I'm really stressed about this situation. My wife is switching from a Samsung to an iPhone 16, and the transfer process is incredibly frustrating for her—she's even in tears over it. We've tried using the "Move to iOS" app to transfer her huge WhatsApp history, which has over 100,000 items, but after ten frustrating attempts, we haven't succeeded. Each time, the transfer takes more than ten hours, only to fail just when it seems to be finishing. We thought we had it at 98% progress once, but the iPhone reset itself and we ended up with a 'Transfer Failed' message.
We've looked into different methods, but our old Samsung phone can't support cable transfer since its battery drains too quickly. We've even tried skipping WhatsApp, but that's not an option we want since it's crucial for her work. She's deleted some stuff to reduce the size, but that hasn't helped either.
Why is transferring this data so complicated? Why does it seem like there's no way to pick up where we left off? Why can't we just restore from a Google Drive backup after setting up the iPhone? Has anyone had success with transferring large WhatsApp histories recently? Are there tricks we might be missing, or should we just give up and return the iPhone instead?
2 Answers
Honestly, it sounds more like a WhatsApp issue than anything else. Transferring large amounts of chat history between platforms has always been tricky, and their process isn’t the best. Plus, depending on the size of the data, the risk of losing something increases if you only rely on one device.
Maybe try leaving the Samsung on a wireless charging pad while transferring? If you're worried about the battery dying during the process, this could keep it powered up.
That's a good idea! I’ll look into getting a wireless charger.