Help and Support
Lost phone, new phone, switching to an iPhone, credits and refunds, in plain words.
Last updated 11 November 2026.
- There is no account. Your credits and routes live on your phone, and Android backs them up to your own Google account.
- New Android phone? Sign in with the same Google account and they come back by themselves.
- Both phones working, or moving to an iPhone? Use Move to a new phone in the app. One secret code, no account.
- Lost phone? Erase it with Find My Device first, then restore on the new one.
- Stuck? Write to us. We read every message.
Where are my credits and routes?
On your phone. Open the Credits tab for your balance and a history of every pack and every route you bought. Open the Routes tab for the routes you hold, with the language, the plan (Trip or Own) and the date it ends.
We do not keep a list of what you bought on our side. That is the price of having no account, and the reason we can promise we never know who you are or where you drive. It also means your phone, and the backup of it, is where everything lives.
I got a new phone
New Android phone
- Set up the new phone with the same Google account, and choose to restore from your backup when it asks.
- Install Road Stories from Google Play. Your credits, routes, settings and the list of stories you have heard come back before the app opens.
- Your saved stories download again by themselves, at no cost.
Good to know
- The backup is encrypted with your screen lock, so even Google cannot read it, and we never receive it. If the old phone had no screen lock, Android skipped the backup.
- Android backs up about once a day, when the phone is idle, charging and on Wi-Fi. Something you bought in the last few hours may be missing. Write to us and we will add it back from your Google Play receipt.
- Backup is on by default. To check it: in the app open You, then Your data, and look for Back up my credits and routes. It should say On. Android's own backup must also be on: Settings, then Google, then Backup.
- Your trips, the app's ride log and your home point are never backed up, on purpose. They stay on the old phone.
Moving between phones that both work (any Android or iPhone)
The app can move your credits and routes with one secret code, with no account and no server.
- On the old phone: open the Credits tab, find Switching phones, and tap Move to a new phone, then Make my code.
- The app shows a long code and 6 words. Tap Share the code and send it to yourself, by WhatsApp, email or a note. Write the 6 words down. Do not send them in the same message.
- On the new phone: install Road Stories. On the first screen tap Coming from another phone?. Paste the code, type the 6 words and tap Add to this phone.
- Your credits, routes (with their dates) and the list of stories you have heard arrive. Your saved stories download again by themselves.
Good to know
- When you make the code, the old phone is locked: its credits cannot be spent, so nothing is used twice. If the move did not work, open Credits on the old phone and tap The move did not work: unlock this phone. Do this only if you did not add the code on another phone.
- A code works once. Adding it a second time does nothing.
- The code is encrypted with the 6 words. Without them it is just random letters, and we never see either one.
- Your trips and your home point do not move, on purpose.
I lost my phone, or it was stolen
Do these in order. It takes about ten minutes.
- Erase the lost phone. Go to android.com/find, sign in with your Google account, pick the phone and choose Erase device. This removes the app's data, including any credits still on it, so nobody can spend them.
- Set up your new phone with the same Google account, and restore from backup (see "New Android phone" above).
- Missing something? Write to us with your Google Play order numbers (see "Write to us"). We will restore the credits you had not spent.
| What a finder can see on a lost phone | |
|---|---|
| Your location right now | Nothing. The app never stores where the phone is. |
| Rough trip paths and your home point | Only if the phone is unlocked. The first and last 1 km of any trip are never kept. Erasing the phone removes them. |
| Your credits | They could be spent, if the phone is unlocked. This is why step 1 comes first. |
What we cannot fix. Credits spent by someone else before you erased the phone are gone, because there is no account we can freeze. Your credits also expire anyway, so the most anyone can use is your current balance.
I am switching from Android to an iPhone
We know this is the moment most apps let people down, so here is the plain truth.
- The iPhone app is on its way. When it is out, you install it from the App Store.
- Google's backup does not restore onto an iPhone, and Apple's "Move to iOS" does not carry the data of apps like ours. So we built our own way, and it works the same in both directions.
- What to do: on your Android phone, make a code with Move to a new phone (see the steps above). Send it to yourself. On the iPhone, tap Coming from another phone? on the first screen, paste the code and type the 6 words. Your credits and routes arrive with the same dates.
- If the old phone is lost or broken, the code cannot be made. Write to us with your Google Play order numbers. We will give you the unspent credits on the iPhone.
Credits you bought on Android are valid on the iPhone too. They are our own currency, and the iPhone app sells the same packs.
Moving from one iPhone to another
- Restore the new iPhone from your iCloud backup, signed in with the same Apple ID. Your credits and routes come back with it.
- If the old iPhone is lost, use Find My to put it in Lost Mode or erase it. Apple's Activation Lock also stops anyone else from setting it up as their own.
- Apple's standard iCloud backup is encrypted, but Apple holds the keys. For a backup that only you can open, turn on Apple's Advanced Data Protection.
Buying, credits and refunds
How do credits work?
You buy credits in packs through Google Play. Each pack shows how long its credits last. A route costs a number of credits, in one language. Another language is a new purchase. Without a route, each story you listen to past its first 15 seconds costs 0.2 credit, up to a daily limit shown in the app.
What does a route include?
The road, both ways, the small towns on it, and the most popular stories of the big cities at its ends. The route page shows exactly what is included, in numbers, before you buy. You can add a whole city at the same time, or within 7 days after.
What is the free Trip each month?
One Trip a month, on any route up to 10 credits. Use it or it goes: it does not carry over to the next month.
Can I get a refund?
Credit packs follow Google Play's refund rules. Google usually allows a refund within a short time of buying, if you have not used the credits. Credits already spent on a route or a story are not refunded. Details are in our Terms of Use.
Do credits expire?
Yes. Each pack shows its use-by date, and the Credits tab shows when your next credits expire. Credits are not money and cannot be cashed out or given to someone else.
I bought something and it is not showing
Open Credits, then History. Everything you bought shows there, with the time. If it is missing, write to us with your Google Play order number and we will fix it.
Stories
A story is missing, or did not play in my language
Some stories are still being recorded in every language. A story without its voice is skipped, never read in a robot voice. Routes you saved play with no signal. Tell us the place and the language and we will bring it forward.
The app is quiet on part of my drive
We are adding stories to the quiet stretches between towns. The app also tells short stories about the area when nothing is nearby. Tell us the road and roughly where it went quiet.
I found a mistake in a story
Please tell us. Send the place, the language and what is wrong. If you have a source, send that too. Every fact in our stories comes from at least two trusted sources, and we fix errors fast.
Saving a route is slow or uses a lot of data
Save big routes on Wi-Fi before you leave. A city is roughly 20 to 100 MB. On mobile data, the app downloads the stories near you first and the rest as you drive.
Your data
To delete everything we keep, open You, then Delete everything. Uninstalling the app also removes it from the phone. The full details are in our Privacy Policy.
Write to us
hello@roadstorywala.app. A real person reads it, and we usually answer within a day or two.
To help us help you faster, include:
- What happened, and what you expected.
- For anything about credits: your Google Play order numbers. They look like GPA.1234-5678-9012-34567 and are in your receipt emails and in Google Play, under Payments and subscriptions, Budget and history.
- Your phone model and Android version, if the app misbehaves.
We will never ask for your password, your card or UPI details, or your location. If a message claiming to be from us asks for any of these, do not reply.
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