Whatsapp tied to old phone even though SIMs swapped

  • Replies:5
2
PeterG
  • Forum posts: 4

Aug 14, 2023, 11:28:46 AM via Website

I have two phones and have swapped the SIM cards. All my old chats have remained on the old phone even though it shows the number of the SIM card that is now in the phone.

Also if anyone sends me a new message, it is coming through on the old phone.

Prior to swapping I did create a backup but I can't seem to find it right now.

Can someone please provide simple to follow steps to get me out of this mess.

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2
PeterG
  • Forum posts: 4

Aug 14, 2023, 1:32:34 PM via Website

I now have messages coming through to the correct phone. I removed WhatsApp from my old phone so of course I have lost the messages there.

Three issues remain.
1] I was admin for a group. Can I get back into that or do I have to get whoever was automatically made admin? I guess one of the others will see Admin by their name, correct?
2] I followed the step for backing up to Google Drive but I cannot find the backup.
3] Will I be able to restore that to the second phone if it can be found?

Many thanks for answers to any of these issues.

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5
ahmed abdullah
  • Forum posts: 25

Aug 15, 2023, 12:57:26 PM via Website

I understand your issue with swapped SIM cards affecting WhatsApp chats. To address this, restore your backup on the new phone using the correct SIM card. Also, manually back up chats on the old phone, then reinstall WhatsApp on both phones. Set up the app with the respective SIM cards and restore chats from backups. This should align your chats correctly. Ensure you've got reliable backups before making any changes.

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2
PeterG
  • Forum posts: 4

Aug 15, 2023, 1:10:10 PM via Website

I was just about to post how I dealt with the issue. Part of the problem was that whilst I had created a backup, I have not been able to find it. In the end I decided that other than two groups for which I am admin, I could sacrifice the posts linked to my main SIM.

For both groups I made someone else an admin. Then I deleted all posts off both SIMs. With that done and new posts then working, I got both admins to make me admin again. That also taught me to always have two admins. :-)

Now I will do some more backups to find out where they are going as I cannot find the one I did anywhere on my Google Drive.

Thank you anyway Ahmed for replying and I will keep this bookmarked. That said, I will try to avoid getting in this position again!

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5
ahmed abdullah
  • Forum posts: 25

Aug 15, 2023, 8:01:26 PM via Website

I appreciate your sharing on how you resolved the issue. It sounds like managing the backup and admin roles helped streamline the process. Sacrificing posts linked to your main SIM for non-admin groups while ensuring posts work for your important groups was a practical approach. Making someone else an admin for those groups, clearing posts, and then reinstating admin privileges was a clever workaround.

Learning the importance of having two admins is a valuable takeaway, as it ensures smoother group management. It's understandable that you're planning to do more backups to track their location, especially since the previous backup isn't visible on your Google Drive.

Thank you for acknowledging the assistance from Ahmed and considering the advice bookmark-worthy. It's always a good practice to learn from such experiences and aim to avoid similar situations in the future.

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2
PeterG
  • Forum posts: 4

Aug 15, 2023, 8:08:39 PM via Website

Thank you again. The rub is that about an hour ago I found the backups! :-(

I hadn't spotted a separate folder in Google Drive. Needless to say there have been other Whatsapp posts that would get overridden if I now restore the backup.

Pen and paper wasn't so bad. :-)

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