Users affected by 2 potential new WhatsApp bugs

Social media has lit up with reports of 2 potential new bugs in the popular WhatsApp messaging platform. Whereas one was reported by a single user, the other appears to be affecting many Android smartphone owners who use the application.

It’s suspected that a software bug — or even one related to where message backups are hosted — could be behind the problem. Though WhatsApp themselves have not yet confirmed a cause for the disappearing messages. And what’s more, it may not even be a bug at all; the company may be starting to remove older messages from user chat logs.

 

It’s worth noting that last August we reported on how the popular messaging app would soon start deleting older messages if they were not backed up. This followed on the back of an announcement from the company, where they said that they’d begin any old content where a backup hadn’t been updated for more than a year.

However, this change was supposedly going to remove chat logs from Google Drive, leaving your own personal chat logs stored on your smartphone intact. As a result, we doubt whether this more recent problem relates to the company’s plans to clear out cloud storage messages.

It’s worth keeping an eye out for an official word from WhatsApp if you’ve been affected by this bug. It may be that chat logs are restored. After all, it’s not just text-based messages that are stored in WhatsApp chat logs, but also personal photos that could be important to you. If you haven’t already backed these up following our story last year, it might be worth doing now in light of this recent scare.

The second potential bug found in WhatsApp this week was reported by just a single user. But its potential for security breaches is more worrying than simply losing old messages.

Abby Fuller, an employer of cloud-based solutions provider Amazon Web Services, revealed on Twitter how she had been presented with the message history of a third-party user when she logged into the application on a new device, with a new number. At the time of writing, nobody else appears to have reported any similar issues.

On Thursday, using popular social media platform Twitter, Abby explained how she had “Logged into WhatsApp with a new phone number today and the message history from the previous number’s owner was right there?! This doesn’t seem right (…)”. It seems possible that the number could’ve been reallocated from a previous owner, which could mean that any old messages from the previous owner are somehow being pulled through to the phone.

Ms Fuller went on to explain how she was using a new smartphone, a new SIM card, and how the number did not belong to anybody else, after the public bombarded her with numerous suggestions as to how the ‘bug’ could have occurred.

Much like the first issue with disappearing messages, there is yet to be any confirmation or explanation from Twitter at the time of writing, but if this were to transpire to be a genuine bug in the software, it could potentially be a very worrying one for affected users.

Have you had any problems with WhatsApp lately, particularly those mentioned above? Let us know about them in the comments section, below. Alternatively, if you’re having problems with your devices, you can get in touch with WiseGuys on 0808 123 2820 for advice or to book in a repair in Bournemouth, Christchurch, or the surrounding areas.