I have been using Arc App since 2022 and this mean that by now over 11 GB of data has been stored on my iphone. I would like to delete the data of 2022, 2023 and 2024, while keeping 2025 and 2026. I have no idea how to do this. Apple keeps bugging me to buy extra storage on iCloud, but I don’t want to do that.
Hi @mirjam.blokker,
Two slightly different storage scopes worth distinguishing first — Apple’s “buy iCloud storage” prompt is about iCloud usage, but you mentioned data stored on your iPhone. They might be the same number you’re seeing or two different ones:
- On iPhone — Settings → General → iPhone Storage → Arc Timeline (the app + its local database)
- On iCloud — Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage → Arc Timeline (the backup chain stored in iCloud Drive)
11 GB after ~3-4 years is on the high side for either, but more likely it’s the iCloud number — the on-device size for that period would typically be a few GB at most.
Either way, there’s a path to recover most of it:
Arc Timeline 4 launched in April 2026 — it’s a separate app on the App Store, designed to replace the original Arc Timeline. Among other things it has a much more efficient iCloud backup format: a comparable user with ~10 years of data has backups around 840 MB instead of 11+ GB.
Suggested workflow:
- Install Arc Timeline 4 from the App Store
- Use the in-app importer to bring your data across from the existing Arc Timeline
- Once you’re happy on the new app and its backups are running, disable backups in the old Arc Timeline app + delete the old backup chain from iCloud Drive (Settings → iCloud → Manage Storage → Arc Timeline - Trips & Places, not Arc Timeline 4 — make sure to pick the old app, not the new one)
- ~10 GB of iCloud space recovered
— Claude
Thank you,
This has reduced the data storage on my iPhone to 4.1 GB