Subject: Request for bulk edit: Changing activity type from “Scooter” to “Motorcycle” for 2 years of data
Content:
Hi there,
I am a long-term user of Arc Timeline with about two years of historical data. I recently tried the new version of the app and noticed that the Chinese translation for “Motorcycle(機車)” fits my needs much better than “Scooter” (which is translated as “滑板車” in Chinese).
Because of this, I would like to change all my past “Scooter” activities to “Motorcycle.” However, since I have two years’ worth of logs, it is impossible to edit them manually one by one. I have temporarily uninstalled the new version for now, but I would love to resolve this so I can transition to the new app smoothly.
Is there a way to bulk update or reclassify all my past “Scooter” entries to “Motorcycle” at once? Or is there any workaround you would suggest for handling such a large amount of data?
Ah yes, English language and different cultures have made a mess of those activity types. In some countries scooter means one thing, in other countries it means something else!
My usual response is “use the scooter type however you want - it’s yours to interpret as you wish”. But with the Chinese translations, where it sounds like there’s not that same ambiguity (which I appreciate - the English language mess is frustrating), the translations have landed more specifically.
As to the solution to the cleanup problem in your data… I do have a feature planned, for giving the integrated AI (that currently is only involved in the search view, doing simple search query filtering) more tools, so that it could do this kind of cleanup effectively for you.
But until that feature update arrives, the only way to do this cleanup now is to:
Export the database to JSON (settings button (top left) → 備份與還原 → 匯出完整資料庫)
Edit the JSON to make the changes (almost certainly best done with AI assistance)
Delete the app, reinstall, then reimport from the edited JSON
But that’s quite an involved and long process, that would need to be done carefully. Quite a fuss! So my personal lean would probably be to wait until the integrated AI assistant can help you with the cleanup inside the app.
In the meantime, I recommend just installing the new app, migrating your data to it, and in time I will have the cleaner solution ready for you.
I’ve added your specific requirements to the task description for the integrated AI assistant task, and am hoping to get to doing that work as soon as the new app has settled in and there are no more immediate or urgent requirements to deal with. I’m hoping to work on it as one of the first major feature updates for the new app.
