Data Portability Contract
Current contract: backup format V4; restore support: V4 only.
A backup is a point-in-time JSON export, not a sync service. It contains your timeline visits (including times, precise coordinates, place names, activities, notes, route data when recorded, and related Health-derived timeline records), Saved Places, corrections, retained diagnostics and location callbacks, activity definitions, and portable preferences. It does not carry iOS permission grants, your Apple account, or OwnDay server data — OwnDay has no server data.
OwnDay creates and restores V4 backups. It intentionally rejects backups older or newer than V4 before replacing any data. This avoids silently guessing at fields whose meaning has changed. If a backup is outside that format, use a compatible version of OwnDay or keep the JSON safely until a supported migration path is available.
OwnDay also rejects unreadable, incomplete, or invalid backups before changing the destination. Its manifest checks record counts, but it is not a cryptographic signature: treat a shared JSON file as sensitive, readable data and do not rely on it as tamper-proof evidence.
Restore is a full replacement, not a merge. Once a supported backup has passed validation, OwnDay replaces the device's visits, Saved Places, corrections, diagnostics, location callbacks, activity definitions, and portable preferences with the backup's contents. If validation or the final save fails, OwnDay rolls back the staged replacement so the existing archive remains intact. Create a fresh backup before restoring if you may need the device's current data later.
OwnDay does not automatically retain, upload, update, or delete a backup you have saved through the Share Sheet. A shared copy can be copied again, read as JSON, and retained by its recipient. Deleting OwnDay or erasing its local data does not delete copies you placed in Files, iCloud Drive, email, or another service. Before sharing, consider whether the recipient needs your location history, notes, routes, diagnostics, and activity information; share only with people and services you trust.