iCloud Backup and Restore in Remi

Remi can save a copy of your reminders and settings to your own iCloud and bring them back later, for example after a reinstall or on a new iPhone once iCloud has delivered the file. It is a saved copy you restore, not a live sync of your list.

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What iCloud backup does in Remi

Turn on Enable Backup and Remi writes one file, SomedayBackup.json, to your iCloud. It holds every reminder plus a set of your settings. On a new iPhone, or after you reinstall, Remi looks for that file and, once iCloud has it on the phone, offers to restore it before you start. If the offer does not appear, you can restore from Settings a little later (with Enable Backup switched on).

Apple's iCloud Backup of the whole iPhone is a good safety net for everything on the phone. Remi's own backup adds something narrower: a copy of the reminder list that you start and restore from inside the app, with its date and file size shown. Apple notes that app data stored in iCloud Drive is kept in iCloud rather than in your device backup, so treat Remi's file and your phone backup as separate copies.

How it works, step by step

1. Open Remi, then Settings. Under Reminders & data, tap Backup & restore.
2. Switch on Enable Backup. It is off by default. A line under it reads "Using iCloud (synced across devices)" when iCloud works for the app.
3. Tap Backup Now for a first copy. A "Backup Successful" message confirms it, and the row shows when the last backup ran and how big the file is.
4. From then on, Remi backs up by itself when you leave the app, at most once an hour.
5. To restore on the same phone, tap Restore Backup and confirm Restore in the "Restore Backup?" alert.
6. To restore on a new iPhone, install Remi and open it signed in to the same Apple Account, with a little time for iCloud to deliver the file. If Remi finds it, a "Welcome Back!" screen says "We found a backup" with its date. Tap Restore from Backup, or Start Fresh to skip it. If the screen does not appear, wait a few minutes with the phone online, then restore from Settings as described in the Limits section below.
7. Stay in Remi until the restore is done. Once Enable Backup is on, leaving the app makes an automatic backup of the new phone's empty list over your file. If your reminders do not appear after you tap Restore (Remi shows no message when it finds no file), switch Enable Backup off again before you leave Remi.

Either kind of restore also reschedules your notifications and refreshes the widgets. Restoring from the Welcome Back screen also sets the app icon to match your restored accent color.

Every option and what is saved

The file contains all your reminders and these settings: accent color, week start, the month-part boundaries and preset, notification time and day offset, the weekly and monthly summary times, the weekly and monthly digest switches and the push notification switch. Six display settings (accent color, week start, month parts and how long completed reminders stay visible) also follow you between your own devices through iCloud, with no button involved.

Backup is not a Premium feature. The backup screen has no purchase check.

When to use it

You are getting a new iPhone

Turn on backup and tap Backup Now before you switch. On the new phone, open Remi and restore from the Welcome Back screen if it appears, or from Settings. Your yearly and someday reminders, set up over months, can come back with one restore once iCloud has delivered the file to the phone.

You are about to reinstall or reset

Deleting the app removes its data from the phone. Check that the backup screen says "Using iCloud" and take a fresh backup just before; a local-storage backup is deleted with the app.

You are about to try a big cleanup

Before you delete a pile of old reminders, tap Backup Now. If you regret it, restore right away. Auto-backup overwrites the file when you leave the app, so restore before you close Remi, or the cleaned list becomes the backup.

You rely on a long plan

If your list is a year of dates from the yearly overview, a backup is cheap insurance for hours of planning.

Limits

• One backup only. Every backup overwrites the same file. There is no history of older versions.
• Restore replaces, it does not merge. It deletes the reminders on the phone first and then adds the ones from the file.
• It is not live sync. Reminders are not shared between two phones as you edit. Only the six display settings sync automatically. See privacy for how data is stored.
• iCloud can be missing. If the app cannot reach its iCloud container, Remi writes the file to local storage on the phone and says so: "Using local storage (not synced across devices)". That copy does not help on a new phone.
• The Welcome Back offer waits at most 3 seconds. If iCloud is slow to answer on first launch, Remi skips the offer and goes on to onboarding. You can still restore from Settings: switch on Enable Backup, then tap Restore Backup. Remi does not ask iCloud to download the file, so if your reminders do not appear after Restore (Remi shows no message when it finds no file), the file has not reached the phone yet.
• Only fresh installs see the offer. It appears when there are no reminders and onboarding is not complete.

Updated 2026-11-01. Written by Emils Ozols, who makes Remi.