k_wechat

— G3 strategies to cope with catastrophic risk of wechat “loss”

1. use whatsapp/email more, uese wechat less, esp. with wife. Those tidbits of vita info will be less likely locked up in wechat
2. DRD log-in on “new” phone to flush out any log-in issues, which remain hidden if you remain authenticated for years. If you log in once and never log out for years, then you are bound to forget your mobileNum, password, email address etc.
3. save chat history to SD card etc .. see https://btv-open.dreamhosters.com/16003/wechat-history/

— minimize Wechat usage .. Wechat is now growing into a dependency for me, but strategically I need to move more stuff from wechat to whatsapp, email or SMS.

• whatsapp and email data are on-server and easy to recover
• wechat has horrible tech support (located in China), esp. for log-in/access or history recovery. Whatsapp and gmail have global user base.
• wechat restrictions/controls are dictated by PRC government (Tenchent is not exactly a private company). Overseas users are treated as second-class citizens during the “due diligence”.

==== account recovery on a phone where my login id (xxx5241) is already registered

3 trusted friends?

— Using passwd alone .. in Feb 2025, I was able to enter se8 to log in. Note the acccount identifier was pre-populated as xxx5241

— Using voice recognition… (least useful) In Feb 2025 and 2023, I was able to read a prompt in English to log in, but this method is useless when you switch account or set up on new phone.

==== account recovery on new phone, with no prior wechat account

The single most important thing to remember ….  mobileNum. Using smsOtp (without passwd) you can recover your account on a new phone.

MobileNum is +86-xxx5241. My account id is tiger40490 but useless for account recovery.

log in xxxx5241/se8… standard passwd preferred because I prioritize access rather than privacy. In other words, I worry far more about losing access rather than chat content leak

— Using mobileNum + smsOtp  .. in Feb 2025, I was able to enter xxx5241 first, _then_  smsOtp to log in.

— Using mobileNum + passwd  … in Feb 2025, I was able to enter xxx5241 first _then_ se8 to log in

— Using registered email addr … in Feb 2025, I “forgot” my passwod. I entered my gmail and received a link to reset my wechat password