Cannot backup WhatsApp to iCloud

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Level 1

8 points

Cannot backup WhatsApp to iCloud

I'm trying to backup my WhatsApp chats to iCloud within the app, and it gets stuck every time at 107.1MB, or 2%.

Things I have tried/issues I have ruled out:

-- I don't use iCloud for anything else (I backup my phone to my computer via iTunes), so I have all 5GB free. The total size of my WhatsApp backup (without videos) is 3.85GB.

-- When the upload hangs, I have gone into Settings > username > iCloud > Manage Storage and deleted the (unfinished) WhatsApp backup. This allows me to start the backup over in WhatsApp. But it always stalls at the same point. I have done this several times.

-- I tried allowing WhatsApp to include videos. This raised the total backup size to 5.6GB, which is too big for the 5GB iCloud allotment. It started the backup anyway...but then it stalled, at about 16MB this time. When I deleted that backup, and tried again without videos, it once again stalled at old familiar 107.1MB.

-- I have restarted the phone. Including the hard reset.

-- I have updated iOS -- I'm now on 13.5.

-- I have turned off iCloud Drive and turned it back on again.

-- I have logged out of iCloud and logged back in again.

-- I have reset network settings.

(I'm only trying to backup WhatsApp because I'm trying everything under the sun to fix this issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250814508?answerId=252643012022#252643012022 My push notifications have stopped working for several apps, and WhatsApp now only loads messages if I actively have the app open on my phone. Also the case for several other apps, but I use WhatsApp the most.)

Any suggestions would be welcome -- thank you! I'm very frustrated.

iPhone 7, iOS 13

Posted on May 22, 2020 5:54 PM

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Answer 1

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lilyirving Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 9, 2020 6:22 PM in response to lilyirving

Hello -- I'm replying to myself with a solution, finally, to this issue. Hooray!

After the most recent iOS update, I tried to backup again today in hopes it was magically fixed, and it stalled out at the same point. So I started googling around one more time, and THIS time, in WhatsApp's support documentation, I found this: "Verify you have enough available space on your iCloud account to create a backup. You need to have at least 2.05 times the space available in your iCloud account than the actual size of your backup." (from here: https://faq.whatsapp.com/iphone/troubleshooting/cant-create-or-restore-an-icloud-backup)

I definitely don't think that was mentioned the last time I was looking for solutions to this. As I said above, I was on the free 5GB iCloud plan and my WhatsApp data was under that (it's now up to about 4GB). I thought that would be enough room for it to fit, but it seems not.

So I bit the bullet and bought 50GB of iCloud space, deleted my previous stalled attempt once more, started the backup again, and -- it worked! I'm relieved to have my chats backed up, and now I could even conceivably upgrade my phone at some point (I was starting to worry that my 7 would eventually kick the bucket and take all my chat data with it).

This also means that if I do again run into the issue I mentioned at the top of this thread, I can just delete the app and restore from backup, and won't have to use the workaround that a helpful person over on that thread figured out: downloading WhatsApp Business, transferring my account to that app, deleting/reinstalling regular WhatsApp, and transferring back. That ended up working great, but I'm still glad to have a backup.

I'm not overjoyed I had to spend more money to fix this, but what can you do, and a buck a month is not the end of the world.

(Thanks btw, zinacef, for your suggestions!)

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Answer 2

lilyirving Author

Level 1

8 points

May 23, 2020 9:22 AM in response to zinacef

The first time, I had set the backup for "weekly" and had neglected to check back if it had completed. It had either been a day, or a week and a day -- I'm not sure if setting it to "weekly" caused it to start at the moment I set it, or a week later. But I had set it on a Thursday and it was Friday, and I looked to confirm that it had backed up and it was hung at 108MB or whatever.

Yesterday I let it run for anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours, to see if it would get over its hurdle, but it hasn't. I've tried again today (after turning iCloud Drive on and off, and restarting) and it's been sitting at 105.6MB for an hour or so.

What will happen is it does "Preparing Backup..." for maybe a couple of minutes, with a percentage that slowly increases. Then it starts with "Uploading:" and in, I'd say, 10 seconds or so it gets up to the 100MB (plus or minus a few kb I guess) point and then stops. I know progress bars, etc are not a hundred percent accurate to what is actually happening at that moment, but it's definitely reasonable-speed, reasonable-speed, reasonable-speed, total stop.

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