Guide

Setting up and scanning your WhatsApp

Linking a number takes about a minute and happens once. After that collection runs in the background continuously, with no app to keep open and nothing to do daily.

The steps

Create the account slot. Give it a label so you can recognise it later.
Wait for the QR code. The slot is assigned to a collection machine, which starts a fresh WhatsApp session and produces a code. This usually takes a few seconds.
Scan it from the phone. In WhatsApp: Settings → Linked devices → Link a device, then point the camera at the code on screen.
Wait for the status to turn green. Once it reads online, collection has begun.

Charts need data before they mean anything. The first few hours will look sparse; a useful daily rhythm needs roughly a week.

What each status means

Status	Meaning	Do you need to act?
Connecting	Waiting for the QR scan, or re-establishing a session.	Only if it persists — then rescan.
Online	Linked and collecting normally.	No.
Offline	A network interruption. Reconnection is automatic.	No — it recovers on its own.
Needs rescan	The session was ended from the phone's linked-devices list.	Yes — scan a new code.
Stopped	Collection has halted for this number and will not retry.	Yes — contact support.

Offline is not an error. Connections drop routinely — mobile networks, restarts, brief outages. Reconnection is handled for you, and the gap is recorded so your charts show a known blank rather than reporting the outage as inactivity.

One number, permanently

The first number that successfully signs in is bound to that account slot for good.

If a different number is later linked to the same slot, the session is ended immediately and the slot asks to be rescanned with the original number. This is not a bug — it is the rule working. A slot that could quietly be repointed at a different number would be a very different product, and a considerably less trustworthy one.

To collect from a different number, delete the account slot and create a new one. Deleting removes that number's entire history along with it.

Troubleshooting

The QR code doesn't appear

The session is still starting. Give it a few seconds and refresh. If nothing appears after a minute or two, delete the slot and create it again — a fresh session is generated from scratch.

The code expires before I can scan it

QR codes are short-lived by design. A new one is issued automatically; open the phone to Linked devices first, then scan the next code that appears.

It keeps saying "needs rescan"

Something is ending the session from the phone side. Check Linked devices on the phone — if the entry has been removed there, it will need to be linked again.

It went offline and hasn't come back

Give it a few minutes; reconnection uses increasing intervals rather than retrying constantly. If it stays offline much longer than that, rescanning re-establishes the session cleanly.

Next: what WaTrue can — and can't — tell you →

What message metadata genuinely reveals, and the conclusions it cannot support.