WhatsApp Not Working? What the Ticks Mean and How to Fix It
WhatsApp’s check marks show where a message stopped. A clock means the message has not left your phone, which points to your own connection. One gray check means it was sent but has not reached the other person’s phone yet, for example because that phone is off or offline. If every chat stays on the clock, on both Wi-Fi and mobile data, check whether WhatsApp is down.
Our live WhatsApp status page shows what our own checks see right now.
What do the WhatsApp check marks mean?
WhatsApp explains the marks in its help article How to check read receipts. The clock is covered in its troubleshooting pages.
| Mark | What WhatsApp says it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Clock | The message hasn’t been sent yet, which can be due to connectivity issues | Check Wi-Fi or mobile data; open a website to confirm you are online |
| One gray check | Sent successfully, not delivered yet | Wait; the other phone may be off or offline |
| Two gray checks | Delivered to the other person’s phone or a linked device | Nothing is broken; it has not been read yet |
| Two blue checks | The other person has read the message | None |
In a group, the second check appears when every member has received the message, and the checks turn blue when everyone has read it.
Missing blue checks do not always mean a message is unread. WhatsApp lists three other reasons: either of you turned off read receipts in privacy settings, the other person blocked you, or the date and time are wrong on one of the phones. Turning off read receipts does not affect group chats or play receipts for voice messages.
How do I check if WhatsApp is down?
WhatsApp does not publish a public status page for the app. Meta’s status site, metastatus.com, covers Meta business products, including the tools businesses use to send WhatsApp messages, so it does not tell you whether regular chats work. WhatsApp has confirmed past outages in posts on its own account on X.
- Open our WhatsApp status page and look at the latest check.
- Open any website in your phone’s browser. If nothing loads, your internet is down, not WhatsApp. Our home internet checklist helps with that.
- Switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data, or the other way around, and send a message again.
- Ask someone on a different network to send you a message. If they can’t send either, the problem is wider than your phone.
Our down-or-just-me guide explains the same method for any service.
How do I fix WhatsApp stuck on “Connecting” or messages not sending?
WhatsApp’s article How to fix connection issues says the most common reason for trouble sending and receiving messages is a poor internet connection. Work through these steps in order:
- Restart your phone.
- Update WhatsApp from the App Store or Google Play.
- Turn airplane mode on, wait a few seconds, and turn it off.
- Make sure mobile data is on and Data saver is off. On Android, check that Wi-Fi stays on during sleep.
- On iPhone, open Settings, then Cellular (Mobile Data), and make sure WhatsApp is allowed to use it.
- Try a different Wi-Fi network. WhatsApp says office and university campus Wi-Fi can cause connection issues.
- Set your phone’s date and time to update automatically.
- As a last step, back up your chats, then uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp from the official store.
If mobile data works for other apps but not for WhatsApp, WhatsApp suggests contacting your mobile provider and asking whether your APN settings are set up properly. On a managed network, such as an office, the administrator can allow traffic to web.whatsapp.com and *.whatsapp.net, which WhatsApp names as the addresses to let through.
No fix needs your codes. Never share the six-digit registration code or your two-step verification PIN with anyone, even a friend or someone claiming to be WhatsApp support, because anyone with that code can register your number on their phone. Install WhatsApp only from the App Store or Google Play, and ignore “fix” apps and modified versions.
Why are WhatsApp calls failing?
A call needs a steady connection on both phones, so a weak signal on either end can drop it. WhatsApp’s help article on video calls says to use a strong, stable Wi-Fi network. It also says firewalls should allow WhatsApp calling on UDP and TCP ports 3478, 3480 and 3484, which matters on work and school networks.
- Move closer to the router or switch to a stronger network.
- Check that WhatsApp has permission to use the microphone, and the camera for video, in your phone’s settings.
- Turn off any VPN for a test call.
- Restart the phone and update WhatsApp.
- Ask the other person to try the same steps. A call fails if either side has the problem.
What should I do if a WhatsApp backup fails?
Android phones back up WhatsApp chats to Google Drive, and iPhones back up to iCloud. WhatsApp’s article Can’t back up or restore your chat history lists the checks for each.
| Check | Android (Google Drive) | iPhone (iCloud) |
|---|---|---|
| Account | A Google account is added to the phone | Signed in to the Apple Account used for iCloud |
| Service | Google Play services is installed | iCloud Drive is turned on |
| Space | Enough free space in your Google account | At least 2.05 times the backup’s size free in iCloud |
| Network | Try Wi-Fi instead of mobile data | Allow cellular data for iCloud if you are not on Wi-Fi |
| If it still fails | Retry from the Chat backup screen | Sign out of iCloud, restart, sign back in |
To restore a backup, you need the same phone number and the same Google or iCloud account that made it. If you use an end-to-end encrypted backup and lose its password or 64-digit key, WhatsApp cannot recover it.
Why won’t WhatsApp Web or Desktop connect?
WhatsApp’s help center says linked devices are logged out if you don’t use WhatsApp on your phone for over 14 days. If that happened, link the computer again from your phone. Otherwise, refresh the page or restart the desktop app, log out and log back in, and use a current browser. WhatsApp Web does not work with some older browsers, including Internet Explorer.
Bottom line
Read the marks first: a clock is your connection, one gray check is the other phone, and failure across every chat and network may be an outage. Restart, update, switch networks and check the date and time before you reinstall, and back up your chats before any reinstall.
FAQ
Does one gray check mean I’m blocked?
Not on its own. WhatsApp says messages to someone who blocked you show only one gray check, but the same mark appears when the other phone is off or offline.
Why do my WhatsApp messages show a clock?
The message has not been sent yet. Check that Wi-Fi or mobile data is working, then restart WhatsApp or the phone.
Will reinstalling WhatsApp delete my chats?
Chats that are not backed up can be lost. Back up first, and restore with the same phone number and cloud account.
Does WhatsApp have an official status page?
Not for the regular app. metastatus.com covers Meta business products. For the app, check our status page and WhatsApp’s own posts on X.