iOS pairing: first QR/code attempt consistently fails, second attempt succeeds

[AlejoGarat]

Hi everyone,

We are experiencing a consistent issue when pairing iOS devices using whatsmeow.

Description

When pairing an iOS device as a companion:

• The first pairing attempt always fails.
• Retrying immediately with a second pairing attempt succeeds

This behavior is reproducible and consistent

What we tested

• Multiple iOS devices
• Different iOS versions
• Different PlatformType values (DESKTOP, IOS, ANDROID, UNKNOWN)
• Different DeviceProps.Os values

None of these changes affected the behavior: the first attempt fails, the second one works.

Notes

• This issue seems specific to iOS
• Android pairing does not show this behavior
• The failure happens before the session is fully established (during initial pairing)
• There is no obvious fatal error or panic on the client side

Question

Is this a known issue or expected behavior with iOS pairing?
Could this be related to how WhatsApp handles initial companion registration for iOS devices?

If there are any recommended settings or workarounds (e.g. preferred PlatformType for iOS), we’d really appreciate the guidance.

Thanks in advance

[AlejoGarat]

I'm noticing this also happens in Beeper. Do you know why? @tulir

[gillesmag]

We also ran into this exact issue with the phone code auth. The first code usually doesn't work, the second then does. It also consistently happens it shows "Unknown is attempting to..." instead of "Chrome (Linux) is attempting to ...".

[burstfreeze]

Is there any line in the logs or an event that is emitted when this happens?