I am posting here just in case somebody happens to know, although I am
99% sure it is not possible.

One can Export a conversation, which goes to a zip file and the
destination can be specified according to various installed apps,
including whatsapp itself (same user even).

The zipfile contains _chat.txt (which is all the text) and the media
is in the separate files, with date-based filenames and the usual type
e.g. .jpg. So the format is totally obvious. The media is referenced
with tags in the .txt so the conversation is trivial to reconstruct.

But there is no way to import it into whatsapp. There simply isn't an
Import function, for a single conversation. (There are various methods
for transferring everything phone1 -> phone2 but they need a fresh
install of whatsapp at the destination).

Consequently there are various "whatsapp export file viewers" e.g.
https://github.com/sinky/whatsapp-chat-export-viewer/blob/main/app.js
and here is a hosted one
https://whatsapp-chat-viewer.netlify.app/
which runs on a PC or (badly) on a phone.

To actually import the file into whatsapp one would need to manipulate
the sqlite database and AFAICT that needs a rooted phone. I did find
some code online for this...

How dumb to offer an Export function but no Import function.

Postman Pat <at@the-post-office-not.com> wrote:
> I am posting here just in case somebody happens to know, although I am
> 99% sure it is not possible.
....
> To actually import the file into whatsapp one would need to manipulate
> the sqlite database and AFAICT that needs a rooted phone. I did find
> some code online for this...
>
> How dumb to offer an Export function but no Import function.

WA has very unconventional ideas regarding data storage. A couple of ideas:

One option is to use a spare rooted phone, do the sqlite manipulation thing,
then set up cloud backup in WA. WA backs up to the cloud, then open the
cloud backup in WA on an unrooted phone.

Another option requires an Android 12+ phone you're prepared to factory
reset. Reset, when you do the basic setup say 'I want to transfer data from
my old iPhone' (it's a slightly different procedure Samsung v other Androids).
Follow the instructions, let it copy all the WA data across. Then delete the
conversations you don't want. Then do the cloud backup thing as above to
transfer to another phone.

It's particularly annoying that you can't do the iPhone -> Android migration
thing outside of the factory reset. There is a way to trigger it
unofficially:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVUrwjz7a_o

In brief: install Shortcut Maker, create a shortcut for Activities -> Data Transfer
Tool ->
com.google.android.apps.restore/
com.google.android.apps.pixelmigrate.migrate.component.D2dWizardManager

But when I tried it it didn't work properly for me. It may well screw up
the existing data on your Android so I wouldn't try it on a phone you care
about the data on it.

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote

>WA has very unconventional ideas regarding data storage. A couple of ideas:

Gosh - thank you! You seem to be the only person who actually
understands the requirement...

I did also think that injecting the exported messages into a google
drive backup might be the least complicated way, but it still involves
messing with the database. But at least you are messing with it in the
backup, not in the phone.

I found some viewers and 1 or 2 of those even support media (badly but
workably) so I have a solution...

The Shortcut Maker is an interesting tool. I wonder what the name
means?

I am not tempted to risk anything too dramatic, because if the WA
database gets buggered, it's too much hassle.

Postman Pat <at@the-post-office-not.com> wrote:
>
> Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote
>
> >WA has very unconventional ideas regarding data storage. A couple of ideas:
>
> Gosh - thank you! You seem to be the only person who actually
> understands the requirement...
>
> I did also think that injecting the exported messages into a google
> drive backup might be the least complicated way, but it still involves
> messing with the database. But at least you are messing with it in the
> backup, not in the phone.

It turns out WA Google Drive backups are 'special', ie you can't just
download them from Google Drive like a regular file. There is an API to
manipulate them, and somebody wrote a tool:
https://github.com/thebestnom/WhatsApp-GD-Extractor-Multithread

but I couldn't get that to work (OAuth errors, see open issues).

> I found some viewers and 1 or 2 of those even support media (badly but
> workably) so I have a solution...
>
> The Shortcut Maker is an interesting tool. I wonder what the name
> means?

Android apps register 'actions', which are different ways into the app if
somebody clicks on its icon to open it, or shares something to it, it gets a
notification, etc. In this case the Data Transfer Tool ignores 'open'
actions but it can be started by sending it a different action, which is
sent when running the out of the box setup procedure. Sending that action
manually via Shortcut Maker is a way to start it after setup has run.

I didn't manage a successful migration with it, though. Possibly running
setup creates databases for apps like Contacts and it won't run if they
already exist.

> I am not tempted to risk anything too dramatic, because if the WA
> database gets buggered, it's too much hassle.

In the end I managed to migrate via a Pixel4a I factory reset. All of my
attempts to end-run the Google account failed. I needed:

- a Google account. I made a fresh one for the migration. I couldn't
create one online without a phone number and it refused all the numbers I
tried, including a fresh out of the box SIM card. Creating the account on
the phone didn't ask for a phone number, so that worked.
- doing the migration via the out of the box setup on the 4a (I could start
it after boot via Shortcut Maker but it failed)
- allowing access to everything it wanted, including network, photos and
contacts
- when setting up WhatsApp on the 'new' phone, also allowing it access to
everything it wanted, including contacts, files, photos. Any denial would
cause it to not migrate Whatsapp messages. You can delete contacts
before you run WA for the first time to avoid it uploading them to the
mothership.

Anything not right and it'll just silently skip parts of the migration.

Once the database is on Android, things are much easier. The WA files live in
/storage/emulated/0/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/
which are normal files in phone storage (Android/media/...) I could just
copy from the 4a to my new 7 Pro using 'adb pull' and 'adb push' (or
probably other tools like file managers etc) and WhatsApp detected them.

The sqlite database is accessible in that tree, from where you can hack it,
but I'd just delete unwanted conversations in the app. It may be awkward in
the way it only wants one device to be the primary at a time and logs you
out of the others, though.

If you don't have a spare 'mule' Android 12+ phone, it's possible to run WA
in the emulator in Android Studio, but I'm not sure if the migration pathway
works there (while it boots up pre-configured but factory reset doesn't seem
to do anything, and not sure how to patch through the iphone to talk to it)

Anyway, I managed to migrate the DB to my no-Google phone, so that all
worked in the end.

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote

>It turns out WA Google Drive backups are 'special', ie you can't just
>download them from Google Drive like a regular file. There is an API to
>manipulate them, and somebody wrote a tool:
>https://github.com/thebestnom/WhatsApp-GD-Extractor-Multithread

Thank you for posting this detail! Bloody hell what a lot of work.

Yes it is known that you cannot extract your data from Google Drive
backups (which a stupid system) but I didn't know that somebody had a
go at it.

On this Thu, 04 Jan 2024 21:01:27 +0000, Peter wrote:

>>It turns out WA Google Drive backups are 'special', ie you can't just
>>download them from Google Drive like a regular file. There is an API to
>>manipulate them, and somebody wrote a tool:
>>https://github.com/thebestnom/WhatsApp-GD-Extractor-Multithread
>
> Thank you for posting this detail! Bloody hell what a lot of work.

I too was hoping it would end up being easier than that.