Whatsapp not restoring photos from backup

Hi everyone, I had the issue whereby I restored my iPhone (including WhatsApp) but none of my media was visible in my WhatsApp conversations. The conversations were all there but the media was just boxes with question marks in them. Just to reiterate this issue was in WhatsApp ONLY. All my photos were restored with no problem via iCloud. So not having the media in my WhatsApp conversations wasn’t a disaster because I usually straight-away save any photos shared in my various WhatsApp conversations to my Camera Roll which means they’re then on iCloud and not lost. But it’s rather nice having all the media in there to scroll back through. So I contacted WhatsApp support and they told me:

The only way to recover lost data in WhatsApp or move data to another iPhone is through iCloud or iTunes backups. Please understand that WhatsApp does not generally maintain your call and messaging history or your message content. This applies to calls, text messages as well as media that is delivered via WhatsApp. In most cases, these histories and media files can only be found on your device, your call partner's or chat partner's device. iCloud and iTunes backups are tied to the phone number; you will not be able to restore a backup for a number that is not currently active on your phone. For information on how to backup or restore data via iCloud or iTunes, please visit our FAQ.

Problem:

• Backed up my WhatsApp inside the app
• Backed up my entire iPhone to iCloud (and iTunes just for safety)
• I then bought a new iPhone
• I restored it from iCloud backup
• All was fine apart from it was taking ages (I have a lot of apps/data)
• So I deleted WhatsApp thinking I could just re-download it and restore WhatsApp only from the backup inside the app
• It did restore but with question marks over the media in all my conversations
• The thing to bear in mind here is that your WhatsApp backup only contains “pointers” let’s say to conversations and does not actually contain the media - the media HAS TO come from iCloud

Fix:

• Make sure your old iPhone and new iPhone are running the same OS and also have the same versions of WhatsApp on both
• Back up WhatsApp inside the app on your iPhone
• Back up your entire iPhone to iCloud (and iTunes just for safety if you want)
• Restore your new phone from this iCloud backup - note that this is the ONLY way to get your media back
• It takes a while (I had 7GB of data for just WhatsApp) but sit by your Wifi router If you recycle/sell your old iPhone then it’s kind of too late I’m afraid - lesson is never sell your old device until you’re 100% sure your new phone is how you want it
• Also worth bearing in mind that while I was trying to fix this issue, I turned the Automatic Backup function inside the WhatsApp app to OFF while I was sorting it out, just in case it over-wrote data I would later want
• I also wrote down what I might lose during the week it took me to figure this out so weigh up if it really is as terrible as you think it is if you have to roll back the clock a bit on your iPhone’s data. I could get my photos back easily from either iCloud or Dropbox backups, I don’t use iMessage so much, all apps can be re-downloaded from your iTunes account at anytime so they’re fine - so what would I lose? Not much really.

First of all, this problem occurred when I got fed up of my phone being slow so I decided to do a system restore then restoring from back up. When I went to my WhatsApp, all my media was gone. I fixed this issue doing the following:

1) restore an older back up of your iPhone through iTunes from when your whatsapp media was there. Once complete, check your WhatsApp media has appeared. mine appeared.

2) Back up the WhatsApp media by following the how to back up WhatsApp media instructions found online to iCloud and include the videos.

3) Once the back up is complete (takes 30 minutes for me) you now have a back up of your WhatsApp media and can install it through iCloud on other IOS devices.

Hope this helps, it helped me!

A few ideas:

1. Make sure the version of WhatsApp on your iPhone 7 Plus is the same version of WhatsApp as on your new iPhone X

2. Bear in mind the WhatsApp backup on iCloud (8.2GB in your case) does NOT contain media. The media is stored in Apple's own proprietary iCloud/iTunes backup. The 8.2GB is mostly chat data and SOME media but strictly speaking, does not contain all the photos and videos (I'm not sure how it decides which to put in which backup).

3. How much media do you have on your WhatsApp chats? Mine took a few days to completely reappear and I made sure I was on Wifi as much as possible ...

Hope it works out for you!

No worries!

IMHO I'm not sure if it makes a difference about the versions but it could ....

It actually took me 3 goes at loading my iCloud backup for it to work so keep trying!

Hope it works out for you 🙂

Same problem here. And WhatsApp Team simply don't care and blame it on Apple. All the other APPs are working OK, except WhatsAPP, this is definitely their problem and responsibility to find out the reason and solution for this. Shame on them!

