I also looked into transferring WhatsApp data from Android to IOS recently and there is an official way to transfer in both directions now.

https://faq.whatsapp.com/686469079565350/?helpref=hc_fnav

I didn't end up going through with it through since there was no way to take a Signal backup created in Android and restore it to IOS.

> Your iPhone must be factory new or reset to factory settings to pair with the Move to iOS app and move data from your Android phone

As I pointed out in the post, this was pretty much the dealbreaker for me. I had initially set up the iPhone without all of my accounts, just for development, but had gradually carried over my accounts and the apps I need to use. And then I find out that I’d basically need to wipe all of the progress and start over, just because the data move can’t be initiated with an already set up phone (which probably made developing the app easier, but at the same time limits its usefulness).

My bad. I didn't realize that the Move to IOS app had been addressed in your blog.

FWIW I did manage to decrypt the sqlite database with the encryption key that you create for google drive backups (and should have noted down somewhere).

It's been a while, but I think I used this github repo [0], that was the first search result, and it also mentions the 64 character long key.

[0] https://github.com/ElDavoo/wa-crypt-tools

Quickly tried it out again, and it still works

If you still have the key and encrypted database, you "only" need to:

1. Have python

2. Install the project like described in the README

3. Execute

  wacreatekey --hex <your_64_characters>

4. Execute

  wadecrypt encrypted_backup.key msgstore.db.crypt15 msgstore.db