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US$50 (via PayPal) for help to migrate my WhatsApp!

asked 2019-12-26 10:24:27 +0200

rodmart gravatar image

Currently have WhatsApp on an Android phone with years of chats and want to migrate to WhatsApp on my Sailfish XA2 WITHOUT loosing all my chats (images/videos included).

Backing up to Google drive is NOT an option given that there is no Google Play on Sailfish OS.

I am willing to pay US$50 via PayPal to a kind soul that can "hand hold me" (Skype screen share) through the process.

I am tech savvy and have both a PC and a Mac for the job.

Please help!!

Thank you.

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Comments

@rodmart, this might help you;

https://faq.whatsapp.com/vi/android/20887921/

Spam Hunter ( 2019-12-26 13:32:41 +0200 )edit

why the.down votes ?

pawel ( 2019-12-26 16:03:07 +0200 )edit
1

@rodmart

did you manage to get it up?

peterleinchen ( 2019-12-30 00:40:00 +0200 )edit

5 Answers

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answered 2019-12-26 14:11:20 +0200

I guess this is about lack of full file transfer via USB but only MTP in SFOS.

Easiest approach is SD card as suggested. Else you may enable development shell and use rcp/scp from the sailfish phone (assuming both are in same LAN/WLAN). scp -r user@pcIP:/full/path/to/wa-backup-folder/* /home/nemo/android_storage/WhatsApp/

Do this as normal nemo user not as root. Exchange user with PC user and pcIP with computer IP (or name) and give the full path to the wa-backup-folder. This works for Linux PC out of the box. For Windows I never did but I guess there is some thing similar to download/execute. Mac? Maybe change the oorder if executed from PC:

scp -r wa-backup-folder/* nemo@phoneIP:/home/nemo/android_storage/WhatsApp/

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Furthermore make sure the backup is in place before starting WA for the first time on phone. On first start WA asks for a import of older backup found.

Else just uninstall/install again...

peterleinchen ( 2019-12-26 14:15:31 +0200 )edit

Thank you Peter!

rodmart ( 2019-12-26 17:20:37 +0200 )edit
2

answered 2019-12-26 16:49:09 +0200

Sebix gravatar image

I managed to migrate WhatsApp from one Jolla1 to a Sailfish X device with the following steps. If you have any questions or problems following the steps, please do not hesitate to ask!

Source phone: Jolla 1 (with Android 4) Target phone: XA2 (with Android 8) Because of the different versions of the Android layer, the directories where the system data resides is different.

Prerequisites: You need to be able to activate the developer mode and use SSH. It may be possible to use media transfer via USB (MTP) and use the terminal on the phone too.

On the source phone: Activate developer mode and either use the terminal, or SSH:

cd /data/data/com.whatsapp/
tar -czf /home/nemo/whatsapp-sys.tar.gz .
chmod 664 /home/nemo/whatsapp-sys.tar.gz

To transfer the media files, an additional step is needed. Android emulation must be running for this (otherwise the directory is empty):

cd /home/nemo/android_storage
tar -czf /home/nemo/whatsapp-storage.tar.gz WhatsApp/
chmod 664 /home/nemo/whatsapp-storage.tar.gz

Now, transfer the files to the target phone, e.g. with SSH (scp) or via USB (easier)

On the target phone:

  • Install WhatsApp
  • Start it once (creates the system directory)
  • Stop it in Settings > Apps > WhatsApp > Force stop
  • I am not sure if you need to grant Storage access permissions (I guess not, just try it without): Settings > Apps > WhatsApp > Force stop

Then again in the terminal:

cd /home/.android/data/data/com.whatsapp/
ls -l

This shows for example:

drwxrwx--x 2 10058 10058 4096 Dec 23 13:59 app_minidumps
drwxrws--x 5 10058 20058 4096 Dec 23 13:59 cache
drwxrws--x 2 10058 20058 4096 Dec 23 13:57 code_cache
drwxrwx--x 2 10058 10058 4096 Dec 23 14:00 databases
drwxrwx--x 8 10058 10058 4096 Dec 23 14:01 files
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root    55 Dec 23 18:56 lib -> /data/app/com.whatsapp-xhiN4SwQeJY5sltr8qJD4Q==/lib/arm
drwxrwx--x 2 10058 10058 4096 Dec 23 14:00 no_backup
drwxrwx--x 2 10058 10058 4096 Dec 23 14:03 shared_prefs

Here, remeber the owner/group of the files, in my case it is the number 10058. We need this later. We remove everything except the lib:

rm -rf app_minidumps/ cache/ code_cache/ databases/ files/ no_backup/ shared_prefs/
tar -xzf /home/nemo/whatsapp-sys.tar.gz

Use the number from above here (for example chown -R 10058:10058):

chown -R [number]:[number]

For the media files:

cd /home/nemo/android_storage
tar -xzf /home/nemo/whatsapp-storage.tar.gz
chown -R media_rw:media_rw WhatsApp

That's it. Start WhatsApp on the target phone, it should show everything as before, no restore from backup is necessary, no phone number verification.

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answered 2019-12-26 11:07:21 +0200

jpjolla gravatar image

I think this is the way to do it. https://together.jolla.com/question/140802/whatsapp-how-to-backuprestore-chats-from-jolla-1-to-jolla-c-without-google-driv

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Appreciate your answer jpjolla! I've read that post before as well as the links mentioned. I understand that I need to copy the whole directory over, but not familiar with the setup/tools required to do the copying hence the "hand holding" and US$50 reward for someone that has done it before and is willing to give me a hand and some of their time.

rodmart ( 2019-12-26 11:39:09 +0200 )edit
0

answered 2019-12-26 12:53:15 +0200

rodmart gravatar image

So I was able to copy the WhatsApp tree from my android to a folder on my PC...BUT when I try to copy that tree, or any file for that matter, to my XA2 connected to the PC it makes a strange beep and doesn't do anything.

I can however create a folder on the XA2...

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answered 2019-12-26 13:02:06 +0200

jpjolla gravatar image

use sd card instead of pc. Actually no pc needed.

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Asked: 2019-12-26 10:24:27 +0200

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Last updated: Dec 26 '19