Videflo keeps your recordings on your iPhone and nowhere else. There's no cloud copy, no sync, and no way for us to fetch anything back for you.
That's a real privacy benefit — nobody but you has your family's footage. It also means the safety of your Tapes depends entirely on your own backups, so this is the one article worth acting on today rather than reading later.
What that means in plain terms
Videflo cannot recover a lost Tape
If your iPhone is lost, stolen, damaged, or erased — or if the app is deleted — recordings that exist only inside Videflo are gone for good.
We have no copy. Not a hidden one, not a temporary one. There is nothing to restore from on our side, ever.
Two things to do, in order
Switch on an iPhone backup that includes app data.
Open the Settings app, tap your name at the top, then iCloud → iCloud Backup, and turn it on. Backing up to a computer works just as well. Video is large, so make sure the backup has room to actually complete — a backup that keeps failing is no backup at all.
Export the Tapes you couldn't bear to lose.
An exported copy in your Photos library, in Files, or on a computer is a second copy that doesn't depend on Videflo at all. This is the belt to the backup's braces, and it's the one that survives absolutely everything.
Check the backup actually finished
In Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Backup, look at the last successful backup date. If it's weeks old, it's probably failing for space and needs attention.
Moving to a new iPhone
Back up the old iPhone first, and check it succeeded.
Set the new iPhone up by restoring from that backup.
Either the iCloud backup, a computer backup, or Apple's direct iPhone-to-iPhone transfer. All three carry app data, and your Tapes travel with it.
Sign in with the same Apple Account and install Videflo.
Open Videflo and tap Restore Purchases in Settings.
That brings your subscription across.
Check your Tapes are all there before wiping the old phone.
Play one. Actually watch it. Then wipe.
Setting up “as new” starts from nothing
If you set the new iPhone up as a new device rather than restoring a backup, your Tapes will not be there — and once the old phone is wiped, they're gone.
Restore from the backup, or export everything beforehand.
Why there's no cloud backup
Videflo is local-first on purpose. Family footage is about as personal as data gets, and the safest place for it is a device you hold. Nothing is uploaded to us, so nothing of yours can be exposed by a breach at our end.
The trade is real, and we'd rather be straight about it than hide it in a settings screen: you get privacy, and you take on the backups. Apple's own iPhone backup does most of that work if you let it.
Tips
Export your most precious Tape today. Not this month — today. It takes ten minutes and it's the difference between a memory and a story about a memory.
If iCloud is short of space, backing up to a computer is free and holds everything.
Keep the exported copies somewhere that isn't the phone as well — a computer, an external drive, or a cloud storage service you already trust.
Common mistakes
Assuming Tapes appear in the Photos app and are therefore backed up with your photos.
They don't. Only exported copies reach Photos. Everything else lives inside Videflo.
Wiping the old iPhone before checking the new one has everything.
Open Videflo on the new phone and play a Tape through first. Then wipe.
Deleting Videflo to “free up space”, meaning to reinstall later.
Deleting the app removes its recordings. Reinstalling brings back the app, not the footage.
Troubleshooting
My Tapes didn't come across to the new iPhone.
- Check whether the new phone was restored from a backup or set up as new. Only a restore brings app data.
- If the old iPhone still exists and hasn't been wiped, everything is still on it — back it up properly and restore again.
- If the backup was too old, only Tapes made before that date will be there.
My subscription works but all my Tapes are missing.
- That combination is expected on a device set up as new: the subscription follows your Apple Account, the recordings follow the backup.
- Restore the device from a backup that contains them, or recover them from the old iPhone if it's still around.
Frequently asked
Does iCloud Photos back up my Tapes?
Only the copies you've exported into your photo library. Tapes inside Videflo aren't part of your photo library, so iCloud Photos never sees them.
Will Videflo ever offer cloud backup?
There's nothing to announce. If it ever arrives it would be something you choose to switch on, not something that happens quietly.
Can I get my Tapes back if I deleted the app?
Only from an iPhone backup made before you deleted it, or from copies you exported. Videflo holds nothing on your behalf.
Can I keep Tapes on two iPhones at once?
No. There's no sync. Each device has its own library, and the only way to get footage from one to the other is to export it and move the file across yourself.
Related articles
How much space Tapes use, and how to free some up
Where the gigabytes go, what's safe to delete, and what the low-storage warning means.
Preparing and exporting a Tape
Exporting a whole Tape as one ordinary video file, saved into your Photos library.
Privacy and security in plain English
What stays on your iPhone, what leaves it, and what Videflo knows about you.
Did this answer your question?
If not, write to us — a person reads every message. Please include your iPhone model, your iOS version, and what you were doing when the problem happened.