Demystifying the UHF Backup System

Whether you want a seamless viewing experience across all your screens or prefer distinct setups for your living room and your phone, the UHF app gives you complete control over your data.

Behind the scenes, our backup system is designed to be highly flexible. Here is a comprehensive guide to understanding how it works, how to sync your devices, and how to manage your data exactly the way you want.

The Basics: Your Backup Identifier

The foundation of the UHF backup system is your Backup Identifier. When you install the app, you are automatically assigned this unique code, which you can always find at the very bottom of your Settings screen.

By default, all your devices using the same Apple ID (across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS) are assigned this exact same code.

For PRO Subscribers: As long as your devices share this same backup identifier, your viewing ecosystem stays in perfect harmony. Your watch activity, favorites, and custom item/category arrangements will automatically sync across all your devices in real time.

How to Unlink Devices (Starting Fresh)

Sometimes, automatic syncing isn't what you want. For example, you might want a kid-friendly setup on your Apple TV, but a completely different configuration on your personal iPhone.

To give a device its own independent setup, you need to generate a new backup code for it.

• How to do it: Simply delete and reinstall the UHF app on the device you want to isolate. During the initial onboarding flow, select the option to Start Fresh.

• The Result: That device will be assigned a brand-new backup identifier. Its activity and customizations will no longer sync with your other devices.

Note: You can always switch between your different backups and codes as long as the devices share the same Apple ID. This is done during the onboarding flow after reinstalling the app.

Sharing Backups Across Different Apple IDs

What if you want to share your perfectly curated UHF setup with a family member's device that uses a completely different Apple ID? The backup system handles this seamlessly.

To link a device with a different Apple ID to your current backup:

1. On the new device: Reinstall the app (if it's already installed) to trigger the onboarding flow.

2. Import: Choose the option to import a backup via QR code.

3. On the source device: Go to the Backup screen and select Share Backup. This screen will give you the option to scan the QR code or type the PIN code shown in the new device.

Once completed, the new device will download all the synced content from your backup. From that point forward, both devices will stay in sync with each other, regardless of their different Apple IDs.

The "Detach" Feature: Import Without Syncing

There is one final trick up the backup system's sleeve. What if you want to copy a setup from one device to another using the QR code method, but you don't want them to stay in sync afterward?

If you want to import the data but cut the ongoing connection, simply follow the QR/PIN import process above. Once the data has loaded onto the new device, navigate to its Backup settings screen and select Detach backup.

This severs the link. The device keeps all the imported data, but any future changes made on either device will remain completely independent.

Troubleshooting Common Backup & Sync Issues

Our backup system is built to be robust, but there are a couple of edge cases you might run into depending on your network connection or the device you are using. Here is how to quickly resolve the two most common syncing issues.

1. Devices Getting Out of Sync Occasionally, you might notice that your devices are no longer mirroring each other perfectly. This usually happens for one of two reasons: a temporary drop in your internet connectivity right as a sync was happening, or one device has been offline for so long that it's too far behind for the system to automatically apply the backlog of changes.

• The Fix: It’s an easy fix. Simply reload your playlists on all your devices. This acts as a manual refresh, communicating with our servers and bringing every device back to the exact same, up-to-date starting point.

2. Apple TV (tvOS) Flushed the App Cache If you open UHF on your Apple TV and suddenly find all your data missing, don't panic. The Apple TV operating system (tvOS) is designed to aggressively manage storage space, and sometimes it will automatically flush an app's cache behind the scenes, temporarily wiping the data.

• The Fix: First, try reloading your playlists. If tvOS wiped the data so thoroughly that you are thrown back into the initial onboarding flow, simply proceed through the screens and select your existing backup to restore from the Backups screen. Your data is safe in the cloud, your Apple TV just needs to be re-linked to it!