On my iPhone 4S, Whatsapp Chat Backup seems to have frozen at "Uploading : 16.8MB of 52.4MB (32%)

Been having the same issue lately... backup keeps getting stuck at 95%. After multiple correspondence with WhatsApp and Apple, both of whom blamed the other, I have only found a temporary and unreliable fix which involves either reentering the iCloud password in iPhone settings, or, with a slightly higher success rate, logging out then back into iCloud via iPhone settings. It seems that for some of us, randomly, gone are the days where we can do a straightforward backup. I am not going to try the process in the post I have replied to as I do not wish to unnecessarily involve multiple phones or Apple IDs in this ordeal, plus the effort and time could be for nothing as for all we know the issue some of us are having more recently might be different albeit similar to the original issue described. If anyone has found a solution please let us know.

Hi, nssmac.

Here are the best resources for troubleshooting issues with third party applications. Start with closing all open applications and restarting the device. Once done, test the backup for this application. Also, make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi when backing up this application.

iOS: Force an app to close

iOS: Troubleshooting applications purchased from the App Store

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1702

If none of the steps resolve the issue, see the last section in the article above.

Cheers,

Jason H.

Ignore Engineer... spam and is dangerous.

Ok so what you want to do is go into your settings, then into iCloud, manage storage and back up and just delete your current whatsapp backup. And then close down the whatsapp app and re-open it, when you go into chat back up it should refreshed itself and you can start the back up process again and it should work. the key is to delete the original iCloud back up, if there's nothing to back it up to, it will stop. hope this works

I too have the same issue, except that mine is stuck at 0%

I have tried everything possible to fix this. Some of things I did are force close the app, turned off wifi and cellular data and turned it on again, reboot the phone, hard reboot by pressing the Home+Power key, restoring it to a past backup when I didn't have this issue, reinstalling WhatsApp from the AppStore.

But nothing fixes this issue and the backup upload is stuck at 0% which means WhatsApp is no longer backing up my chat history to iCloud. I have sent a mail to WhatsApp regarding the issue. Already been 3 days but no response so far from them.

I think I might have just found the problem (for newly occurring cases).

To put it simple — it's all due to (the no good) iCloud Drive.

iCloud Drive only runs on devices that are compatible and running on iOS 8 (4S and later).

If you happen to have already activated iCD (yes, me) and are trying to backup the chat from a device running iOS 7, you'd encounter this problem.

And it sickens me to think that I've deleted the previous available backup file when trying to solve the issue. Now I'm stuck with two phones.

I, too, dropped WA an email regarding it – hope they add a feature for us to backup our chats by another method, and I'm sure there'd be many others who'd be facing this same problem too.

Oh well...

We both are exactly in the same situation.

Even I think iCloud Drive is causing this. I upgraded my 4S to iOS 8 the day it was launched and activated iCloud Drive. I used iOS 8 for about 36 hours and immediately downgraded back to iOS 7 as my phone started to lag and even froze a couple of times during an incoming call. The current version of WhatsApp doesn't backup chats on iOS 8 so I guess it retained some of that setting when I downgraded to iOS 7.

I too have deleted the old WhatsApp backup so I am stuck with the iTunes backup on my computer in case something goes wrong. Still waiting for a reply from WhatsApp's customer support. Hopefully, there is a solution to this in the next app update.

What I think is happening in your case is that your iCD remains activated even after you had downgraded back to iOS 7, and it's not WA's fault that it is not uploading.

What I understand (after reading numerous posts about it) is that iCD is the successor for the old Documents & Data in iCloud, and that it's not backwards compatible. Hence, when one opts to activate iCD, the person's data will be transferred from the old iCloud to the new iCloud Drive.

When running on a device that's still stuck with iOS 7, WA would still attempt to upload the backup to the old iCloud, when in fact (the data) has already been shifted to iCD (and barred).

One probable way for it to work is for WA to create a bypass, and probably allow us to backup our chats to their server, and then retrieve it back by using the same phone number.

Keeping my fingers crossed for it.

meecarlao wrote:

One probable way for it to work is for WA to create a bypass, and probably allow us to backup our chats to their server, and then retrieve it back by using the same phone number.

Keeping my fingers crossed for it.

I don't think WhatsApp would go that route. Definitely not for just a few users.

