Couldn't restore chat history - WhatsApp

Not a question but rather a solution for those dealing with the issue. I suffered from this for the past week however managed to resolve it today.

I had an iPhone XR that was stolen and therefore I had to resort to an iPhone 6S. Both phones running iOS 14. When switching back to iPhone 6S, I chose the most recent backup my XR had which was on October 1st. When the phone finally restored it looked different. Wallpaper was default. Messages and contacts were no longer there. I thought that was strange. Went onto WhatsApp. WhatsApp located a backup but every time I'd select restore it would show the message "Couldn't restore chat history". I tried every method I could find on the internet including third party software. But nothing worked.

I had read a method someone else tried and decided to give that a go.

I reset my phone completely so that everything was wiped. When it came to choosing a backup, instead of choosing the latest one that I had (October 1st) I selected the option show other backups and found that I had a backup from September 26th. (A backup obviously from the XR that took place 5 days before the October one). I continued to set up the phone and lo and behold everything was there. I then waited for WhatsApp to finish reinstalling and once it did, I just entered my phone number and viola! It was all there! All my chats. I'd obviously lost about 5 days worth of chats but it was all there! I spoke to Apple Support on the phone and they said the reason the October backup didn't work could have been because that backup was incomplete. It never got round to finishing completely because I either disconnected from WiFi or took my phone off charge etc (these things need to be in place in order for your phone to automatically backup).

So there you guys have it. I'd suggest taking these steps with the help of an Apple Genius if you're not very techy. Show them this solution and tell them this method has worked for many. I kept being told it was probably a WhatsApp issue when in reality it was an issue with my iCloud.

Oh and word of advice guys. Check to see your phone is regularly backing up. At times just leave it on charge with WiFi connected and ensure you have enough storage for it to backup. Do the same with WhatsApp. It's only in situations like this you realise just how complicated this all is.

Hope that helps!!