Coexistence History Did Not Import

Chat history import in coexistence mode is a strict, one-time opportunity, open for exactly 24 hours from the moment of onboarding, and once that window closes it cannot be reopened without disconnecting and reconnecting the number from scratch. This is Meta's own rule, not a VGraple CRM limitation, and the fix depends entirely on which specific error the channel shows.

Symptom

After connecting a number in coexistence mode, the history sync status on the channel's coexistence settings shows failed rather than completed or receiving, with a specific error message. Two distinct error messages account for nearly every case: one naming that Meta is rate limiting the import request, and another stating that Meta reports no open import window for this number, along with the exact steps required to open a new one.

Why it happens

Meta's coexistence chat history sync is deliberately a one-shot mechanism, not an ongoing feature that can be triggered whenever convenient. It can only be requested once per onboarding, and only within 24 hours of that onboarding completing; this window exists because the sync is meant to bridge the gap at the moment a business first connects the API alongside the WhatsApp Business app, not to serve as a repeatable backup or re-sync tool. If the request is made and Meta is rate limiting import requests generally (its own error code 4), the request itself was valid but needs to be retried; VGraple CRM already does this automatically every hour while the window remains open. If the window has already closed, Meta returns its own generic error code 135000 for this specific case (unrelated to the delivery error of the same number covered separately), and the only way to get a new one is a genuinely fresh onboarding: disconnecting the number from the WhatsApp Business app itself and running Embedded Signup again in coexistence mode, scanning the QR code again and approving chat history sharing anew.

A separate, less common cause is the business declining chat history sharing during the original onboarding in the WhatsApp Business app; in that case Meta returns a distinct "history declined" signal rather than a window or rate-limit error, and the fix is the same reconnect flow, this time approving sharing when prompted.

Fix

1. Check the exact error text on the channel's coexistence section, since the two main causes need entirely different responses.
2. If it names rate limiting, do nothing further. VGraple CRM retries this specific case automatically once an hour while the 24-hour window is still open; repeatedly triggering a manual retry does not speed this up and can compound the rate limiting itself.
3. If it names no open import window, the window has already closed for this onboarding. There is no way to request the sync again without a fresh connection.
4. To get a fresh window: on the business phone, open the WhatsApp Business app, go to Settings, then Account, then Business Platform, and tap Disconnect account.
5. Reconnect the number here in VGraple CRM in coexistence mode, scanning the QR code again during Embedded Signup.
6. Approve chat history sharing when prompted this time, if the original issue was declining it the first time around.
7. Act inside the new 24-hour window. Once reconnected, the sync request should be made promptly rather than left for later, since the same strict window applies to the fresh connection too.

How VGraple CRM handles it automatically

Both the contact (address book) sync and the chat history sync are requested together whenever a coexistence sync is triggered, and the request itself is never allowed to silently disappear into Meta's infrastructure: before requesting either sync, VGraple CRM verifies the WhatsApp Business Account's webhook subscription is genuinely active, and re-registers it automatically if it is found missing, since a sync requested against an unsubscribed WABA sends the one-time history into the void with no error and no way to request it again. A failed sync request never downgrades a sync that is already flowing or completed; if a history sync is already receiving or done and a re-request is attempted for any reason, the existing progress is left untouched rather than being reset by the failed retry. Rate-limited requests specifically are retried automatically on an hourly cadence for as long as the 24-hour window remains open, so a transient rate limit from Meta's side does not need to be manually re-triggered.

Once history does begin arriving, it comes in chunks via webhook, processed idempotently so a redelivered chunk (which Meta can send if VGraple CRM's acknowledgement is slow) does not create duplicate messages, and quietly, without triggering any of the alerts, flow automations, or outbound webhooks that a live message would, since a historical import is backfilling data, not representing something that just happened.

Prevention

The single most effective prevention is deciding, before starting Embedded Signup in coexistence mode, whether historical chat data matters to the business, and approving chat history sharing the first time it is offered rather than declining and needing a full reconnect later. If historical import does matter, requesting the sync immediately after onboarding completes, rather than leaving it for a day or two, removes any risk of the 24-hour window closing before the request is even made. Since media in messages older than 14 days before onboarding imports only as a placeholder regardless of when the sync itself runs within the window, there is no benefit to delaying the request even slightly, earlier is always at least as good.

What actually gets imported, and what does not?

A successful sync brings in up to 180 days of chat history from the WhatsApp Business app, provided sharing was approved during onboarding, including message text, sender, and timestamp for each historical conversation. Media attached to messages sent within 14 days of the onboarding moment imports with the original file, since Meta's media IDs for those messages are still valid at sync time; media in older messages imports as a placeholder only, since Meta's own media IDs for anything older have already expired independent of anything VGraple CRM does. New messages, and any message sent live from the WhatsApp Business app itself after onboarding, sync continuously and completely regardless of whether the one-time historical import ever succeeded, since that ongoing sync uses a separate, always-on mechanism rather than the one-shot history request.