Transfer WhatsApp (and other data) from iPhone to Android

After a long time with Apple iPhone and because the last update of IOS 11 made my iPhone 5s really sluggish I decided to abandon Apple’s ecosystem once more and try Android again.

So I got a nice new Xiaomi Redmi 4X with 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM! Nice, cheap and fast.

The issue is that moving from one platform to another is not as straightforward as it sounds. Especially for apps which are not entirely cloud based.

One of the most important apps that I use daily (and a lot of people do also) is Whatsapp! If you do not know it you leave in another planet!

WhatsApp has a built in feature to back up locally or cloud (icloud or google drive respectively) BUT the backup cannot be transferred from one platform to another!

If you Google the solution there a lot of guides they claim you can do it. Most of them are just promoting software. Quite expensive for the task in my opinion.

So what is the solution? You need one application to your PC/MAC and one app on your Android. The first is free and it is called iPhone Backup Viewer (it is free when your iPhone backup is not encrypted).

The second is an app you can find in Play store. It is called WazzapMigrator and I think it worth its cost. The only issue I found it is the instructions. They are all over the place and do not follow the logical flow but it is all there!

So what are the steps?

1. Backup you iPhone with iTunes on you PC or MAC. DO NOT encrypt the backup! (*)
2. Download and run iPhone Backup Viewer. It will find your backup automatically.
3. Follow those instructions to find your WhatsApp messages and media files and store them on your PC/MAC.
4. Go to your Android install WazzapMigrator and run it once. Install WhatsApp but do NOT run it yet.
5. Connect your Android to your PC/MAC. Go to internal storage of your device. You should see a WazzapMigrator folder. IF not then restart your Android device. You will be able to see it.
6. Copy the messages (ChatStorage.sqlite) and media to WazzapMigrator folder. Run WazzapMigrator. It should find messages and media and convert them. Allow it to move it to WhatsApp folder.
7. Run WhatsApp. It should find the backup and restore it.
8. That’s it!

It took me more time to find the solution than actually transfer the files and do the migration.

 

(*) I suppose you already know how to move the rest of the data from your iPhone to Android.

Do not forget before you wipe your iPhone to deregister from imessages/facetime and unpair with your Apple Watch.