Upgrading phones, and from v3 to v4 - which first?

Arc App Support
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Hi, I am about migrate to a new iPhone from my iPhone 13 Pro, and in the process I also want to migrate to Arc V4. I am a bit wary about the whole process - it seems like transferring your previous timeline to a new phone can be quite a complex undertaking, even when not switching to a different version of the app. What would be the best order to go about this? I know I won’t be able to install V3 on the new phone - can I expect any issues importing backups from V3 to V4?

Thanks for any advice!

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Problems with data migrated from V3
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Congrats on the new phone @HuiWaa! :tada:

Claude is writing up a description of the migration options and steps. They’ll do a more precise and correct job of explaining it than I will. There’s two ways to potentially do it, one better than the other, but will be up to you which way you want to go. Anyway Claude’s reply will go into much more detail. Arriving shortly!

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Good timing — and yes, the order matters here, so worth getting right. The key thing up front: there’s no “import a V3 backup into V4” step. V4 migrates your data by reading the old app’s database directly on-device (a one-tap “Import from Arc Timeline”), and V4’s own backups only restore into V4. That one fact shapes everything, because the direct read only works when both apps are on the same device.

So there are two viable paths. I’d recommend the first.

Recommended — migrate to V4 on your old phone first, then move to the new one

  1. Update the old phone to iOS 26 (V4 requires it; your 13 Pro supports it). It’s an extra step on a phone you’re retiring, but it buys the safest route.
  2. Install Arc Timeline 4 and run Settings → Backup & Restore → “Import from Arc Timeline” (you’ll likely also be offered it on first launch, as “Existing Data Found”). It reads your V3 timeline directly and migrates it in.
  3. Once your timeline looks right, run Settings → Backup & Restore → “Export Full Database” — that writes a complete export to iCloud Drive. This is your safety artifact for the move.
  4. Set up the new phone however you like (Quick Start / device migration is fine).
  5. On the new phone, open Arc Timeline 4. If your full timeline’s already there, you’re done. If not, run Settings → Backup & Restore → “Restore from Backup” and pick the export folder from step 3. V4’s restore is reliable and fast, and re-importing is safe (it skips anything already present).

The reasoning: V4’s backup/restore is far more robust than V3’s, so by the time you’re relying on a data transfer, it’s the good one doing the work.

Alternative — move V3 to the new phone first, then migrate to V4 there

If you’d rather not touch the old phone’s iOS, carry V3 across first and migrate to V4 on the new phone (with V3 installed alongside). Two cautions:

  • Do the phone move via an encrypted computer backup (Finder on a Mac, or the Apple Devices app on Windows), not an iCloud backup restore. With a multi-GB Arc database, the iCloud route is where it goes wrong: the app installs from the App Store first, but the database is still downloading from iCloud in the background — and if Arc launches before that finishes (iOS sometimes auto-launches apps in the background), it assumes a fresh install and the restored database is lost. A computer backup brings it across in one go and avoids that race.
  • Then on the new phone, install V4 and run “Import from Arc Timeline” as above.

It works, but the risky step (carrying the big V3 database) leans on V3’s older, slower machinery rather than V4’s — which is why I’d point you at the first path.

Either way, nothing here is destructive to your old data until you’re happy the new phone’s good, so you can verify at each step.

— Claude

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Thank you so much for this guide, @claude (and @matt)! I am going to give it a go this evening and will report back. Question about Quick Transfer - does it work better than iCloud backups? I am tempted to use it for the phone migration (using V3) since it copies eSIM info etc. over as well. Google suggests it uses an ad hoc device-to-device connection so can I assume the risks of the iCloud restore are mitigated?
Would be interested to hear your views on this detail. Thanks again.

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Glad the guide’s useful! :waving_hand:

Short answer: yes, Quick Transfer is the better choice for the move, and it sidesteps the main risk that comes with iCloud.

The thing to avoid with a large Arc database is the iCloud-restore race: when you set up a new phone from an iCloud backup, the app installs first and its (multi-GB) database then downloads from iCloud in the background. If the app happens to launch before that finishes, it can see no data, assume it’s a fresh install, and the still-downloading database ends up orphaned.

Quick Transfer doesn’t have that problem. With the direct device-to-device option, your app data — Arc’s database and all — copies straight across from the old phone to the new one as part of the transfer itself, not as a background download afterwards. (The app re-downloads from the App Store, but the data comes across directly.) It’s a “wait for it to finish” operation rather than a “start using it while the data trickles in” one, which is exactly what makes it safe, the same way an encrypted computer backup is. And as you say, it brings the eSIM and everything else across too.

A couple of things to make sure of:

  • When Quick Start offers the choice, pick “Transfer from iPhone” (the direct option), not “Download from iCloud”.
  • Keep both phones powered and near each other for the whole transfer (a cable connection is faster and more robust than Wi-Fi for a big database).

Then on the new phone you’ll have V3 with its data, and can carry on with the V3 → Arc Timeline 4 migration as in the steps above. Your old phone keeps its V3 data untouched throughout, so there’s always a fallback until you’ve confirmed everything’s landed on the new one.

Good luck with it, and do report back how it goes! :crossed_fingers:

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Thanks again for all your help! I am happy to report the move of V3 from old phone to new phone went perfectly, I used Quick Transfer (via a cable) and after the transfer all my historical data was still viewable on the new phone (and Arc was recording new locations as well).

After a few days I decided to install V4 and migrate my data. I ran into some issues, but I will start a separate thread about it since this doesn’t seem related to the move between phones.

Anyway, thanks again! :grinning_face:

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