#BugAlert: WhatsApp silently deletes old chats, several users complain
What's the story
WhatsApp has been marred by a major bug, one that silently deletes chat histories on the app.
The vulnerability, flagged on Twitter and reported by WhatsApp tipster WABetaInfo, appears to be affecting several Android users.
Its existence has been acknowledged by the messaging platform, but so far, there's no way to explain the root cause of the weird problem.
Here's more.
Issue
Old chat histories disappearing from the app
A few days back, WABetaInfo shared a user complaint to flag WhatsApp's message-deletion bug.
The issue was validated by several users who all claimed even their old messages have been disappearing from the service.
"I am facing the issue from June 2018. I am losing very Important old messages," one user tweeted. "I sent too many emails to WhatsApp, now they stop responding me."
Twitter Post
Here's the complaint shared by WABetaInfo
It looks this issue persists for some Android users.
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) January 10, 2019
Are you still experiencing it? pic.twitter.com/piBXEUopIt
Information
Chances are you won't even realize the disappearance
Though we were not able to spot the issue, the complaints flooding Twitter suggest old messages are disappearing without any intimation. Meaning, your old messages would go away and won't even realize (unless you go looking for a specific message).
Reason
But, why is this happening?
The exact cause of the problem or its true scale has not been revealed.
However, many speculate that the issue stems from WhatsApp's recent move to delete old chat backups - those not updated in over a year - from Google Drive.
Further, it is also not clear if the problem exists on some or on all versions of WhatsApp, including the latest one.
WhatsApp's comment
Fix is in the works, says WhatsApp
When Gadgets360 contacted WhatsApp to delve into the issue, a spokesperson from the company acknowledged the problem and claimed that a fix is in the works.
"We are aware of this bug and are working on a fix for the users who have encountered this issue," the spokesperson said, without giving a word on when the update might roll out.