Try exporting to Google Drive. You get 15GB of space for free, and the Iphone app is pretty accessible as far as I can tell. This is what I did when I ran into the exact problem you mention. And I'm sorry to hear that you also went through the nightmare of trying inaccessible software. In my case it was worse; one of the programs I tried turned out to be malware, and I spent a not so fun-filled day removing it. If Apple would stop being so damn proprietary, and remove some of the limitations they impose on being able to move data between their devices and computers, certain sleazy software developers would have one less avenue for scamming people.

Oh, I know. And usually, I shrug it off and see it as the price of entry for using an Iphone, which isn't ordinarily that big of a deal. If I'd wanted a more open approach badly enough, I would have bought an Android device instead. But every once in awhile, crap like this happens, and I do see that greener grass on the other side of the walled garden.

You definitely can't sync your chat history from What'sapp using Itunes. This was the first thing I tried during my long search to solve this problem. There were chats that I absolutely refused to part with. While it's true that all data that is stored in apps does get backed up if you do a manual backup with Itunes, or if you use ICloud, you can't access specific data that is stored in apps in this way. So that's not an option, sadly. Even if Apple showed some flexibility in this regard, it would make our lives a lot easier. I know that's just wishful thinking on my part, but it certainly would be nice.

No problem. :-)

And I feel your pain there, I also have what I like to refer to as snail net. It took me all night to get all my chats safely uploaded, then transferred to my computer. That reminds me, make sure that your phone doesn't lock during this process, because Google Drive won't continue uploading if it's in the background. This goes for both if the phone is locked, and if you switch to another app. it will pause the upload either way. So I would recommend uploading all the chats at night, or when you won't be using your phone for a long time, and leaving your phone plugged in so that it doesn't die during the process.