Waiting for the message… What is the cause of this error in WhatsApp and how to fix it?

 

One of the first things we do when we buy a new mobile phone is install WhatsApp. Or when we format it, for example. In these cases, you may see that the application is slow to start or that your messages have disappeared and are now shown with “Waiting for the message. This may take time ”rather than what the other person has written to you. Do not be alarmed.

If you have disconnected or uninstalled WhatsApp and have reopened it, you may have seen this message in an application conversation. You will see this message instead of what your contact originally wrote you. But it is not a dramatic failure in the messaging service nor will it last forever, it has a solution, it has an explanation and we are going to summarize what it is due to and how you can avoid it.

Why does the message appear?

As they explain from the company itself, if it comes out “Waiting for the message. This may take a while ”in WhatsApp is because there is a flaw in the end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption aims to seek the greatest privacy in your messages and that means that only the receiver and the sender of the same can read them. To do this, everything you write has a unique code that is created automatically. But for end-to-end encryption to work, the mobile phone must be online. If you are not online to encrypt the message, this error will appear on your screen.

What this message means is that  end-to-end encryption has not yet been applied to that message that they have tried to send us. The cause is usually as we have just indicated, that the person who sent us the message has lost the connection at the time of sending and therefore it could not be encrypted with the end-to-end encryption of the messaging app.

Normally, if you have seen the message “Waiting for the message. This may take a while ”is because you have reinstalled WhatsApp after having uninstalled it or you have deleted data and started again and they wrote to you while you did not have the application installed. It can also happen if the person you are talking to has recently reinstalled WhatsApp or asked for the Internet connection while sending us the message and therefore it has not been possible to encrypt.

How is it solved?

You won't have to do anything special to get your messages back to the way they were in a matter of minutes . When the other person reopens WhatsApp or when the application stabilizes, what they had told you at that time will appear. The other person, the one who sent the message, must be online so that the text can be encrypted and sent back to your mobile.

If you want to speed up the process and you have confidence with that person, you can contact them to open the messaging application on their mobile phone and the messages will reappear in their original form. If you don't want to, it will be a matter of time before they reestablish so don't despair or be alarmed.

What if it is not fixed?

From WhatsApp they ensure that the most common way is to contact that person to open the application on their mobile device. Thus, it should be enough to solve it. It's simple, fast, and it should be enough… But it isn't always.

If it has not been fixed, even if the other person has already opened WhatsApp on their mobile and you keep seeing “Waiting for the message. This may take a while ”you can try to access the backup copy of the messages and reinstall.

• Go to WhatsApp
• Open the Settings section of the messaging application
• Go to Chats
• Choose the Backup option
• Backup chats to Google Drive
• Go to Settings on your mobile phone
• Enter Applications
• Search WhatsApp
• Choose the Uninstall option
• Download and install WhatsApp again
• Open the backup that is available
• Retrieve the messages

The messages that would appear on hold, after deleting the application and reinstalling, it is very likely that they will be available again and that you can now read them. Of course, it is a more expensive process than asking that person what they had said.

Other problems on WhatsApp

Problems in WhatsApp are common and whatever you see, there are a series of common steps that are recommended to rule out failures, to check if the problem is ours or is global.

Update WhatsApp

The first thing we have to do if we see that it does not work as it should is to check that we have the latest version of the updated application. In case of error or security hole we can update to avoid it. It is possible that this is a one-off failure and has been fixed in later versions of the system. To do so, follow these steps:

On Android

• Open your app store (Google Play or App Store)
• Tap on the top of the screen
• Go to My apps and games
• Find WhatsApp in the list
• Check for pending updates
• Tap on Update under the app name

On iOS

• Open the App Store on your phone
• Tap on the photo in the upper right
• Swipe up the app
• You will see if there are updates available
• If you have an update, click on it.

Check the connections

Check with other applications that you have an Internet connection on your mobile phone, if you have not already done so. You should see if there are other applications or web pages that work correctly or ask someone close to you, either at home or at work or through another social network, if WhatsApp is giving you problems, since it may be a general failure and not just for you.

You should also check if you have Airplane Mode on or not, since this mode, which has been activated inadvertently, eliminates all the networks you have such as mobile data or WiFi. To do this, go to:

• Open your mobile phone settings
• Look for the Mobile Networks section
• Choose the Airplane Mode option
• Disable if enabled

You can also put Airplane mode and remove it after a few seconds so that the phone reactivates the networks in case they have been blocked.

Force stop

One of the ways we can try to solve the problem is to force stop WhatsApp . That is, even if we do not see it on the screen, this application always remains open in the background, in case it has to notify us of a new message or a call. Then, since it is always on, even if it disappears from our sight, the problem remains because it has not been completely closed, something that could solve this incident.

To achieve this we must follow these steps:

• We will have to go to the Settings of our Android terminal, to then access the Applications section .
• Once inside, we will have to identify where the WhatsApp application is. Once located, click on it and it will not lead to another window.
• In this window we will have the Uninstall option, which we are not going to use, along with the Stop (Force Stop) option , on which we must click.
• Now he is going to ask us if we are sure to stop this application, something that we must confirm.
• At that moment we will see how the stop button is no longer operational , which means that the app has stopped.

This means that it is no longer operational in the background and that, if we want it to work again, we will have to reopen it, which may mean that the error we suffered has been corrected.

Check for a drop

You can use websites such as Downdetector where you will see a map of faults in real time and by zones. All you have to do is touch WhatsApp when you open the web and you will see the heat map where the application is causing problems at that moment. This way you will know if it is a matter of your mobile phone, your city or the app in general.