My phone stopped working around the 22nd of June but, while I was waiting to get a new phone, I continued to use WhatsApp via the desktop app (which is how I mainly use WhatsApp anyway.) I got a new phone around the 7th of July and after I put my SIM in it, I was asked the next time I opened WhatsApp online to log in using the QR code. I did this and found that all the messages I had sent and received between approximately the 22nd of June and 7th of July (the period during which I didn't have a working phone) have disappeared -- there is still a record of them but each one has been replaced by the message 'Waiting for this message, this may take a while. Learn more' So clearly the system is aware of the existence of the messages but can't retrieve the contents. Some of these messages were quite important. Is there any way it might be possible to restore them? All the messages sent or received since are OK, it only affects the messages for that period of about a fortnight. I have tried contacting WhatsApp support several times but get completely irrelevant replies presumably automatically generated. Any ideas greatly appreciated!
