How to Fix ‘Waiting for this message’ Error on WhatsApp

If you have been using WhatsApp for a while now, you may have noticed the “Waiting for this message. This may take a while” error message when receiving some messages. The error appears in a group or individual chat instead of displaying the sent message.

The simple explanation for why the error message appears is that WhatsApp is not able to decrypt the message that was sent. As you may be aware by now, WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption for all its messages. This means that only the sender and the receiver can be able to read the contents of a WhatsApp message.

The WhatsApp app of the person receiving the message is the one responsible for decrypting the messages. If the decryption does not take place as it should, the “Waiting for this message. This may take a while” error message appears.

There are several reasons why the error message might appear:

• The sender of the message has not been connected to the Internet for a while

• WhatsApp has been installed on a new device. The encryption key of the message does not match when using WhatsApp on a new device

• Using multi-device mode on WhatsApp. Sometimes using WhatsApp Web might bring about the mentioned error.

How to Fix the error

Several solutions have proven to work to fix the above-mentioned error message on WhatsApp. They include:

1. Waiting for some time

Because the error is associated with encryption, most often than not, WhatsApp resolves the error on its own. You just have to wait for a while before WhatsApp completes the decryption process.

2. Asking the Sender to connect to the Internet and reopen their WhatsApp app

Because the error message may appear because the sender of the message has not been online for some time, you can contact the sender through a call or message and ask them to get back online.

3. Log out of WhatsApp Web and log back into your account via the official app

If the error message occurs when using WhatsApp Web, it is advisable to log out of WhatsApp Web and use the official app. This is because WhatsApp Web depends on the official app to display your account details. If your official app is logged out, the above-mentioned error might occur.

4. Updating WhatsApp to the Latest Version

Sometimes using an outdated version of WhatsApp may cause problems including the above-mentioned error. It is recommended that you update your WhatsApp app when there are available updates.