I am switching from an iPhone 8 to a Fairphone 4. When I try to set up Whatsapp, it gets stuck on ‘initializing’. How do I fix this? And is there any easy way to transfer my old chats from my iPhone to my Fairphone?
With both modes? Mobile and/or mobile data?
Have you tried this
Else there seem to be an APP called Dr. Fone or this one that might help. Have not used any of these, so thats no a recommendation
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I have only tried using mobile data as I am on vacation right now
Is it blocked maybe 
Sorry I do not understand what you mean
Depending on the country
Using ‘MobileTrans-WhatsApp&Phone Transfer’ to make a backup and restarting after solved the ‘initializing’ problem and transferred my chats as well!
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I’ve downloaded the Mobile-Trans, backed up my iPhone Whatsapp data but the Fairphone doesn’t connect. I’ve followed all the steps: went to developer mode, checked the ‘USB debugging’ box. Still doesn’t connect. Any ideas?
Welcome to the community 
Are you trying to transfer your data with both phones connected to a PC or are you using one of the other methods MobileTrans seems to have? 
If we are talking about a USB connection here, have you enabled File Transfer Mode on the FP4?
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I’m doing it with both phones connected to the PC with a USB cable but the Fairphone won’t connect to Mobiletrans.
And yes I’ve enabled File Transfer Mode
Are you able to access the Fairphone through your PC’s file manager (I assume Explorer or Finder since this software isn’t available for Linux)?
If that’s the case, this is probably more of a MobileTrans issue and I’d suggest contacting their support (I’m not a MobileTrans users myself, sorry):
Were you able to successfully initialize your WhatsApp on FP4?
I just did so, though migrating data has also been a problem for me when moving to a new handset. I have had some painful loss of data in recent years when doing so.
This time, fortunately, was a charm. I was able to successfully migrate old data by removing both end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication on the WhatsApp backup page. I did so because no matter how carefully I set my credentials for both, only to discover they are not accepted in the new app and the new handset refuses to restore.
I discover this time that I can move my SIM back to my old handset, re-validate myself back into WhatsApp on the old phone and my chat history and contest are still on the handset. Next, I removed both credentials as described above, backed up my chats one last time. Then moved SIM back to my new FP4 and successfully restored at last.
Hope that helps.
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