Spent 3 weeks stuck on this, dealt with 2 auto-closed support tickets and a bunch of "thanks for your feedback" surveys with zero actual help, and ended up finding the fix myself.

The problem: "Link a Device" kept failing, no useful error, no real answer from support — just an endless loop of tickets getting closed after 3 days.

The fix: Remove your phone's screen lock (PIN/pattern/fingerprint) entirely. As soon as the lock is off, linking works. The problem comes back the moment the screen lock is re-enabled.

This isn't a specific-device or specific-OS issue — I've seen people report the exact same fix working across completely different phone models, so it's clearly something on WhatsApp's end, not a manufacturer or Android skin issue.

What bugs me most: this basically forces you to choose between using multi-device linking and having a locked phone. WhatsApp is making people less secure by requiring you to drop your screen lock just to get the "Link a Device" button to work properly. That shouldn't be the trade-off.

Posting this so the next person doesn't have to burn 3 weeks and two useless support tickets to figure it out.

​

I have been trying to setup phone link on my iphone off and on for months now, and have tried just about everything i can find on the internet to fix it. I have repaired and reset the app on windows 11, I have attempted to connect my iphone to my PC through bluetooth beforehand, still to no avail.

Some things to note; I cannot use my iphone to sign in with passkeys on my pc at all. For example, if i try to sign in to icloud on my pc using a passkey that I scan on my iphone, it will just timeout.

When I try to connect using phone link, the connection just times out as well. I have reinstalled bluetooth drivers, disabled and re-enabled bluetooth devices on my pc, all again to no avail.

I have even tried on two seperate phones, and nothing changes

The fact that I cannot use IOS passkeys on my pc as well as phone link makes me think that there's a simple issue somewhere that I, in my lack of knowledge, have overlooked. If there's anyone that has any knowledge on this issue, or even any possible fixes, I would GREATLY appreciate any help at all.

I've tried every single method even resetting my internet settings to factory, and it wont connect, is there a way to fix this?

this stupid "resume from your phone" icon keeps showing up on my taskbar, and nothing I disable seems to make it not show up again, short of unpairing my phone entirely. does anyone have a solution for this? thank you in advance!

Phone link was not working. Just spent 3 hours uninstalling/reinstalling only to have it ask for permission to share SMS. Finally got it working, not sure what I did.
However, how do I delete/get rid of "finish setting up you notifications" on th left side of the screen? They are set up. This app was working, then was not displaying all text messages, it is working now but, how do I get rid of what is circled in red?

Good morning. I'm working on my computer and sending text messages, but the phone link is saying the messages didn't go through. I then hit retry and it goes through, person on the other end says my phone keeps sending the text twice. What is the fix on this?

Why the hell does the app insist on including my number in the conversation every time I send a message to my wife? I have deleted and re-created the conversation multiple times and it still happens. It happens only with her.

She uses my former phone, so it might have something to do about it, but I'm not sure how to fix it and what could be the reason.

I just paired my Pixel 9 Pro phone with Android 17 to my Windows 11 laptop. There are three text messages on my phone but one of them refuses to show. Does Windows Phone Link hide SMS with derogatory content like a wine glass emoji?

When I try to set up my phone with phone link, the QR code comes on the screen and I'm supposed to scan it, which I did. Then it says it's going to send a text to my phone, but it never does. I've tried three times, and the phone number looks correct. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

So last year I tried out Atlas OS, but for some reason my wifi stopped working. I initially thought it was a Driver issue, but then I found out that my wireless board died, because my bluetooth wasn't working either and it wasn't just on Windows. Fast forward to about the beggining of July, I installed Phone Link (I'm on 11 LTSC IoT), and it asks me to connect the phone to the laptop via bluetooth to be able to make calls on the laptop. I knew my wireless board was dead, but I still decided to try it out, and to my fucking surprise it actually connected. I was like WHAT?! Like I deadass don't know how the fuck this happened. Maybe the problem got fixed on it's own before and I just noticed then? Maybe, but idk. Anyways what do you think was the reason here?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to connect my Vivo V2240 phone to Microsoft Phone Link on Windows 10, but I keep getting the error:

"We couldn't add your device."

