If you've installed Open Heart on a new phone and want your old data back, you need your 24-word recovery phrase. Here's the exact flow and the most common things that go wrong.

If you saved a recovery phrase when you set up Open Heart, you can restore your past entries on any new phone.

When restore is the right move

New phone. You replaced your phone and want your Open Heart history back.
Reset device. You factory-reset your phone and the app data was wiped.
Lost phone. You replaced a lost or stolen phone — restore lets you regain access. (We also recommend then using Settings → Disconnect from partner if you'd been paired, since the lost phone may still have unlocked data on it.)

When restore is not what you want

Just installing on a second phone. Open Heart is one phone per account. Restoring on phone B effectively transfers your account from phone A.
Switching from solo to couples. Pairing is a separate flow that doesn't need restore.

How to restore

Install Open Heart on the new phone.
On the welcome screen, tap I have a recovery phrase.
Type your 24 words.
Tap Restore.
Wait. The app rebuilds your key, contacts our servers, and pulls down your past entries.

It's case-insensitive and tolerant of extra whitespace. apple banana cherry and APPLE BANANA CHERRY both work.

What gets restored

Your past entries — fetched from our servers and unlocked with the rebuilt key.
Your couple pairing (if you had one) — the new phone has what it needs to read the partner's shared entries again.
Your subscription — if you had one, signing in with the same Apple ID or Google account on the new phone restores premium.

What doesn't get restored

Anything that wasn't Open Heart data on the lost phone. Photos, contacts, etc. — that's Apple's or Google's job.
Settings. Notification preferences, biometric lock, etc. reset to defaults on the new phone.
Your trial. Trial state lives on the phone. A new phone gets a fresh 30-day trial.

Common errors

"Recovery phrase must be 24 words"

You typed too few or too many. Count carefully. The app expects exactly 24, separated by spaces.

"Unknown word in recovery phrase"

One of your words isn't a real word from the list the app uses. Most likely a transcription error:

accross should be across
untill should be until

Double-check the spelling against your written copy.

"Restored, but my entries don't appear"

The restore succeeded but the sync hasn't run yet:

Pull down on the journal tab to refresh
Wait 30 seconds and reopen the app
If still empty, check Settings → About to confirm the account ID matches your old one

What if I lost the phrase

We can't recover it. There's no master key, no support team that can reset it. This is the price of the privacy guarantee.

If you've lost both the phone and the phrase, your past entries are unrecoverable. You can install Open Heart again on a new phone and start fresh.

Restore from a recovery phrase