Transferring WhatsApp History from iPhone to Android using Wazapp Migrator. But iTunes creating a 167GB+ backup of 128GB iPhone?

illumination on 03/10/2020 - 20:25
Last edited 18/10/2020 - 20:06

Hey guys, I'm looking for some tech help..!

TLDR:

  • Objective: Migrate WhatsApp Chat history from iPhone 6 Plus 128GB (77GB used) to Android (Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC)
  • Found Wazzap Migrator - instructions say you need to backup your iPhone via iTunes
  • Backup keeps failing, because my PC, with 167GB available space, does not have enough space for the backup of the 128GB iPhone with only 77GB used
  • Have looked for alternatives - e.g. 3uTools, MobileTrans. Features-wise, they look good, but I would expect many more references to them online than I can find, considering how long they've been around + the potential problems they solve
  • As a result, I don't quite feel at ease using either piece of software, but if I had to pick, I'm probably slightly more willing to try MobileTrans
  • Ideas/alternatives/suggestions?

I'm trying to help my mother in law move from iPhone to Android, a Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC. She wants to keep her WhatsApp chat history and media. Problem is, WhatsApp on iOS is backed up iCloud and WhatsApp on Android is backed up to Google Drive.

I found Wazapp Migrator (lol, what a name) and it can supposedly do iPhone -> Android (but not the other way round?). It's not free, but I'm willing to pay if it makes the process easier. I can also find enough references/testimonials online to Wazapp Migrator such that it doesn't feel shady. I also know someone in real life who has actually used it and confirmed that it worked.

One of the steps is to take a backup of the iPhone via iTunes to your PC, so I installed iTunes. I've got 167GB space available on my SSD. I start the backup, and it keeps going until my PC runs out of space, and the backup fails.

Why does this happen? The backup should be no more than 76.5GB, given that's the size of the contents on the iPhone. I've already made more space available on my PC, as I actually started with 131GB available space. I also cleared stuff off the iPhone, bringing it down from 92GB to 76.5GB by deleting "phantom photos". This was a separate, but also immensely frustrating issue - basically, there was 46.5GB of "Recently Deleted" media which wasn't appearing in "Recently Deleted", until I turned off automatic date/time and manually set a random date about a year ago to discover these phantom photos.

I posted for assistance on Reddit and it was suggested that it could be a bug in iTunes. I was also recommended the tool 3uTools. During my research of 3uTools, I then stumbled upon MobileTrans. 3uTools has been around since at least 2017 and MobileTrans has been around since at least 2014.

Both of these pieces of software actually look quite promising, and look like they could be useful. However, I can find very few mentions/references made to these two pieces of software online, and this is concerning when you consider how long they've been around and the problems that they solve - I'm sure I'm nowhere near the first to want to migrate WhatsApp chat history from iOS to Android? Consequently, neither of them pass my "sniff test". 3uTools' support email is "@gmail.com", for god's sake LOL

Even on Ozbargain, I can only find 3 mentions of 3uTools and 2 mentions of MobileTrans.

Any other suggestions/advice?

Thanks in advance.

Mobile

Comments

  • iridiumstem on 03/10/2020 - 20:38

    Samsung phones have that smartswitch software and that dongle stuff (USB-A to USB-C) to connect the two phones together and move the data over.
    If your mother in law's phone is a Samsung one, have you tried that?

    Admittedly I haven't done move from an iPhone to an Android, but I think Android to Android went OK if I remember correctly?

    • illumination on 03/10/2020 - 20:52

      Ah, it's not a Samsung sorry. I should've included the model of the Android in the OP - which I have done now.

      Android to Android is a piece of cake. Google Drive backups for WhatsApp on all Androids are what make it easy.

  • follow on 03/10/2020 - 20:56

    didn't read all that but you could back up media through Google photos

    • illumination on 03/10/2020 - 21:15
      +1

      Haha, that's fine. Appreciate you being willing to take the time to comment regardless. But I've already used Google Photos.

      Google Photos works for photos and videos you've taken on the iPhone - so that stuff has been transferred successfully. But it doesn't work for media you've received through third party apps like WhatsApp. With Google Photos on Android, you can configure the folders to backup (including WhatsApp media folders) but not on iPhone.

