What Happens If I Uninstall?

What happens to your Kinu data when you uninstall comes down to whether you have backup or sync turned on.

With Kinu Plus sync, your data is encrypted on your device, kept in step with our servers, and waiting for you. Reinstall, sign in with the same account, and everything comes back just as you left it.

On the free plan, if you have backup turned on, the same protection applies: your latest data is restorable from your account. Without backup, your data lives only on your device. Uninstalling or signing out removes it, and there is no server copy to restore from. So before you do either, save a copy if backup is not already protecting you.

Here is exactly what happens in each situation.

Using Kinu in the browser?

The same idea applies to the browser itself: your free-plan data lives in that browser's own storage. Backup has its own control in the browser now, so you can keep one encrypted, restorable copy from here as well. Clearing this browser's site data, removing the browser itself, or the browser tidying up storage it has not used in a while all remove that data, the same way uninstalling removes it from your phone. If there is anything you want to keep, export a copy first.

You have Kinu Plus with sync

You are protected. Your data is encrypted on your device, then backed up to our servers in the background.

Your people, moments, important dates, private notes, Relational Compass settings, and lenses all return.

Voice notes are never uploaded, on any plan, so they live only on that device. Signing out keeps the files on the phone's storage, so signing back in on that same phone shows them again right away. A full uninstall removes them for good. Export a copy first if you want to keep them.

Photos are different: with backup or sync on, they travel with the rest of your content and come back when you restore. A photo too large to fit is the exception - it stays on the phone, and goes with it.

You have backup turned on

If you turned on backup in Settings on the free plan, your latest data has an encrypted, restorable copy on our server. (If you have Kinu Plus, sync already keeps a continuous copy on our server instead: see You have Kinu Plus with sync above; you will not see a separate backup toggle.)

Reinstall onto an empty phone, sign in with the same account, and Kinu offers to bring that backup onto it.

A few things to know: backup keeps one copy, the latest one to back up, not a live sync between devices. If more than one of your devices has backup on, they share that one slot. And like Plus sync, your backup is tied to your account, so if you permanently lose account access, the server copy cannot be restored to you.

You have not turned on backup or Plus

Your account is preserved, so you can sign back in after reinstalling, or after signing in again in a browser. But without backup or sync turned on, there is nothing on the server to restore. Your people, moments, notes, and the rest live only on that device or browser, and uninstalling the app, or clearing the browser's site data, removes them.

If you are thinking about uninstalling, or clearing a browser's data, and want to keep your data, you have options:

• If you have backup available, turn it on in Settings, so your account has a restorable copy.
• Export your data to a file, so you have a copy you control.
• Subscribe to Kinu Plus and let sync finish before you uninstall, so your data syncs across your devices.

What about signing out?

Signing out also removes the local data from that device or browser. This is intentional. It keeps one account's data from showing up if someone else signs in on the same phone, or in the same browser.

How sign-out behaves depends on your plan:

• Kinu Plus. Kinu makes sure your latest changes have synced before it clears anything. If sync cannot finish, for example because you are offline, sign-out is cancelled so nothing is lost. Once it completes, sign back in any time and your data syncs down again.
• Free plan, backup on. Kinu tries to finish backing up before it clears anything. If it cannot reach the server and a backup already exists, sign-out still goes ahead, so anything written since that backup stays behind.
• Free plan, backup off. Signing out removes your local data for good. Kinu warns you first and offers to export a copy before you continue, on your phone and in the browser alike.

Quick reference

A note on uninstalling vs. deleting your account

Uninstalling removes the app and its local data, but your account and any backup or Plus sync data stay intact, so you can come back. If you want to remove your account and everything on our servers permanently, that is a separate action. See deleting your account.

Related

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