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https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi

Whatsapp Android To iOS Importer
https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi

android ios migration whatsapp

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Whatsapp Android To iOS Importer

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# Whatsapp Android To iOS Importer

Migrate Whatsapp chats history from Android to iOS.

## Caveats

* Media files and shared locations are not imported (got placeholders instead)
* Messages from contacts that changed ids (phone numbers) are not linked

## User-contributed guides

Thanks to our excellent community members, there are few guides that may be easier
to follow than one written by me. Some of them include instructions on how to
extract whatsapp database from Android phone.

* 2021-11-17: [full guide](https://github.com/tim25651/WhatsApp2iOS) by @tim25651
* 2021-12-30: [full guide](https://github.com/needs-coffee/Whatsapp-android-to-ios-guide) by @needs-coffee, on Windows via MacOS VM

Many users also contributed tips on how to get certain prerequisites done.

* 2021-01-07: [getting database from Android](https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi/issues/35#issue-780915054) by @MaxWolodin
* 2021-06-23: [MacOS VM setup](https://gist.github.com/5E7EN/6c55297856c36efc6e0921b0eeff72d0) by @5E7EN
* See [#9](https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi/issues/9), [#27](https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi/issues/27), [#28](https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi/issues/28), [#35](https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi/issues/35) and [#43](https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi/issues/43) for more tips and cases

## Prerequisites

* Mac with installed Xcode and iTunes (or MacOS VM)
* Decrypted `msgstore.db` from Android
* Installed and activated Whatsapp on your iDevice
* `Whatsapp.ipa` of the same version (google will help)

## Step-by-step guide

* Check that Whatsapp is activated on iDevice. You should see the list of *group* chats
when you open the app. Most likely, there won't be any messages prior to moving to iOS.
You can even send/receive a message or two to be sure that there is something to back up.
* If you're on Mac OS 10.14 or later, [enable full disk access for your terminal app](https://osxdaily.com/2018/10/09/fix-operation-not-permitted-terminal-error-macos/).
* Build the migration utility (I'll assume `~/Downloads` folder):

cd ~/Downloads
git clone https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi
cd watoi
xcodebuild -project watoi.xcodeproj -target watoi

* Create an unencrypted backup to local computer (not iCloud) with iTunes.
* Find out the ID of the latest backup and export it into an env var for later use

scripts/bedit.sh list-backups
# total 0
# drwxr-xr-x@ 266 user staff 8512 Nov 19 22:25 3105fe2b1e4688d54920d5b7eff3a06a71fd5957 # <= this is the latest
# drwxr-xr-x 20781 user staff 664992 Aug 16 14:19 e38ebede76a7801807fe98684fd6d0b7fc3e64ba

export BACKUP_ID="put ID of the backup here"
# For example (do not copy-paste the line below, your ID will be different!):
# export BACKUP_ID=3105fe2b1e4688d54920d5b7eff3a06a71fd5957

* Extract whatsapp's chat storage and backup important files

export ORIGINALS="originals/$(date +%s)"
mkdir -p $ORIGINALS
scripts/bedit.sh extract-chats $BACKUP_ID $ORIGINALS/ChatStorage.sqlite
scripts/bedit.sh extract-blob $BACKUP_ID Manifest.db $ORIGINALS/Manifest.db
cp $ORIGINALS/ChatStorage.sqlite ./ChatStorage.sqlite

* Extract the contents of `Whatsapp.ipa` (we'll need CoreData description files):

cd ~/Downloads/watoi
unzip ~/Downloads/WhatsApp_Messenger_x.y.z.ipa -d app

* Run the migration:

build/Release/watoi ./ChatStorage.sqlite app/Payload/WhatsApp.app/Frameworks/Core.framework/WhatsAppChat.momd

* Replace database file inside the backup with the updated one:

scripts/bedit.sh replace-chats $BACKUP_ID ./ChatStorage.sqlite

* Restore the backup with iTunes

## Troubleshooting

[![Gitter](https://badges.gitter.im/gitterHQ/gitter.svg)](https://gitter.im/residentsummer_watoi/Lobby?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge)