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Whatsapp stuck on preparing backup

Jutah

Jutah

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 30, 2012
1,020
445
Hi Guys, i want to restore my daughter's XR from new device and not from an iCloud back up.
The only app i need to backup is whatsapp, but from the app it's nearly impossibile to do it. There'a a lot of space in the phone, a lot of space on iCloud but the process got stuck in the "preparing backup" step.

No way.

Following some tutorial i tried to launch the WA backup after cancelling the icloud backup with no success.

I'm thinking about purchasing mobile trans software, even if that kind of stuff don't give me any confidence at all.

Any suggestion will be appreciated.
 
Jutah said:
Hi Guys, i want to restore my daughter's XR from new device and not from an iCloud back up.
The only app i need to backup is whatsapp, but from the app it's nearly impossibile to do it. There'a a lot of space in the phone, a lot of space on iCloud but the process got stuck in the "preparing backup" step.
Click to expand...

I've had the same problem since my last WhatsApp backup on Saturday. A search brings up some workarounds, which haven't worked for me.

apple ios whatsapp chat backup stuck at preparing at DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo.com duckduckgo.com

ie: https://piunikaweb.com/2022/12/22/whatsapp-backup-not-working-or-stuck-on-preparing-after-ios-16-2/

This didn't work for me either. YMMV.

Some have commented that the problem appeared with iOS 16.2.

I guess it's a bug in the latest WhatsApp.app, iOS, or iCloud. I'll just wait for it get fixed.
 
Unsupported said:
I've had the same problem since my last WhatsApp backup on Saturday. A search brings up some workarounds, which haven't worked for me.

apple ios whatsapp chat backup stuck at preparing at DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo.com duckduckgo.com

ie: https://piunikaweb.com/2022/12/22/whatsapp-backup-not-working-or-stuck-on-preparing-after-ios-16-2/

This didn't work for me either. YMMV.

Some have commented that the problem appeared with iOS 16.2.

I guess it's a bug in the latest WhatsApp.app, iOS, or iCloud. I'll just wait for it get fixed.
Click to expand...
As a last resort I tried deleting the WhatsApp backup on iCloud.

Big mistake, I don't recommend doing it.

I now have no iCloud WhatsApp backup and the app is still stuck on "preparing"!
 
My GF and I had the same issue. I experienced it before 16.2 so I'm not sure it's the cause.
What worked in our case:

Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp
Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp

If you get lucky it will work on the 4th try, that happened to me. My GF required a couple more repeats of the above sequence.
 
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diego.caraballo said:
My GF and I had the same issue. I experienced it before 16.2 so I'm not sure it's the cause.
What worked in our case:

Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp
Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp

If you get lucky it will work on the 4th try, that happened to me. My GF required a couple more repeats of the above sequence.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that.

I'm in a chat wit Apple Support right now... maybe I'll try later...
 
Is your Wi-Fi connection too slow? Backup problems with that app are typically due to a slow network. It’s happened to me many times, I’d keep trying, it’ll work eventually. If it is slow, try a faster network if you can.
 
Last edited:
FeliApple said:
Is your Wi-Fi connection too slow? Backup problems with that app are typically due to a slow network. It’a happened to me many times, I’d keep trying, it’ll work eventually. If it is slow, try a faster network if you can.
Click to expand...

Definitely not my case. I got a strong connection 300/100Mbps steady.
 
diego.caraballo said:
My GF and I had the same issue. I experienced it before 16.2 so I'm not sure it's the cause.
What worked in our case:

Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp
Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp

If you get lucky it will work on the 4th try, that happened to me. My GF required a couple more repeats of the above sequence.
Click to expand...

Sounds really weird but I’ll try it ☺️
 
diego.caraballo said:
My GF and I had the same issue. I experienced it before 16.2 so I'm not sure it's the cause.
Click to expand...
It has been reported since before 16.2
diego.caraballo said:
What worked in our case:

Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp
Go to Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup...will be stuck on preparing...force close WhatsApp
Open WhatsApp > Settings/Chats/Chat backup and try a backup > toggle Include videos....force close WhatsApp

If you get lucky it will work on the 4th try, that happened to me. My GF required a couple more repeats of the above sequence.
Click to expand...

I've been trying more than half a dozen times, and no luck so far.

The only difference is with videos toggled on it does show how much data is to be uploaded, but it's been stuck for too long "preparing"...

IMG_1181.PNG
 
Unsupported said:
It has been reported since before 16.2


I've been trying more than half a dozen times, and no luck so far.

The only difference is with videos toggled on it does show how much data is to be uploaded, but it's been stuck for too long "preparing"...

View attachment 2137032
Click to expand...
Each time (after forcing close the app):
Toggle Include Videos and try a manual backup, if not succeed (it only takes a few seconds to get out of "preparing..."),
force close again, open, toggle Include Videos and try again.
 
Unsupported said:
Did you try it?

Did it work for you? 🤔
Click to expand...

Not yet, I’ll try in few days, it’s not my phone.

Anyway, the problem is definitely not related to 16.2. I tried the same months ago and still freezing on that state.
 
Unsupported said:
I've tried maybe a dozen times, and waited 30 minutes each time. Still stuck on "Preparing"...
Click to expand...
You don’t need to wait that much on each try.
After starting a manual backup, you should wait a few seconds….if it’s still on preparing, just force close the app and try again after toggling Include Videos
 
diego.caraballo said:
You don’t need to wait that much on each try.
After starting a manual backup, you should wait a few seconds….if it’s still on preparing, just force close the app and try again after toggling Include Videos
Click to expand...
I have found that you don't need to toggle include videos but just kill the app and try again multiple times until it works. At least in my case anyway.
 
Last edited:
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