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Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

yasoob.me

51–60 of 81 posts

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#52
post #8

It's interesting that you can get the decryption key on iOS but the only way to do it on Android is to root your device.

Or you can set your own password on Android, and therefore not require rooting. (WhatsApp gives you that option) I do that for my own backups. Download them via Google Drive [0] and then use this tool to decrypt them [1][2]

[0] https://github.com/YuriCosta/WhatsApp-GD-Extractor-Multithre...

[1] https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypte...

[2] https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypte...

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#53
post #26

You might also be interested in a software called iMazing. It’s a paid piece of software, not free, but it’s worth the price imo. I use it mainly for transferring photos from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro M1. But I know that iMazing can back up WhatsApp messages as well, among other features. https://imazing.com/ https://imazing.com/guides/export-and-print-whatsapp-chats-f...

> I use it mainly for transferring photos from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro M1. This caught me by surprise; I'm not sure if you're aware, but you can open up Image Capture (built-in Mac app) to import photos from your iPhone. Obviously iMazing can do other things as well, but just in case.

Image Capture constantly freezes for me and isn't able to skip duplicates anymore.

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#54

On a similar topic, is this possible with Signal or iMessage? I have an incomplete archive on my phone due to data loss but my iPad has a continuous record. I would love to get it synced to the phone.

This [0] (I made this) will let you get your messages out into Markdown/HTML + attachments, but I'm pretty sure there's no way to get them back onto your phone yet.

[0] https://github.com/carderne/signal-export

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#55
post #31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they improved that? Last I tried with 200GB or so of photos it just froze.

Most people aren’t importing 200GB of photos from their iPhone in one go…

To be clear, 200GB is not a lot. That’s $2 of HDD space (diskprices.com). Or ~400min of compressed video. Or 33 minutes of raw video.

I expect most people import 100G if they have the cheapest model (128G flash), but the rest are importing 200G or more.

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#56
last I extracted (and migrated) WA from iOS I used idevicebackup2 and a util ideviceunback to get a decrypted sqlite database. From there it's sqlite schema discovery that is documented in multiple places, e.g. https://gist.github.com/paracycle/6107205 - the method of an decrypted backup skips the elaborate steps outlined in the article.

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#57
Extracting isn't the hard part. I have yet to figure out how to append Whatsapp message from a previous backup which I have held for 8 years.

The iOS backup was corrupted and I had to start over again at the time. The Whatsapp file was extracted but I never got round to it. ( Along with important pictures inside the Whatsapp)

To this day I still blame on it on iOS backup problem. Which is still a thing in 2022.

I wonder why Facebook hasn't made an iOS to Android Whatsapp history transfer a priority. To most people outside of US, Whatsapp history transfer is the biggest lock in with the Smartphone ecosystem.

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#58
post #48
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people aren’t importing 200GB of photos from their iPhone in one go…

Given that Apple are selling iPhones with 1TB of storage these days, you'd expect them to test the ability to import huge libraries. (even if the 13 Pro still uses USB 2.0 so the transfer speeds would be abysmal)

My iPhone 7 supports sync over WiFi. I've never benchmarked it, but I'd expect the speed to be better than USB 2.

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#59
My setup (following Schneier's essay 'data is a toxic asset') is as follows: 1 week self-destructing messages in Signal (I don't use WhatsApp). If its an important message I save it (can't remember the last time that happened), if its an important picture I save it (which then gets uploaded to Nextcloud, which gets backed up to a Synology elsewhere, and it gets deleted from my smartphone but available via Nextcloud; e.g. photo as memory of our young children). There's no data to save, no data to migrate (I also don't use Google Drive for backups) and the only data there automagically gets removed within a week. My Nextcloud is only reachable via Wireguard. If my smartphone gets compromised (ie. stolen or lost) I'd need to revoke that keypair in Wireguard.

Re: Extracting WhatsApp Messages from an iOS Backup

#60
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm limiting the chat history of all charts to 7 days. You never know what will be used against you in the future.

Wouldn’t it be better to know? What I mean is: your chat partners could archive your chats or some man in the middle. Better to know what you wrote, then to be blindsided later by somebody else who got hold of these archives.

i doubt that most of my chat partners have the capabilities to do that. and yes, it would be smart to make archives, but let the chat destroy itself after 7 days.
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