Whats App Contacts

[Joypilgrim]

Hello all,
I just finished my third camino in early July and consider my whatsapp contacts precious. I made cherished friends and hope to stay in touch with many. This morning I checked my Whatsapp account and was dismayed to receive a message that my whatsapp had expired and I had to go to the app store to get the updated version.

I have no access to my old whats app and have no idea if my old contacts will transfer and fear they won't. They are not backed up.

This is both to suggest to all that you back up your contacts and also to ask if anyone has had such an experience and is there a way at this point to preserve my contacts? I do not want to update until I know if there is any hope at this point. Thank you for any help or hope you can offer.

 

[JCLima]

Hello all,
I just finished my third camino in early July and consider my whatsapp contacts precious. I made cherished friends and hope to stay in touch with many. This morning I checked my Whatsapp account and was dismayed to receive a message that my whatsapp had expired and I had to go to the app store to get the updated version.

I have no access to my old whats app and have no idea if my old contacts will transfer and fear they won't. They are not backed up.

This is both to suggest to all that you back up your contacts and also to ask if anyone has had such an experience and is there a way at this point to preserve my contacts? I do not want to update until I know if there is any hope at this point. Thank you for any help or hope you can offer.

By contacts, do you mean conversations/chats? If so, updating the app should not delete those conversations, or require a backup

I update WhatsApp frequently and have never had a problem
The only time I need to have a backup is if I'm reinstalling the app on my phone after deleting it

 

[J Willhaus]

If your WhatsApp contacts are in your regular phone contacts, you should still have everyone available. I cannot add someone to WhatsApp unless they are in my phone contacts.

 

[dougfitz]

If your WhatsApp contacts are in your regular phone contacts, you should still have everyone available. I cannot add someone to WhatsApp unless they are in my phone contacts.

That is my understanding. It is certainly the way WhatsApp works on an Android phone. It does not maintain a separate phone contact list. The contact details would still be in your contact list even if you uninstalled WhatsApp.

Transfers of user data are normally well handled when apps are updated, and I would expect any new version that you download will behave in much the same way as any previous version. Sometimes you might have to re-establish your credentials by logging in when you first use the new version, but I don't even see that all that often these days. I don't think you will have any problems.

 

[Joypilgrim]

Thanks to everyone. I will take the leap and install the new version.

 

[Joypilgrim]

And it worked. Sorry for the panic. I had never had an app tell me it had expired.

 

[dougfitz]

And it worked. Sorry for the panic. I had never had an app tell me it had expired.

It does seem an odd way to tell you a new version is available. I presume yours is an iOS device, as most of the items I found about this turn of phrase were questions like yours from iPhone users. It might be a phrase used by the App Store, certainly not one I have ever had from the Google Play Store.

 

[Joypilgrim]

Thanks Doug. Yes it is an apple device. When I went in to the app store I had other apps that said they could be updated. But only the WhatApp post showed up as "expired." And it showed up blocking further use of the existing app. You have been very kind and it worked just fine with my contacts intact. They were just that important to me and I did not want to lose them or make a wrong move that would do that if it could be avoided.

 

[NamaMama]

I have an iPhone and have never received an “expired“ message. However, I do update the app everytime I am notified of an updated version. I can add a new contact to WhatsApp without having to add it to contacts first.

 

[trecile]

I can add a new contact to WhatsApp without having to add it to contacts first.

When you do add the contact via WhatsApp it is also added to your phone contacts.

 

[Canche]

Hello all,
I just finished my third camino in early July and consider my whatsapp contacts precious. I made cherished friends and hope to stay in touch with many. This morning I checked my Whatsapp account and was dismayed to receive a message that my whatsapp had expired and I had to go to the app store to get the updated version.

I have no access to my old whats app and have no idea if my old contacts will transfer and fear they won't. They are not backed up.

This is both to suggest to all that you back up your contacts and also to ask if anyone has had such an experience and is there a way at this point to preserve my contacts? I do not want to update until I know if there is any hope at this point. Thank you for any help or hope you can offer.

Never heard of that. How awful. I would die

 

[truenorthpilgrm]

My first thought was someone hacked your phone, or at least tried to hack it. My app refreshes automatically, and I've never received a message like that.

But glad it worked out in the end.