My WhatsApp number is connected to another provider. How do I move it?

In short: disconnect it from the current provider in the WhatsApp Business app, wait 15 minutes and connect it to ZapClaw. Meta's connection window refuses a number that is still on another provider, so it cannot be on both at once. Your customers keep writing to the same number.

How to move it

1. Back up your chats: in the WhatsApp Business app, open Settings > Chats > Chat backup.
2. Disconnect the current provider: open Settings > Account > Business Platform, tap the connected platform and tap Disconnect.
3. Wait 15 minutes. Meta asks for that pause before the number connects again.
4. On a computer, open the ZapClaw dashboard, click Connect WhatsApp and choose Connect a WhatsApp Business app. If Meta asks you to delete your account, stop.
5. Confirm on your phone: in the WhatsApp Business app, tap the message from Meta and paste the code shown on the computer.

Disconnect in the app even if you already cancelled with the old provider. Cancelling there does not always free the number: Meta does not let a provider take a number off the API while it also runs in the app.

If step 2 shows no connected platform, go straight to step 4: there is no provider to disconnect. A tool listed under Linked devices is not a provider, and Meta unlinks every linked device when the number connects.

If Meta still refuses the number

• Already shared with a partner, or asked to disconnect your business platform: the old provider is still connected. Repeat steps 2 and 3, then connect again.
• Still shared with nothing left to disconnect: the old link sometimes outlasts the disconnect. Log the number into regular WhatsApp, move it back to WhatsApp Business, wait 30 minutes and try again.
• Two-step verification: if it is on in the app, keep your PIN or password at hand. WhatsApp asks for it when the number is registered again.
• Not registered on WhatsApp Business: the number is not in the WhatsApp Business app, for example because a provider moved it to the API only. See the next section.

If the number only works on the API

Some providers take a number out of the WhatsApp Business app and keep it on the API alone. ZapClaw connects through Coexistence, so the number has to come back to the app first:

1. Ask the old provider to release the number from the Cloud API (Meta calls this deregistering).
2. Register the number in the WhatsApp Business app and use it normally for a while: Meta may refuse numbers with little recent activity, and a freshly registered number starts from zero.
3. Connect it to ZapClaw as in steps 4 and 5 above.

Meta's number migration between providers is a different path: a migrated number works on the Cloud API only, not in the app.

Bring your integration with you

Moving an existing bot means changing the endpoint and the auth header, not rewriting it: messages arrive on your webhook and you send through a REST API. A self-hosted Chatwoot connects through its native WhatsApp Cloud channel.

All the requirements are on What you need to connect.