What WhatsApp puts in an export

An export is a copy of one chat as files, not a backup. WhatsApp's Help Center says so plainly: your chat history "can't be re-imported because it's a text file and not a backup file." What you get is:

  • a text file, usually _chat.txt on iPhone or WhatsApp Chat with Name.txt on Android, with one line per message;
  • one file per attachment that came along: voice notes as .opus, photos as .jpg, videos as .mp4, documents and contact cards.

On iPhone everything arrives as one .zip file. On Android the files are handed to whatever app you share them with, so they may arrive as a .zip or as separate attachments.

The four reasons voice notes go missing

1. The chat was exported Without media. This is the most common reason. The text file still records that a voice note was sent, but as a placeholder: audio omitted in an iPhone export, <Media omitted> in an Android export. There is no audio file to listen to.

2. Only part of the media came along. On Android, the Help Center says that if you choose Include media, "the most recent media sent will be added as attachments." In a long chat, older voice notes can be left out. On iPhone, With selected media takes only the items you pick.

3. The audio is no longer on the phone. WhatsApp can only attach a file the phone has. A voice note that was deleted, cleared to free up space, or never downloaded cannot be exported, even with all media switched on.

4. View once messages. The Help Center says "View once messages will not be exported." A voice note sent as view once will not be in the file in any form you can play.

How to check your export in two minutes

  1. Unzip the export and open the text file in any text editor.
  2. Search for omitted. Each result is an attachment that is not in the export. If there are many, it was exported without media.
  3. Count the .opus files in the folder, then search the text file for AUDIO (iPhone file names look like 00000012-AUDIO-2024-03-12-14-22-05.opus) or PTT- (Android, PTT-20240312-WA0003.opus). The two counts should match.
  4. Look at the date on the first line. If it is later than the start of the conversation, the export does not cover the whole chat.

If anything is missing, export the chat again from the phone that still has the voice notes, choosing With all media on iPhone or Include media on Android. On a phone that is short of space, saving the export to Files or a cloud drive is usually easier than email.

About message limits

You will often read that an export holds up to 10,000 recent messages with media and 40,000 without. Earlier versions of WhatsApp's own Help Center page said this, and gave email size limits as the reason. The current page, checked on 20 October 2026, gives no number. Treat the first-line check above as the reliable test for your own file.

Turning the export into something readable

Once the voice notes are in the export, someone still has to listen to them. A chat assistant reading the text file sees only the file names, and a long chat does not fit in one reply anyway: in our test of four long jobs, two of three models stopped mid-message while translating a 2,000-message chat, at messages 1,804 and 1,903.

Our WhatsApp Chat to PDF tool reads the export as it is built. It matches every attachment to its message, transcribes each voice note where it was sent, and marks any voice note missing from the export as not included, so gaps are visible instead of silent. You get one PDF plus TXT and CSV files, with an optional translation under each message. The first messages are free; the whole chat, up to 10,000 messages, is $5, paid once. A finished example is in the demo, and the case of exports for a lawyer or court has its own page.

Method & data

Sources

  1. How to export your chat history — WhatsApp Help Center, 2026-10-20
  2. How to back up your chat history — WhatsApp Help Center