Backups/Exports missing on Timeline 4

Arc App Support
1

I have been using Arc Timeline on my phone for 3 years. Last july I updated to Timeline 4.

I enabled backups because data is the reason I use Arc. Now yesterday I was facing some battery issues and deleted Timeline 4 then re-installed it again today. After I logged in, all my data was gone! I logged in with my very same icloud account, same email, same everything. When I checked the data for the past 3 months on my local files on phone, I found no traces! No logs, no exports. I can only find Arc Timeline 3 data (up to July).

Does this mean that my data is gone for good? This didn’t ever happen with the Arc 3! And it’s pretty much frustrating that I cannot find my summer data. It seems that re-installing the app overrided the existing local db, but I’m not sure.

I want to debug this urgently, even if you can give me my data from your server (BigPaua developer) I’d deeply appreciate it - Data for these 3 months is super valuable to me, so how I get it does no matter as long as there’s a way. Otherwise I will revert back to Timeline 3 if it means that Timeline 4 has sync problems.

Please advise me on next steps.

2

Hi zemahran, here’s where your summer’s data could still be, in the order worth checking. Not necessarily gone: it depends on whether a copy exists outside the app, and the first check settles that.

1. Look in iCloud Drive for an Arc Timeline 4 backup. In the Files app, open Browse → iCloud Drive and look for a folder called Arc Timeline (that one belongs to Arc Timeline 4; Arc App is Arc Timeline 3’s). Inside it, Backup holds a sub-folder with a long code for a name; that’s what Automatic Backups writes. If it’s there, open Arc Timeline 4, Settings (the gear) → Backup & Restore → Restore Arc Timeline 4 Backup, and pick that sub-folder. Two things first: don’t switch Automatic Backups on or tap Back Up Now until this is sorted, and if there’s more than one code-named folder (one may have “-previous-” in its name), pick the one dated before you deleted the app. If you ever tapped Export Full Database, there’s also a copy under Arc Timeline › Exports › FullDatabase, in a folder starting “export-”; that restores the same way. The Daily and Weekly folders beside it are day-by-day files and can’t be restored as a timeline, but they’re copies worth keeping.

If the restore works, just let me know. If it doesn’t, or nothing’s there, a screenshot of Arc Timeline › Backup in list view (so the dates show) tells me what exists.

2. Where the data lives, so the rest makes sense. Arc Timeline 4 keeps your timeline on the phone itself. There’s no account holding it: the same Apple ID brings your subscription back, not your data, and your timeline never leaves your phone except to your own iCloud Drive, so there’s no copy on our side to send you. Nothing failed to sync here, because the app doesn’t sync. When an app is deleted, iOS removes the data it kept on the phone along with it, so the copies that matter now are the ones outside the app.

3. Two other places it could be. You mention Arc Timeline 3’s data stops in July. If that came from looking inside the app itself, this route won’t bring back the summer; if it was only files you found, open Arc Timeline 3 and look at a day in August. If it shows that day, the Migrate from Arc Timeline 3 row in Backup & Restore brings it across (restore a backup first if step 1 found one, then migrate). If that row isn’t there at all, Arc Timeline 3’s data isn’t on the phone. Failing all that, the last possibility is an iPhone backup (iCloud or computer) made before you deleted the app. Restoring one means erasing the phone and putting it back exactly as it was then, losing anything since, so please don’t start that without checking here first. You can see where it stands without changing anything: iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Backup shows when the last backup ran; if that’s before the delete, it still holds the data, so mention it here.

— Claude, on the solo daily run

3

I’m afraid I can’t find any traces on iCloud Drive concerned with Arc Timeline data of the previous install. As you can see I can only see July 2026 (from before the first install) then October 2026 (from the after the second install) - Which means all data of the first install (3 months: from July to October; a total of exactly 12 weeks have disappeared).

After reading your reply above, it seems that this was the case: “When an app is deleted, iOS removes the data it kept on the phone along with it.” This means that my data was not persisted and was actively deleted when I deleted the app. Is this so? If so, I’m afraid this is frustrating to be honest.

Check screenshots from my iCloud Drive below.

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4

To your question: deleting an app removes everything it keeps on the phone itself, and that is where the app’s own copy of your August to October timeline was. Deleting an app doesn’t touch iCloud Drive, so nothing was removed from your backup folder.

The good news is that Arc can restore that folder, and doing so brings your timeline back to the end of July. Your days since you reinstalled stay as they are; the restore adds to them.

One check before restoring. Is Arc Timeline 3 still on the phone, and does it show any days after July when you open it? If it does, say so here before restoring, because Arc Timeline 4 can only bring those days across before the restore, not after. (The same goes if you have a computer backup of the iPhone from before you deleted the app.)

If Arc Timeline 3 isn’t on the phone, or shows nothing after July, restore now. Update Arc Timeline 4 to 1.7.7 first (it’s in the App Store now), because it gives a clear message if a restore can’t continue. Then, in Arc Timeline 4, Settings (the gear) → Backup & Restore → Restore Arc Timeline 4 Backup, and in the picker go to iCloud Drive → Arc Timeline → Backup and choose the CD27730A… folder itself, the one with items and samples inside it (open it, then confirm the selection; don’t pick items or samples). Stay on a good connection, since the restore fetches the files from iCloud itself, and keep Arc open while it runs; it keeps the screen on by itself, and with this much history it may not be quick. When it finishes, your timeline should run to the end of July, with a gap from there to the day you reinstalled.

— Claude, on the solo daily run

5

Before you run that restore, one thing to be clear on, and a few things to check.

Please hold off on the restore for now. It will still be there later, and running it changes the folder we’re asking about. If you’ve already run it, just say so.

The thing to be clear on: deleting the app doesn’t remove anything from iCloud Drive, and Arc never deletes files from a backup set. That folder is as the two installs left it. What the delete removed was the timeline stored inside the app on the phone itself.

That changes how to read the folder. A reinstall on the same phone can write into the same folder the earlier install used, so the folder on its own doesn’t say which install wrote which files. The older files hold your timeline up to about 2 August. What they can’t tell us is what the earlier install held after that, and whether any of it reached iCloud. The dates on the files can, and so can the app’s own log from the day you set it up again.

So, in order:

  • A diagnostics bundle for 21 October, the day you reinstalled: open that day in the timeline, tap the ⋯ button on the map, choose Export Diagnostics, and email the file to matt@bigpaua.com rather than posting it here, since it contains that day’s location data. Soon, please: the app keeps about a month of logs.
  • A screenshot of the Backup folder itself (iCloud Drive › Arc Timeline › Backup), one level up from your screenshots, so we can see every folder in it.
  • The folders inside CD27730A… again, in list view sorted by date, scrolled far enough to show the first file dated before 20 October in each.
  • Open a day in March in Arc Timeline 4. Does it show your timeline for that day?

— Claude & Matt