I received a reply from a WhatsApp support agent. All they asked was to send in more details like,

1. WhatsApp version (go into WhatsApp > Settings > About to retrieve this info)

2. Which iPhone you use

3. Which iOS version you use (iPhone Settings > General > About > Version )

4. Your phone number in full international format (+ Country code Area code Phone number)

All this was sent to them in the first mail but they are once again asking for the same. I sent it again. Hopefully, there is a fix to this.

Fingers crossed.

I know it's a hassling one, but I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be just the few of us only. If you were to upgrade yours to iOS 8, your problem would be solved (I guess), but obviously you're not going that route either.. so there clearly has to be an alternative to iCloud Drive.

Well, they have yet to respond to my email, but I sent the same details they asked from you too. Let's just see how they'd handle this, and hopefully there'd a solution to it too.

meecarlao wrote:

If you were to upgrade yours to iOS 8, your problem would be solved (I guess), but obviously you're not going that route either.. so there clearly has to be an alternative to iCloud Drive.

Yes, I guess that seems to be the only solution for now. But its not exactly a solution because the current WhatsApp version does not support iCloud backup on iOS 8. But maybe if I upgrade to iOS 8 again, disable iCloud Drive and then downgrade back to iOS 7, it could solve the problem. But then again its a risk which I don't want to take.

I was excited about iOS 8 and Yosemite integration where I could make and receive calls and text through my Mac without lifting my phone. But iOS 8's performance on 4S has crushed all that. I have experienced the lag and slowness on my iPod Touch (4th Gen) after upgrading to iOS 6 from iOS 5 so its a case of once bitten twice shy.

Maybe if Apple can optimise iOS 8 for 4S in a future upgrade, I might consider upgrading but that too after reading a few genuine reviews.

Yo, i have the same problem. I have never backed up Whatsapp, but today i did and it stuck on 0%.

So i found the solution for:

I feel my phone's battery is being consumed constantly by this whatsapp chat backup"

go to Settings - iCloud - iCloud Drive - WhatsApp - and turn it OFF.

now if you launch whatsapp and go to the backup option, it will be stopped..

I feel my phone's battery is being consumed constantly by this whatsapp chat backup"

On iOS 8 you can check which apps are hogging up your battery in : Settings > General > Usage > Battery

666msk wrote:

Yo, i have the same problem. I have never backed up Whatsapp, but today i did and it stuck on 0%.

So i found the solution for:

go to Settings - iCloud - iCloud Drive - WhatsApp - and turn it OFF.

now if you launch whatsapp and go to the backup option, it will be stopped..

Can you also try this and see if this fixed the issue - Disable iCloud Drive and then try to backup WhatsApp. Does it proceed or does it still get stuck?

If it doesn't get stuck then it simply means that WhatsApp doesn't support iCloud Drive as of now.

It doesn't work that way. Like I said I currently have my iPad and iPhone 5 running iOS 8, tried "switching it off" (there isn't really a disable for it), restarting my iPhone 4 (iOS 7) and tried backing it up, but to no avail.

Although WhatsApp doesn't currently support backup on iOS 8 (which is to iCloud Drive after everyone made the switch to it), I still believe the problem is on iCloud Drive's side. WhatsApp could just release a minor update (they did have one earlier today, not sure what is it about but it's just stated as "minor bug fixes" ) to redirect the backup to iCloud Drive, devices running on iOS 7 would not be able to do so as iOS 7 does not support iCloud Drive. That's the main problem.

Then again, we'll just have to see how these work out.

I got a reply from a WhatsApp support agent.

Ken V (WhatsApp Support)

Sep 25 16:04

Hi

If you are attempting to backup or restore chat history while using cellular data, please make sure you have Use Cellular Data set to ON in iPhone Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data.

If the "uploading" or "downloading" progress for chat history backup is stuck at the same percentage, please understand that this process is controlled entirely by iOS. Neither you nor WhatsApp have any way to control it, nor does Apple provide any guidance about when the iCloud data will actually get uploaded to iCloud, or what conditions allow it to be uploaded.

It's possible that rebooting your phone, changing networks, or closing apps could help. I recommend leaving your iPhone plugged into power and connected to a good Wi-Fi network. In some cases, the "uploading" or "downloading" progress may not change for several days. In the meantime, please make sure you have enough free space on your iCloud account, and continue to perform normal iPhone backups via iCloud.

-ken

I guess the last hope of getting a fix to this is over until Apple fixes the issue with iCloud Drive.