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Changing your device.

Your Kata data lives on your phone, so a new phone means bringing it across. It takes about two minutes, and there is a path for every case: iPhone to iPhone, Android to Android, the web, and across the two.

Before you switch

Do this on your old phone while it still has your data. It is the one step that matters, because we never held a copy we could hand back.

  1. Open Settings, Data. Tap Back up now, and on iPhone Back up to iCloud now, so your latest data is safe in your own cloud.
  2. Under Moving to a new device, show your recovery key and keep a copy somewhere you control, or leave the QR code on screen for the new device to scan.
  3. For extra peace of mind, tap Export my data and keep that one file somewhere safe, such as Files, Drive or an email to yourself.

iPhone to iPhone

Sign in to Kata on the new iPhone with the same account. Kata finds your private iCloud snapshot and offers it: Welcome back, we found your Kata data, Restore my data. The key normally travels with your Apple ID through iCloud Keychain, so the restore opens on its own; if iCloud Keychain is off, Kata asks for the recovery key instead. Settings, Data, Restore from iCloud does the same any time, and if you also set the new iPhone up from an iCloud device backup, the backup file rides along with it.

Android to Android

Sign in with the same account on the new phone. Kata finds the sealed snapshot of your account and restores it once the key is there: it is kept with your Google account, so a phone restored from your Google backup opens it on its own; otherwise enter the recovery key or scan the QR from the old phone. The backup file also rides your Google device backup, and Import with the file from Export my data covers anything missing.

The web, and Android to the web

Android and the browser share the same sealed snapshot, so a sign-in in a new browser offers it too: tap Restore with a recovery key and enter the key or scan the QR from your other device. A key stays in the browser it was made in, so save the recovery key before you clear site data or move to another browser.

Across iPhone and Android

The iPhone snapshot lives in your iCloud and the Android one on Kata's servers, so they do not cross between the two. That is what Export my data is for. Export the file on the old phone, move it to the new one however you like, then on the new phone open Settings, Data and tap Import to bring everything in.

Sign in once with the same account

Whichever path you take, sign in on the new device with the same account you used before. Your account is how Kata keeps your data yours across devices, even though the data itself lives on the phone.

One thing to remember

Restoring or importing replaces what is currently in Kata on the new device with the backup. On a phone you just installed that is exactly what you want. Kata always shows you the summary and asks you to confirm first, and it never asks for a key it could have kept for you.