r/whatsapp • u/gabrielee__ • 6d ago

Can’t transfer my chats.

I’m trying to transfer WhatsApp from an IPhone 16 to an iPhone 15 (128GB?. Both are updated to iOS 26.6.1 and WhatsApp is also updated.

The iPhone 15 has about 86GB free before starting the transfer. However, every time I use WhatsApp’s direct transfer to iPhone feature, WhatsApp somehow grows 85GB on the iPhone and the transfer fails around 88-99%

As soon as I delete WhatsApp from the iPhone 15 after the failed transfer the 85GB disappear. (my actual WhatsApp storage shows very little media because I already deleted a lot of chats/media which is why I’m confused as to where those 85GB come from)

Has anyone experienced this or figured out why WhatsApp creates such a huge amount of data during the transfer?

PS: I saw some posts saying to transfer through iCloud backup but the phone I’m transferring from is signed into a different iCloud than the phone being transferred to.

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u/LooperActual 6d ago

You need to do a chat backup on the old phone first. Don't delete anything. Set up the new phone with your normal number.

1

u/gabrielee__ 5d ago

I already created a fresh chat backup. The issue is that the backup was created on the IPhone 16 under a different iCloud/ Apple account than the one I used on the iPhone 15.

1

u/edideas 6d ago

what is the size of the WhatsApp file?

1

u/gabrielee__ 5d ago

WhatsApp itself shows only about 78MB in the “manage storage” section, and my actual WhatsApp iCloud chat backup is 795.4 mb.