“Unknown error” while importing backup on WhatsApp.

I found a solution. It's a bit annoying because the solution is paid. I used the iCareFone Transfer app. Now I have my chats on the new iphone!

What worked for me was doing a backup on google drive on the android phone, uninstalling WhatsApp on android, reinstalling, recover account using google drive backup, closing WhatsApp on iPhone, reopen, restart transfer process.

Update 2024: (29/10/2024). The solution provided by Hari323, which is the best voted, working great. U need to restart your iphone.

Thank you so much. I was facing the same issue, but now after restarting my iPhone, it has resolved. But let's say your issue doesn't resolve and you have access to your previous Android device for infinity, then you can use your iPhone as a companion device. All chats will work, you can call and answer, send pictures, download previous files.... Yup everything, just you might not be able to access very old messages or files and you can't backup data.

After a week of no success I opted to pay for mobiletrans which worked within an hour. Annoyed that I had to, but it was easy once I decided to go down that path.

My problem has solved.

Install latest version of IOS in new iphone and delete some unusual full data in old phone WhatsApp,then reset all content and settings in iPhone then follow move to iOS app instructions.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with overcoming the WhatsApp chat import issue! Your tip about restarting the iPhone turned out to be a lifesaver for me. I was stuck at the 40% mark with the "unknown error" message and couldn't figure out what to do. After reading your message, I decided to give the restart a shot, and it worked like a charm!

Why do you see the error?

This error occurs because there is no enough storage space on iCloud for your backup files

Why don't I see a relatable error message then?

Reasons best known to Apple. They probably don't want to admit that they're forcing people to subscribe to iCloud. They could have made the transfers device-to-device directly using WiFi instead of routing it through iCloud (as assumed), but they chose to do their usual thing - Get enough money from their device users.

How to solve it?

Options:

1. Subscribe to iCloud before starting your backup
2. Do a family sharing of iCloud subscription from any already subscribed device

NB: I might be wrong or right, it's all my opinion because subscribing made it work seamlessly for me.

My first iPhone did not include too large files, the second one included large files (though not up to the phone internal storage) and a subscription made it work seamlessly without the error

You might want to check if all the contact are correct sync into the new phone.

the migration will fail if the contact are not existing or different in some way.

In my opinion it might be because you icloud space is less than your whatsapp backup

trying buying more icloud space before commencing the restoration process

I too think of the same idea with my iphone 15 but still after restarting the iphone it got struck at 40% both phone on the same networks

now i have contacted apple support to take a look at this error and i am expecting call tomorrow morning

in the meantime i have restarted the move to ios process just to fix this bug on my own

additionally it may be also fixed by buying additional icloud space because my whatsapp data is 22 GB

Después de haber hecho el reinicio forzado, como lo indicaron en un comentario. Funcionooo totalmente graciassss

Facing the exact same issue... contacted whatsapp support and they asked me to get in touch with apple support. Its really frustrating as to why everything works well and takes hours together but the last step of moving chat history gets stuck at 40! Kindly provide a solution that works!!!

Something went wrong while my iphone was moving chat from android after restarting a reset iphone. It happened at 38% importing progress. Is there any solution to this? Plenty of battery on both devices which were on same 5G wifi. I have been trying the migration for the last 2 years. it never works. It is the closest I could get. Before it had no clue to look for the WhatsApp database. This is very frustrating and I have been carrying an Android phone for Whatsapp in addition to the new iphone for 2 years.

Did you get any help on this? I also have the same issue, stuck at 40%...... reset a few times and spent hours trying to transfer WhatsApp chat history from android to iPhone and failed repeatedly. Raised with Apple support and awaiting feedback