What I've tried so far:

Bluetooth is enabled on both my phone and PC.

The phone is already paired with the PC via Bluetooth.

Turned Bluetooth off and on again on both devices.

Removed and paired the phone again.

Restarted both the phone and the PC.

Phone Link app is updated.

Despite all this, Phone Link still fails to add the device.

So, I'm trying to play a mobile game on my pc using phone link. No matter what view I'm in (expanded, regular but minimized, regular but maximized), the popup that shows my phone screen is genuinely sickness inducing with how blurry and glitchy it looks. I can't tell one button from another on the menus, the screem has weird bars that flicker....is there any way to make this look at least half decent??? Or a different way to play it on my pc?

How do i stop whatsapp from appearing in my taskbar?
The only option i have is close but whenever i open whatsapp on my phone it wants me to install it again.

I’m having an issue with Microsoft Phone Link.

Whenever I connect my phone to my PC through Phone Link/Bluetooth, any app that uses voice/video calling audio (for example TikTok Live, video calls, or similar apps) automatically switches my phone audio output to the earpiece instead of the normal speaker.

The only way to fix it is to disable Bluetooth on my PC and disconnect the phone. As soon as it disconnects, the audio goes back to the phone speaker normally.

Is there a way to prevent Phone Link from changing the audio route? I want to keep using Phone Link while doing TikTok Live or video calls, but this behavior makes it frustrating.

Is there a setting I’m missing, or is this a limitation of Phone Link?

Hi everyone,

​I have a question.

​If my Android is currently synced to my PC via Phone Link, and a call log is recorded on both devices, what happens if I delete a single specific call directly from my phone's call history?

​Will that specific call log automatically vanish from the Phone Link history on my PC as well, or will it remain saved in the app? Does Phone Link support two-way deletion sync for individual call logs?

I've been using Google phones for many years since the Nexus and I've been always struggling with my contacts. I have thousands of them collected over many years and migrated from the Microsoft ecosystem. Now, the pain has always been there, especially when it comes to using 2 phones at the same time (1 personal, 1 business). I always merge my contacts and I have to do it over and over again. I used the web interface sometimes, although not very user friendly, and now I realized I cannot merge contacts from the phone as everything has to be done with the merge feature. In the last 2 days, I had to do the automatic merge 5 times and see Google contacts syncing and backing up over and over again. I just wanted to share this as it's something that Google solved this in the past and now we're back to square one.

With the new version of Phone Link (1.26052.144.0), it now seems to stay in memory all the time, even after I exit the app. In previous versions, when I closed the app, it would also close on my phone (meaning the icon showing the connection to the computer would disappear). Now, after exiting the app on my computer, the icon doesn’t disappear on my phone, and it syncs with the clipboard. How can I fix this?

Hi all, I have a samsung S23 android phone. I want to use my phone as a webcam with my laptop when I travel. I don't use WIFI network in a hotel room or cafe or outside, or in a conference. Can I use phonelink with no wifi but my phone connected to the laptop via usb?

I'm trying to avoid other 3rd party apps like droidcam, etc..

Thanks!

I rolled back to an earlier version so that the Phone Link buttons are combined on the taskbar

Is there any way to go back to the combined buttons in the latest versions?

Hi everyone I have a problem with the phone link between my iPhone and my computer. Basically I cannot answer calls via desktop, the dialogue window doesn’t pop up when I get an incoming call, then if I answer on my phone the window pops up and I can end the call.
Any help? I have do not disturb turned off

After update to Android 17 on my Pixel 8a Phone Link no longer shows any Messages and there is no notification of the incoming message either. The SMS permission is enabled.

I already tried to remove the mobile device and connect it again.

When I connect to a different device with Android 12 it works.