whatsapp restore stuck at 99% and rebooting in loop

I finally got a response from Whatsapp with similar advice as follows:

Unfortunately, this means that the chat history backup is irretrievable at this time. I apologize for the inconvenience.

You may still be able to recover your old chat history if you have your old device. To do so:

1. Update WhatsApp on the old device.
2. Create a new backup on the old device.
3. Restore the new backup on the new device.

Unfortunately this doesn't help me at all as I wasn't changing from one phone to another, I was simply restoring on my existing phone.

I have been facing the same problem, i have tried everything, i deleted whatsapp, i have rested my iPhone several times .. but nothing seems to work. I contacted WhatsApp and they haven't respond. Maybe its from them or from Apple.. they need to figure something out! Because i am not going to risk and lose all my chat history. They need to find a solution soon.

Same issue here - come on guys @apple and @whatspp - get this sorted....

same thing is happening to me. It's been a week already stuck on 99% . Please let us know if anyone succeed with fixing it.

Hello guys,

I think I've just found the solution for this problem, sadly it requires loosing all your whatsapp chats and media.

If you're stuck in the 99% restoring from iCloud screen follow the following steps:

1- On your iPhone, go to Settings.

2- Go to iCloud and select iCloud Drive option.

3- Turn off iCloud Drive option for Whatsapp at the bottom of the screen.

4- Delete and reinstall Whatsapp on your iPhone.

5- When you open Whatsapp again SKIP the restore Backup from iCloud step.

6- SKIP this step and you'll be able to use Whatsapp again but with no chats, as a new phone.

I hope this may be usefull for you guys.

Regards!

Fausto

I had this issue for a couple of days, and got tired of waiting for a WhatsApp software update.I got tired of waiting for a fix, so I performed the below steps to resolve the issue .I was restoring to an iPhome 7 Plus, however, this should work for any iPhone model.

1- make a local iTunes backup

2- delete WhatsApp application and then download again from app store

3-launch WhatsApp, then wait for it to restore. It should get stuck at "finishing up 99%"

4- Press home > settings > iCloud> storage> manage storage > documents & data> WhatsApp> edit > delete all

5- press home button, launch WhatsApp again, it should still be stuck

6-press to return to springboard/home page

7- double click home button to launch all open apps, swipe up to force close WhatsApp

8- launch WhatsApp once more, this time it will say optimizing. It will then go to a page where it says trying to restore from iCloud. It won't be able to, since we deleted it prior. On the top left select "skip".

9- it will then go to the next screen with all your groups at the top, and individual conversations at the bottom.

10- to create a new WhatsApp iCloud back up, go to settings in WhatsApp app> chat>chat back up>backup now

Thumbs up if the steps above helped you out. I take no responsibility if your messages get deleted, these are just the steps I took to resolve restore issues on WhatsApp.

Let me know if you need any clarification on any of the steps.

Tried following you suggested process, but unable to delete the app. Yes, I am pressing hold the app, waiting for the shake, using the 'x' to delete, selecting 'delete' but not deleting.

Sorry, but it's not, we are trying to recover the chat history, not to start all over..

It all worked out for me!! Thank you so much!

This worked for me and I have all my chats back! Thank you so much!!

I've had the same issue since the 6th of October stuck at 99% restoring from iCloud and I haven't been able to access any of my whatsapp chats in that time. I can see 5GB of data stored under iCloud and I really do not want to lose my chat history! Tried contacting both Whatsapp and Apple however it still hasn't been resolved. Any idea what I should do?

Have you been able to resolve this? I have exactly the same problem

Glad it helped, cheers !

Yes, had the exact same issue. Used the steps that I posted above and was able to resolve the issues. Seems to have worked for others who have followed my steps.

Did you manage to resolve this?