WhatsApp has an export feature built in, and for short chats it is fine. For long ones it is not: Export Chat produces a .txt file in a .zip, caps out at roughly 40,000 messages without media or 10,000 with, works one chat at a time, and reduces years of photos and voice notes to filenames. If you want a document, complete and readable, there is a better source: the chat history already sitting inside your iPhone's backup.
The backup route
When your iPhone backs up to a computer, WhatsApp's message store rides along. Text2Store makes that backup itself (USB or Wi-Fi, no iTunes involved), turns it into a local archive, and shows WhatsApp conversations beside your Apple Messages: media in place, group chats with participant names, reactions under the messages they answer.
- No export cap. The whole history that is in the backup comes out, whether that is nine hundred messages or ninety thousand.
- Real documents. Export any chat as a PDF with the date and time on every message, clear sender attribution, and photos inline, or as CSV, or as RSMF for eDiscovery review.
- Every chat at once. Bulk export writes each conversation in the backup to its own file in one run, with an optional date range.
- Honest scope. A WhatsApp transcript states what it covers, and anything omitted is disclosed on the document rather than silently dropped.
The steps
- Install Text2Store on Mac or Windows; backing up and browsing are free.
- Connect the iPhone, tap Trust, click Back Up & Archive.
- Open the archive and switch to the WhatsApp tab. Your chats are there, searchable.
- Open a chat, Export > PDF, choose the whole conversation or a date range. (Exporting needs the $29.99/year subscription; confirming your chats are in the backup costs nothing.)
The honest limits
The backup route exports what the backup contains. If WhatsApp media was long ago cleared from the phone, it is not in the backup either. And this covers an iPhone's WhatsApp; we say more about what is and is not in a backup in WhatsApp in your backup.
Questions?
Email hello@text2store.com, or try it free and check that your chats are in the backup before paying anything.