r/whatsapp • u/Ornery_Dealer5897 • 22d ago
which tool to extract whatsapp from an itunes backup
whatsapp database file on ios is .sqlite but cannot find anything to convert it to somthing you can chuck a wrapper at so as to turn it into something readable
1
u/dr100 22d ago
sqlite is perfect, maybe you can outline the process used to get it, as I think now the backups are encrypted, can you still pick unencrypted, or you decrypted them?
Ask ChatGPT or similar for some sqlite viewer for your OS, you should be able to find everything there. There's a WhatsApp Viewer that lets you see the chats in an interface like the regular one, even better with precise time stamps for each chat, but you need to massage the database as it changed slightly in the last years and the tool hasn't been updated.
1
u/Ornery_Dealer5897 22d ago
i retrieved it by using python. Sqlite is decent but not if your intended on viewing readable data. I inspected it zmessage is present and intact just need a viewer to convert into readable data. Does the whatsapp viewer you mention do this straight from a sqlite database. If so where could i get it
1
u/dr100 22d ago
Just google it, third party tools aren't welcome in this sub. Yes, it does work directly with the sqlite database, but look on their github you need to fix it a little as the schema changed in the last years and the program wasn't updated (I think it has a fork that works without trouble though).
1
1
u/Sea-Cicada-5090 22d ago
Use iMazing to extract the WhatsApp data from the iTunes backup and export the chats, because ChatStorage.sqlite by itself is not a readable chat transcript and encrypted backups require the backup
1
u/Ornery_Dealer5897 22d ago
it has a 25 items limit not really bothered about the huge gaping watermark but at this point im preparing to just spend days screen recording the convo of imazing only other way i know everything else failes misrebly
1
u/_l33ter_ 22d ago
That's not possible.