155 u0_a155    downloads -> /storage/emulated/0/Download
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 u0_a155 u0_a155    movies -> /storage/emulated/0/Movies
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 u0_a155 u0_a155    music -> /storage/emulated/0/Music
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 u0_a155 u0_a155   pictures -> /storage/emulated/0/Pictures
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 u0_a155 u0_a155    shared -> /storage/emulated/0

run something like this but fill in your own info:
rsync -avP username@10.1.2.3:/home/username/whatsapp_backup storage/shared/

change the username, remote ip address, and file paths.

There are myriad methods for settng up windows & rsync. This is the first search result
https://superuser.com/questions/1869922/how-can-i-install-rsync-on-windows-11

If you have any spaces in folder or files names:
put the filepath in single quotes, escape the space with a backslash \, or don't use spaces.

Remember to take a break if things get frustrating <3 You've already been at this a long while.
Hope it goes well!