Last week, I finally decided to upgrade my iPhone 5 to iOS 8 Beta 4. When the iOS Beta 1 was available, I took the risk to have it installed. But, it was too disappointing for too many bugs and errors. I’m excited about the upcoming iOS 8 features, and I want to try some of the features. There is a discussion thread at MacRumors Forum which lists the application compatibility on iOS 8. Anyway, I have lots of apps installed right now. If you’re not sure about having the iOS Beta, you can wait for the official release.
I have some applications that are not running well, and one of them was WhatsApp. It keeps crashing. I can accept the fact that some other applications are broken or crashed. But, WhatsApp is an app that I use on daily basis. After searching for solutions, there are two popular ways to fix this issue:
I chose the second option, because it’s pretty straight forward. Big thanks to Ritvij Pathak’s The Tech Portal. So, what was the problem? Quoting from the site:
The main reason for the crashes is typographic ligature. For those of you who didn’t get what it is, don’t fret, we didn’t either. Turns out it has something to do with two letters being read as one syllable. Ex: letter combos like ff, fi, ffi, fii, will make WhatsApp crash.
What I found was that WhatsApp crashed when I typed some words or there are some words that are already in the database file. So, I followed the instructions and had everything solved. I want to reproduce the solution based on my experience.
I need to download two applications: iExplorer and Navicat for SQLite. Both are paid applications but the trial version are available. After I had it installed, these are steps I did. Anyway, WhatsApp iCloud setting should be turned off.
Open iExplorer — your iPhone should be connected, of course — and navigate to Apps > WhatsApp > Documents. Export the ChatStorage.sqlite file by right-clicking on the file and choose the export destination of your choice. You will need this file later. Having the backup for this file is advisable. So, after exporting this file, duplicating this file won’t hurt.
Open Navicat for SQLite and import the ChatStorage.sqlite from the previous step. Navigate to Query and add a new query. Paste the query below, and Run it.
update ZWAMESSAGE
set ZTEXT = replace( ZTEXT, 'ff', 'f f')
where ZWAMESSAGE.ZTEXT like '%ff%';
update ZWAMESSAGE
set ZTEXT = replace( ZTEXT, 'fi', 'f i')
where ZWAMESSAGE.ZTEXT like '%fi%';
update ZWAMESSAGE
set ZTEXT = replace( ZTEXT, 'fl', 'f l')
where ZWAMESSAGE.ZTEXT like '%fl%';
CREATE TRIGGER insert_Ff AFTER INSERT ON ZWAMESSAGE
BEGIN
UPDATE ZWAMESSAGE
SET ZTEXT = replace( ZTEXT, 'ff', 'f f')
WHERE ZWAMESSAGE.ZTEXT like '%ff%';
END;
CREATE TRIGGER insert_Fi AFTER INSERT ON ZWAMESSAGE
BEGIN
UPDATE ZWAMESSAGE
SET ZTEXT = replace( ZTEXT, 'fi', 'f i')
WHERE ZWAMESSAGE.ZTEXT like '%fi%';
END;
CREATE TRIGGER insert_Fl AFTER INSERT ON ZWAMESSAGE
BEGIN
UPDATE ZWAMESSAGE
SET ZTEXT = replace( ZTEXT, 'fl', 'f l')
WHERE ZWAMESSAGE.ZTEXT like '%fl%';
END;
Your ChatStorage.sqlite has been updated. The next thing you need to do is bring the file back to the iPhone using iExplorer. Move it to the same place and if you’re asked to replace the file, just replace the file.
My previous errors with WhatsApp was fixed immediately. But, it seems that the errors still occur under different situation. The most common problem is that WhatsApp still keep crashing when I type some words in the window. For now, the temporary solution works, and let’s wait the official update from WhatsApp team. I’m sure they will fix it once iOS 8 is available.