      Also - even if it worked for that, I'd still want to find a way to transfer WhatsApp chat history :(

      • Twix on 03/10/2020 - 22:32

        This should work for the media and you have to do it for every single chats message.

        Tap on any WhatsApp media inside a chats message.
        Tap All Media.
        Tap Select.
        Tap on all media she wants to keep.
        Tap share.
        Save items.
        Connect iPhone to PC with lightning to USB cable.
        Open iPhone in Windows explorer.
        Find the folder with the WhatsApp media.
        Login to Google Photos in Chrome.
        Upload.

        • illumination on 04/10/2020 - 01:17
          +1

          Hmm, ok, so it sounds like this could work if the pure intention was to just save the media itself, but..

          • It doesn't "attach" the media to chats. It would just be saving the media as media
          • It would be a manual process of saving only the media that she wishes to save, as opposed to a more automated "batch" like process
          • As above, it still won't save the actual chat history (which you pointed out)

          I'll pitch this to her if there are no better alternatives - but I highly doubt she'll be keen

          But thanks for sharing this idea! I didn't think about it or know about this method

          • Twix on 04/10/2020 - 12:54

            @illumination: I think shes going to have to forget about old messages or printscreen any important messages.The alternative is to get a iPhone haha.

      • illumination on 18/10/2020 - 20:40

        Slight correction to my comment here.

        You can configure Google Photos on iPhone to backup media from WhatsApp (and probably other third party apps too). For WhatsApp on iPhone, it requires you to configure WhatsApp to save media from WhatsApp conversations to Gallery so that Google Photos can recognise it and upload it as part of the media to Google Photos.

        The other handy thing about this is that on iPhone, it can be configured on a per conversation basis. For example, your conversation with Bob can be configured such that the media to/from Bob is saved to the Gallery, but anything with Jane is not saved to the Gallery.

        Ironically, this makes the control you have on WhatsApp media iPhone greater than on Android - specifically because Android is an "all or none" option. You can't (as far as I am aware) specify that only media between you and certain people or groups is backed up.

  • Quantumcat on 03/10/2020 - 22:14
    +1

    Maybe it is backing up the iCloud storage as well

    • illumination on 04/10/2020 - 01:20

      iCloud storage.. hmm, the capacity of it is 5GB, and only 2.5GB is being used. So, it doesn't seem like it :/

  • brokenglish on 04/10/2020 - 12:50
    1. Check iCloud Photo Library for the unknown excess data but I won't bet on it.
    2. Tackle the problem 1 by 1. You just need a larger storage space on your PC to do a complete iPhone backup first. Use external HDD/USB/something. Googling says this is normal occurrence. The large size could be incremental from previous backups. If it was the first backup, it still doesn't matter! You just need to complete that first backup.
  • illumination on 18/10/2020 - 20:49

    I've managed to finally do the iTunes backup.

    I actually even reached out to Apple support. They were reasonably willing to help, but in all honesty, weren't too helpful in terms of the advice they gave. They said:

    • Windows overstates the amount of free space you have due to space taken by the system. E.g. 167GB free space might only be 150GB
    • We cannot offer further support/advice for Windows, but we could advise for Mac
    • iTunes backups are usually about double the size of the content backed up because a second backup is taken to "ensure there are no errors"

    I gathered from what they advised that I was probably just short of the required space. I also don't think this is true (that Windows overstates the available space) - at least not on Windows 10.

    77GB * 2 = 154GB, and assuming Apple support is correct, maybe I have 13GB+ of the 167GB taken by the system which actually isn't available.

    Anyway - I ended up making more space available on my PC (180GB) and I managed to cut down the storage used on the iPhone to 75.5GB.

    The total size of the backup ended up being 167GB. I still don't know why it's greater than 2x the content of the phone (75.5GB * 2 = 151GB), but whatever.

    Now to use this backup to migrate WhatsApp from this backup to the Poco X3 NFC using Wazzap Migrator..!

    For those who are curious about 3uTools and MobileTrans, I tried both, briefly. 3uTools didn't seem to detect the Poco X3 NFC when I was trying to initiate the transfer, and MobileTrans wanted money to complete the transfer. I am willing to pay, but it's more expensive than Wazzap Migrator and I know that Wazzap Migrator works, so I thought I might as well just use Wazzap Migrator.

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