I found out, however, that when I access WhatsApp through the Desktop version, I can see some of the old images and specially some audios that I've lost. Some of them still don't show. Would it be some sort of cache?

I've got two iPhones:

iPhone 7 Plus

• iOS 11.1.1
• 256GB
• Backed up iOS locally and via iCloud
• Backed up Whatsapp manually to iCloud (via in-app option to backup whatsapp chats & media)

iPhone X

• iOS 11.1.1
• 256GB

When setting up my new iPhone X, I chose to restore from the most recent iCloud backup (from iPhone 7 Plus).

Everything went smoothly, however, in Whatsapp all media was gone and only showed empty thumbnails.

Two things are weird:

1. The chat backup size on iPhone X is still 8.2GB (as on my iPhone 7 Plus)
2. When using Whatsapp Desktop, all media is accessible and visible in the chat

Then, I wiped the iPhone X clean, put the simcard back into the iPhone 7, backed up everything again (iOS & Whatsapp), put the simcard back into the iPhone X and restored from the brand new backup (& let everything download overnight).

This morning I woke up to see, that Whasapp resotred alongside all other apps, all charts are there, backup size is still 8.2 GB, but all media is still gone (empty thumbnails).

==> What can I do to get back all of my medai in Whatsapp? There must be a way!

I would even pay for someone to help me restore my media. Can please someone help me?

Same problem here!

I backup the whatsapp on iCloud and it showed about 2.7GB of backup with media. It took about 15 min to backup. Afterwards, I installed the whatsapp on my iPhone again and restore the backup, it showed all backup save down to my iPhone. Then I found most photos are ???. The most shocked now showing is my backup is now only 80MB on iCloud (I didn't choose any delete) that means all gone....without anymore backup..... anyway to find out the backup and restore the backup properly?!

The same exact thing happened to me, had a backup on icloud for 4.5 gb and did a restore - it said chat restore is done- media restore will be done in the background and nothing happened- NOW my whatsapp on iCloud shows 15 mb. Were u able to solve this

Follow the Whatsapp website's instructions for doing backups. The application requires that you turn on settings within the app in order to get the messages saved: https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/iphone/20888066

This is what they say about Photos and videos: https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/wp/30034176

If you are having issues, you should contact Whatsapp support.

Cheers,

GB

I had the same problem but I didn't see a single image.

SOLVED:

By restoring the iPhone from backup that was backup up to my computer rather than from iCloud which is what I did before.

It installed an older version of whatsapp that was saved to my computer in the backup and when I launched the app it said the version was expired and I had to update.

After updating, it worked.

I think its something to do with the whatsapp versions. My iOS version is the same throughout.

Hope this helps.

Same **** problem... moved from iphone SE to a iphone 5 because I lost my phone. Always used daily backup function in whatsapp. Did not turn on whatsapp in icloud backup.

Now I lost all my pictures. Went from 1.2 gb of data to 40 mb... If somebody can solve it.

Remember that all the media in your WhatsApp conversations are in your iCloud backup and NOT your WhatsApp backup. So if you're getting ? in place of the photos/videos, you need to re-restore from your iCloud backup.

weddo84 wrote:

i moved to phone x and all my whatspp are doing that let me know how to resolve it i also have icloude 200 GB and there is plenty of space.

Was the device you were using for the backup running iOS 8 or higher? If so, did you have iCloud Drive turned on as well as having the the backup settings turned on in the Whats App application? Here is the Help guide from Whatsapp regarding backups:

https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/iphone/20888066/?category=5245251

Best of luck,

GB

Hi thanks for the link I have checked it and I have the new operating system along 11.1 along with the backup that was done before installing Whatsapp on the new device

I am concerned if I delete what’sapp and install it again I will lose the data

My Whatsapp chat backup is done daily automatically on WiFi . Please advise what else should I try to avoid losing all the data media of chat history on Whatsapp

Thank u

Well, again, did you also have iCloud Drive turned on? Because according to that article, you needed to have that turned on in order for the data to be backed up.

Did you set up your iPhone X by restoring from the backup of your previous device? If so, I'm a bit confused about your comment about "installing Whatsapp on the new device". If you restored from a backup, then the backup would install Whatsapp, you wouldn't be doing that.

Can you clarify the two points above?

Cheers,

GB