wakit / Guides

Turn an exported chat back into WhatsApp history

Q: Which export formats work?

Both: iPhone ([dd/mm/yyyy, h:mm:ss AM] Name: …) and Android (dd/mm/yyyy, hh:mm - Name: …), in either date order. Group exports aren't supported yet.

"Export chat" gives you a .zip with a _chat.txt and the media, but WhatsApp can't import it back. wakit can. It turns every line into a real message in the right chat, from the right person, at the right time, with photos, voice notes and captions attached.

Download for Mac Windows Linux pipx install wakit

What you need

A computer with wakit
The export: a .zip, a folder, or a bare _chat.txt, from an iPhone or an Android phone
An Android phone, rooted. No root? Use its end-to-end encrypted backup and the 64-digit key (experimental, below)

Steps

Prefer clicking? Run wakit gui (or double-click the app): the same steps are under Guides, with file pickers and Dry run / Apply buttons. Every command is a dry run until you add --apply.

Copy WhatsApp off the phone
```
$ wakit device pull --out phone/
```
Dry run
wakit reports how many messages it would add and how many are already in the chat. Exported from the other person's phone? Then the "You …" lines are theirs: pass --me with your name as it appears in the export.
```
$ wakit import --db phone/msgstore.db --export "WhatsApp Chat - Alex.zip" --contact 15551234567
```

Import

A backup of the database is made first.

$ wakit import --db phone/msgstore.db --export "WhatsApp Chat - Alex.zip" --contact 15551234567 \
    --apply --push --phone-root /sdcard/WhatsApp

Put it back

$ wakit device install --db phone/msgstore.db

No root: use the encrypted backup (experimental)

In WhatsApp, go to Settings → Chats → Chat backup → End-to-end encrypted backup → use a 64-digit key, and back up. Copy msgstore.db.crypt15 from Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases/. Then:

$ wakit crypt decrypt --in msgstore.db.crypt15 --key "<64-digit key>" --out msgstore.db
$ wakit import --db msgstore.db --export "WhatsApp Chat - Alex.zip" --contact 15551234567 --apply
$ wakit crypt encrypt --in msgstore.db --like msgstore.db.crypt15 --key "<64-digit key>" --out new/msgstore.db.crypt15

Copy the new file back into that folder, reinstall WhatsApp and tap Restore. Keep the original file. Restoring an edited backup hasn't been confirmed on a phone yet.

What carries over

Text (including multi-line messages), photos, videos, voice notes, stickers, documents, contact cards, captions and deleted-message markers. System notices ("Messages are end-to-end encrypted", missed calls) are skipped, and so are attachments the export left out ("Media omitted").

Questions

Will re-running it duplicate messages?

No. Messages already in the chat are matched one to one by sender, text and time, so you can import several overlapping exports of the same chat.

Which export formats work?

Both: iPhone ([dd/mm/yyyy, h:mm:ss AM] Name: …) and Android (dd/mm/yyyy, hh:mm - Name: …), in either date order. Group exports aren't supported yet.

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