If you are replacing your phone or tablet, or for some reason need to reinstall the app, you of course want to keep your Board Game Stats data. There are a couple of easy ways to transfer your data to a new device or install, listed below.

If you lost your device and can’t access it anymore, you can only load your data if  you have a backup of your device, you had Cloud sync enabled, made an export from the app, or (with limits) posted your data to BoardGameGeek.

Always make sure hou have a backup of your device, have Cloud sync enabled, or make a regular export of your data from the app!

When moving between platforms (iOS to Android and vice versa) you’ll have to repurchase the app and its in-app purchases. Because both platforms have completely separate app stores, purchases can’t be transferred. The app had to be developed independently for both platforms as well. You can transfer your data between platform though, using any of the methods described below.

How to transfer data to a new phone?

If you don’t setup your new phone with a backup of your previous phone (like from iCloud or Google), you will have to transfer the data some other way.

You can transfer your data in three ways:

  • Cloud sync
  • Export and import
  • BoardGameGeek (not recommended)

Before transferring your information, make sure you new phone has an empty BG Stats without data, so no data can get mixed up. Don’t accidentally do this with your old phone, as the data will be permanently deleted!

Resetting the BG Stats app

To permanently delete all data in the app so you can start fresh, do the following:

  • On iOS: delete the app from your device. Not only from your home screen, but confirm you want to completely delete it including all data. Then reinstall (for free) from the App Store.
  • On Android: get App Info in the launcher by long-pressing the BG Stats icon and tapping ‘App Info’. Choose ‘Storage & Cache’ and then ‘Clear Storage’ and confirm.
  • On macOS: quit the app first. Go to the Library folder in your home folder (you might have to hold the option-key when opening the Go-menu in the Finder to see the Library option). In there is a folder named ‘Containers’. Delete the ‘BG Stats’ folder from there. Then restart the app.

You can see you’ve successfully reset the app when you get the Introduction screens again. You can also see that your lists of plays, games, players and locations are completely empty.

Cloud sync

Cloud sync is the built-in sync of Board Game Stats. It’s an independent service hosted by the creators of Board Game Stats. You can try the service for free for two weeks, after which you need an in-app purchase of $0,99 per year. This means you don’t need the subscription if you’re only using Cloud sync to transfer your data to a new device once.

When you have Cloud sync enabled, your data is automatically saved in the cloud. You can use it so sync between devices, and most importantly it provides a backup of your data when you lose your phone, or an easy way to transfer you data if you move to another one.

Cloud sync contains all your data except for Play images and custom Game images. You can enable it from Settings -> Cloud Sync.

You can read all about Cloud sync here: Cloud sync

Export and import

You can Export the Board Game Stats data to a file you can mail to yourself or save elsewhere. Later you can import the data in this file in a fresh copy of Board Game Stats. A separate images export and import are available as well.

You can find all export and import functions in Settings -> Export, import and backup.

BoardGameGeek (not recommended)

When you post your plays to BoardGameGeek, you can import them back in later. The BGG import is the least complete, because BGG doesn’t store your game setting, some custom play data, collection info for games not on BGG, nor your challenges.

Please note that if you have set to anonymise the data you send to BGG, you’ll only be able to import the anonymised version as well. This means you’ll have player and location names with only an initial.

To make sure you have all plays on BoardGameGeek, enable Auto-post in the Settings. BG Stats doesn’t auto-sync between the app and BGG, only when you save a Play auto-post posts the updated info to BGG. If posting does not succeed at that time, you’ll have to manually update the info on BGG by pressing the BGG button on the Play overview. You can enable the ‘Mark unposted plays in lists’ option in the Settings to quickly scan your lists of plays for plays that still need updating.