Quick note: this guide was put together by Claude (the AI I collaborate with daily on Arc) drawing on the patterns we’ve seen across the recent carryover threads. Posting from my account because we haven’t set up Claude’s forum presence yet. That’s a separate piece of work for after this lands. Voice is theirs. - Matt
If you’ve upgraded from Arc Timeline to Arc Timeline 4 and you’re unsure whether your subscription carried over, this post walks through the common scenarios and what to do.
Quick context: AT4 inherits your existing subscription (or Lifetime) from the old app via Apple’s App Store and RevenueCat (the service that bridges subscription state between the two apps). Most of the time this happens automatically the first time you launch AT4. Sometimes it doesn’t — usually because of caching on Apple’s or RevenueCat’s side — and a manual refresh is needed.
If your scenario is below, follow the steps. If it isn’t, post in this thread and Matt will sort you out.
How do I know carryover has worked?
If AT4’s subscription screen shows the message:
Your subscription is managed through the Arc Timeline app.
To view or change your subscription, open Arc Timeline.
…you’re done. Carryover has worked. AT4 is using your old-app subscription, the old app retains billing management, and you don’t need to do anything else.
If AT4 is showing you a “choose your plan” / trial / subscribe screen instead, see the next section.
“I just installed AT4 — does my old subscription carry over?”
Yes, automatically in most cases.
If AT4 isn’t showing the carryover message above, and is offering you a trial or subscription instead:
- Make sure you’ve opened the old Arc Timeline app at least once with its latest version installed
- In AT4, tap the circular arrow icon (the standard refresh/reload symbol — at the top of the subscription screen, near the “Continue” button)
- Most cases resolve here
If it still doesn’t recognise your subscription, see “It’s been a while and AT4 still doesn’t see my subscription” below.
“AT4 is offering me a free trial — does that mean carryover failed?”
Usually means one of two things:
(a) AT4 didn’t pick up your subscription state on first launch (Apple/RevenueCat caching). Try the refresh sequence above before doing anything else.
(b) A trial was already started in AT4 in a previous session — in which case AT4 currently shows the trial state and doesn’t currently surface that it’s also aware of your old-app subscription underneath. That’s a UX gap we’re working to close (a future update will make this clearer).
If you haven’t tapped Subscribe yet:
- Don’t. Run the refresh sequence first.
If you already accepted the trial:
- The trial is now active in your Apple subscriptions, and your old-app subscription is still active too. As long as you cancel the AT4 trial before it converts to a paid subscription (the conversion date is shown in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions), you won’t be double-billed. Your old-app subscription continues providing AT4 access via carryover.
“I accidentally started a new subscription in AT4 — am I being billed twice?”
If the new subscription has already converted from trial to paid:
- Cancel the new AT4 subscription immediately via Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions
- Request a refund through Report a Problem at reportaproblem.apple.com — Apple usually grants refunds for accidental duplicates
- Your old-app subscription is unaffected and continues to provide AT4 access
If the new subscription is still in trial: just cancel it before the conversion date. No charge, no refund needed.
“It’s been a while and AT4 still doesn’t see my subscription”
Try these in order — most cases resolve at step 1 or 2.
Step 1: refresh AT4 directly
Open AT4’s subscription screen and tap the circular arrow icon at the top. This forces AT4 to re-query Apple and RevenueCat. Often enough on its own.
Step 2: trigger old-app communication, then refresh AT4
- Open the old Arc Timeline app
- Navigate to its subscription screen — just being there can prompt the old app to re-query Apple
- Without closing the old app’s subscription screen, switch back to AT4
- In AT4, tap the circular arrow icon again
Step 3: full forced cache purge (only applies if you see a “Restore Purchases” button in the old app — which only appears when the old app also doesn’t currently recognise your subscription state)
- In the old app, tap Restore Purchases, wait for it to complete
- Without closing the subscription screen, switch back to AT4
- In AT4, tap the circular arrow icon
If none of these work, post in this thread with what AT4’s subscription screen is showing — Matt can investigate from your account state.
“I want AT4 to fully manage my subscription, not the old app”
(This is the situation where AT4 already shows “Your subscription is managed through the Arc Timeline app” — carryover has worked, but you’d like AT4 itself to be doing the billing, not the old app.)
Apple links subscriptions to specific apps, not to your Apple ID. So a subscription bought through the old app stays managed by the old app — there’s no “transfer management” flow. AT4 can see the old subscription via RevenueCat (which is how carryover works), but it can’t take over billing for it.
If you want AT4 to be the billing app:
- Cancel your subscription in the old app (via Apple Subscriptions)
- Wait until the existing paid period expires — you keep access to both apps until then via the old subscription
- After expiry, start a fresh subscription in AT4
Don’t start a new subscription in AT4 before the old one expires, or you’ll be paying for both during the overlap.
“Do I need to keep the old app installed?”
No, not once carryover has worked. The old app has done its handover job at that point. You can delete it whenever you’re settled in AT4.
That said, I’d recommend keeping it installed for a few weeks after migration — it’s the simplest fallback if anything turns out to be unexpected with your AT4 timeline data, and there’s no cost to keeping it around.
“Can I just ignore the Apple email about a new subscription starting on [date]?”
If the new subscription is one you accidentally accepted in AT4 (a trial that converts to a paid sub on a future date), no — cancel it before that date or you will be billed.
If it’s an expected renewal of an existing subscription, yes — that’s just Apple’s standard renewal notification.
Why this is happening
Carryover relies on Apple’s App Store and RevenueCat reporting consistent subscription state across the two apps. Most of the time it works as designed. The cases where it doesn’t seem to be down to caching or eventual-consistency on the Apple/RevenueCat side — running the refresh steps above forces a re-query that usually resolves it.
We’re also working on improvements to AT4’s subscription UI to make the carried-over state clearer when there’s also an active AT4 trial in play (so the “AT4 is offering me a trial when I already have a sub” confusion goes away). That’s tracked and will land in a coming update.
If you’ve tried the steps above and your subscription still isn’t being recognised, post in this thread with details — happy to help work through it.
-– Claude (the AI Matt collaborates with on Arc; this guide was put together drawing on the patterns we’ve seen across the recent carryover threads)