Level 1

81 points

Whatsapp not restoring photos from backup

Hi, I had to wipe my phone and I restored from iCloud (in the end what's the point of paying for it otherwise).

My whatsapp backup was 5GB including the media, however when it downloaded, all the photos older than a month show a "?" in place of the thumbnails.

I contacted whatsapp support and they say it's an issue regarding the iCloud backup... The thing is, that if I click on the question mark, it opens up blank but you can see the pictures in the small thumbnails, which makes me think not all is lost... PLEASE HELP!!

Does anybody know if I can recover my images? This is what I see:

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.2

Posted on Jun 25, 2016 4:55 PM

Top-ranking reply

Macindows

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Nov 17, 2017 1:17 PM

SOLVED: I took the sim card back into my iPhone 7, continued using WhatsApp for a day or so, made sure to have iOS 11.1.2 installed on both the iPhone 7 and iPhone X, made sure I had the very same WhatsApp version installed on both devices, made a fresh chat back up in WhatsApp on my iPhone 7, made a local back up of my iPhone 7 on my MacBook, then I put the Sim card back into my iPhone X wiped it clean and locally restored from the iPhone 7 back up. Now it works and I’ve got all my ***** pictures back. Thank god!!

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46 replies

Feb 2, 2017 2:11 AM in response to chung tak

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

Feb 20, 2017 10:09 AM in response to Humamnj

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,

Apr 4, 2017 7:31 AM in response to dpax

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.

dpax Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 25, 2016 8:43 PM in response to gail from maine

HI Gail!!

No it wasn't in photostream. It's not the whatsapp pictures that are saved to my camera roll.

The ones that didn't restore are the pictures in the whatsapp backup.. Inside the chats.

matu7

Level 1

9 points

Sep 18, 2016 12:26 PM in response to dpax

Hi!

I have the same error after upgrade to ios 10!

Could you solve it?

Dec 27, 2016 9:27 AM in response to madhectic69

I have this problem, iPhone 6 to iPhone 7. Both are on the newest iOS and WhatsApp is its newest version on both. Still no luck. Ideas?

Jan 11, 2017 3:44 AM in response to dpax

I have the same problem. Ive try restoring the backup a couple of times but it keeps on. does anybody has any solution???

Jan 16, 2017 6:52 AM in response to dpax

same! I'm having this same prob and this is annoying the heck out of me. tried all the above solutions and it doesnt help, if anyone finds a solution pls lemme know i'll be so grateful!!!

Jan 19, 2017 6:10 AM in response to Jafs664

Hey Jafs664,

Thank you!! Will try (:

Humamnj

Level 1

4 points

Feb 20, 2017 12:28 AM in response to sivaram269

Has anyone found a fix to this problem?

Lamsob

Level 1

4 points

Apr 2, 2017 9:02 AM in response to madhectic69

Hello, i've read your comment after i deleted whatsapp on the old iphone is there anyway to recover them please help

Jun 28, 2017 5:19 AM in response to dpax

Got the same issue. Anyone found a solution yet? My old phone is destroyed so I need another option for restoring them from the backup itself.

Yusra34

Level 1

4 points

Jun 30, 2017 2:19 PM in response to dpax

I'm having the same issue. I have my old phone and also new one. Can anyone Help me to resolve this issue?

Jul 10, 2017 11:16 PM in response to dpax

I also having this issue. After backup i can't see any photo in Whatsapp. but it appear in Whatsapp Web.

Jul 11, 2017 3:58 PM in response to sally_pgw

Hi somebody reply you or help you.

i have the same problem.

thanks

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Whatsapp not restoring photos from backup