Chatcove error messages explained
Find the message you see below. Each row gives the exact title or text from Chatcove, what it means, and where to go. If your message is not here, use Send report on the card.
Everything stays on your Mac. Error cards contain no chat content, and the technical lines under Details are scrubbed of passwords and personal data.
How an error card is laid out
Section titled "How an error card is laid out"Every error appears on a card with a short pill, a plain message, numbered steps (when there are any), a recovery button, Send report, and an expandable Details section with the raw technical lines. The card heading is the step it happened in (Backup, WhatsApp history, Export or Insights), or its own headline when it has one, as listed below. Under Details, a line reads Code: <name>, for example Code: backup-handshake-failed.
The pills below are the ones the step-by-step cards show. On the one-click card ("Export your WhatsApp history"), every stopped run shows the pill Stopped, with the same headline and message.
Errors with their own headline
Section titled "Errors with their own headline"| Headline | Pill | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your iPhone didn't start the backup | Not started | The iPhone's backup service never answered, even after Chatcove tried again. | Follow the steps in the section "Your iPhone didn't start the backup, and error code -1" below. |
| Your iPhone was locked | Locked | The iPhone locked, or the passcode prompt went unanswered, so nothing was saved. | Unlock the iPhone, keep it unlocked, enter the passcode on the iPhone, click Try again. See iPhone not detected. |
| Your iPhone disconnected | Disconnected | The cable was pulled or the connection dropped mid-task. | Plug the iPhone back in directly, keep it unlocked, and click Try again. |
| Your iPhone doesn't trust this Mac yet | Not trusted | The iPhone has not accepted this Mac. | Tap Trust on the iPhone and enter its passcode. If you tapped Don't Trust earlier, unplug and replug the cable so the question appears again. See iPhone not detected. |
| This Mac ran out of space | Disk full | The Mac's disk filled up while writing the backup. | Free up space, or choose a backup location on a bigger drive in Settings, Storage, then back up again. See Backup stuck or slow. |
| Back up again to read your history (Chatcove 0.1.7 or later) | Wrong password | The backup on this Mac is older than the password Chatcove saved. | Click Back up again. See Wrong password. |
| The saved password does not match (Chatcove 0.1.7 or later) | Password mismatch | The iPhone's backup password changed after Chatcove saved it (one-click export card). | Fix password. See The saved password does not match. |
| Enter your existing backup password | (calm card, not an error) | Encryption was turned on outside Chatcove. | Enter backup password. See I already use a password in Finder. |
| Export paused | Stopped | A one-click step stopped for a reason without its own headline. | Try again, then Send report if it repeats. |
Errors shown by their message
Section titled "Errors shown by their message"These show the step name as the heading and the message below.
| Pill | Message | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem | "The backup did not finish successfully. Keep your iPhone unlocked and connected, then back up again." | The backup tool did not confirm success. Chatcove does not trust a clean exit alone, it checks the log. | Back up again. See Backup stuck or slow. |
| Wrong password | "The saved backup password does not open this backup, so the iPhone's backup password was probably changed (after a reset, or in Finder or on another computer). Fix password shows how to enter the new one or reset it." | The saved password was rejected. This wording is from Chatcove 0.1.7 or later; older versions show a shorter message. | Fix password. On 0.1.6 or earlier, Fix password does not help: follow the 0.1.6 steps on The saved password does not match. |
| Password needed | "This iPhone has backup encryption on, set outside Chatcove. Enter its backup password in the encryption step so Chatcove can read the backup." | Chatcove has no password for an iPhone that already has encryption on. | Enter password. See I already use a password in Finder. |
| Tools missing | "A tool Chatcove needs is missing or not working. Open Settings and check Dependencies for the one-line fix." | A bundled tool cannot run. | Open Dependencies. |
| No WhatsApp | "WhatsApp was not found in this backup. If WhatsApp is installed on the iPhone, make a fresh backup and try again." | The backup holds no WhatsApp data. | Back up again. See WhatsApp not found. |
| No backup | "There is no backup on this Mac yet. Back up your iPhone in the Device section first." | Nothing has been backed up here. | Go to backup. |
| Newer format | "Update Chatcove to read this backup. This iPhone stores WhatsApp in a newer format this version does not recognize." | WhatsApp or iOS changed how data is stored. | Update Chatcove (Check for Updates... in the Chatcove menu). |
| Problem | "Something went wrong inside Chatcove while starting that. Please try again." | A request failed validation inside the app. | Try again. If it repeats, Send report. |
| Problem | "Something went wrong. Please try again. If it keeps happening, click Send report so we can look into it." | An error that did not match a known case. | Try again, then Send report. |
| Off | "Your iPhone stayed locked, so it could not confirm the change. Unlock it, keep it unlocked, then try again." | Turning on backup encryption was blocked by a locked iPhone. | Unlock the iPhone and click Turn on encryption again. |
| Problem | "You have used all three trial exports. Reading and searching your whole history stays free. Buy Chatcove once to export everything, with no watermark, on up to 2 Macs." | The trial is used up. This is not a fault. | See Pricing. |
Your iPhone didn't start the backup, and "error code -1"
Section titled "Your iPhone didn't start the backup, and "error code -1""This is the message that replaced a confusing one.
What users saw before. Early versions showed the raw tool line: Could not perform backup protocol version exchange, error code -1. It looks like a USB or cable fault, and it is not.
Why "-1" was misleading. Chatcove's backup tool (idevicebackup2, from the open-source libimobiledevice project) starts a backup service on the iPhone and then does a handshake with it. When that handshake fails, the tool ignores the failure and carries on with an empty connection. The next step then fails immediately with a generic "invalid argument" result, which prints as -1. So the -1 describes the follow-up mistake, not the real cause. By the time it appears, the cable, the pairing, the Trust step and the start of the backup service all worked. What failed was the iPhone not answering the backup request.
What Chatcove does now (since version 0.1.3).
- It recognises this failure by its text, never by the exit code (the tool can exit cleanly after a failed backup).
- It retries automatically, up to three times, with waits of 3, 10 and 30 seconds, checking the pairing before each retry. The last retry records a more detailed trace for the problem report.
- After the retries it shows "Your iPhone didn't start the backup" with the steps below, and keeps the raw lines under Details.
- A patched build of the tool prints the real reason instead of
-1:Could not create mobilebackup2 client, error code <N>. The numbers: -2 unexpected reply, -3 USB error, -4 SSL error, -5 timeout, -6 bad version, -256 the iPhone closed the connection.
Error codes -7 and -8 on the older version exchange line mean the iPhone refused the greeting. Same card.
Steps on the card, in order:
- Unplug the cable and plug it back in, directly into this Mac (no hub or adapter).
- Keep the iPhone unlocked on the home screen. If it asks you to trust this Mac, tap Trust and enter its passcode.
- In Finder, close the iPhone window, and turn off "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected" if it is on.
- Make sure the iPhone has a few GB free (Settings > General > iPhone Storage).
- Restart the iPhone.
- Restart this Mac.
If it still fails, click Send report. The report includes the exact code from Details. See Send a problem report.