I changed my phone number
There is no setting for this, and that is not an oversight. Your phone number is not a detail of your account: it is the account. Everything FriendTrack keeps for you — your Groups, your Maps, your display name and photo — is saved under the number you sign in with, and nothing can move it from one number to another. Not you, and not us.
So changing your number is not an edit. It is a move-out and a move-in: you take a copy of what you want to keep, close the account on the old number, and start again on the new one. This page is that procedure, and it is honest about what does not survive it. Read the whole page before you start, because the second step cannot be undone.
If you have only changed phones and kept the same number, this is the wrong page and the news is much better: I got a new phone.
Before you start
Two checks, both quick, both worth it:
- The new number already receives text messages. Signing in sends a code by text, and the first sign-in on the new number is what creates the new account. Do not close the old account until you know the new number works.
- The new number is from a country FriendTrack serves. If it is not, you cannot sign in with it at all — check which countries FriendTrack works in first.
And one thing to do while you can still see the old account: write down which Groups you are in and who else is in them. Nothing in the copy you are about to take can put you back in a Group. Only another member can, with an Invite Code, so you will need to know whom to ask.
The four steps
1. Take a copy of your data
This is the only step that cannot be done later. Once the account on the old number is deleted, there is nothing left to copy from.
- On the old number, open the Profile tab and tap Download my data.
- Read WHAT IS IN THE FILE — your phone number, where you have been, your profile and settings, and your maps.
- Tap Prepare my file.
- When the share sheet opens, send the file somewhere you will still have after the account is gone: your own email, a cloud drive, a computer.
The file is a zip with everything in it written out in plain text, plus the images of any Maps you made. Download your data explains what each part is.
⚠️ This copy is for you to read. It cannot be loaded back into FriendTrack. There is no import, so the copy does not shorten the rebuild in step 4 — it makes sure you have your own record of what was there, and the images of your Maps if you want to publish them again.
2. Delete the account on the old number
Do this before you sign in on the new number, not after — see why the order matters below.
- Still on the old number, open the Profile tab and tap Delete Account.
- Read WHAT GETS DELETED. The screen says it plainly: This is permanent. There is no way to recover a deleted account.
- Tick I understand this cannot be undone and tap Delete my account.
- A last question appears — Delete your account forever? Tap Delete forever.
You are signed out on every device at once and returned to the sign-in screen. If you were Sharing your Position (what other apps call your location) at that moment, it stops. Everything the account held is gone, with the exceptions listed under what you lose.
Delete your account has the full account of what deletion does, including the route that does not need the app.
3. Sign in with the new number
Open FriendTrack, enter the new number, and type the code it sends. That is the whole of sign-up: the first sign-in with a number creates the account. See sign in with your phone number.
You arrive in an empty FriendTrack, exactly as on a first install: no Groups, no Maps, no display name. That is correct. The new account has no connection to the old one and never will.
4. Rebuild what can be rebuilt
In roughly this order:
- Set your display name and photo — display name and photo. Do this first, because the people about to invite you back will see the name you pick.
- Get back into your Groups. Ask any member of each Group to generate an Invite Code and send it to you, then join with it — invite someone is the page to send them, and join a Group is yours. Nobody in the Group can add you without a code, and you arrive as a new member.
- Install your Maps again from the catalog — find and install a map. Maps you made and published are still there; see below for what has changed about them.
- Turn your notification categories back on — turn categories on and off. A new account starts with the defaults.
- If you had FriendTrack Pro, restore it — see the next section. It is the one thing that comes back on its own.
What you lose, and what you do not
Being clear here matters more than being gentle. Nothing below is recoverable once step 2 is done.
| What you had | What happens to it |
|---|---|
| Group membership | You leave every Group. Rejoining needs a live Invite Code from a member, and you rejoin as a new person |
| Running a Group | Where you were the admin, the role passes automatically to another member the moment the account goes. It does not come back with you |
| Groups where you were the only member | Removed entirely |
| Your last shared Position | Removed from every Group. Any Meeting Point you had set is cleared |
| Maps you made but never published | Deleted, images included. Your copy from step 1 is the only one left |
| Maps you published | Stay in the catalog and keep working for everyone who installed them — but they become unowned. Nobody can edit them or publish a new map version, including you. Publishing the same Map again from the new account makes a new Map, and people who installed the old one are not moved to it |
| Maps you were a collaborator on | Each owner has to add you again, because the person they added no longer exists |
| Installed Maps | Gone from your library. Reinstall from the catalog |
| Display name, photo, notification choices | Set again |
| Any concern you reported | The report is kept, without your name on it |
| Location history | There is none to lose. FriendTrack keeps only your latest Position, and that goes with the account |
FriendTrack Pro is the exception. Your subscription belongs to your app-store account, not to your phone number, and deleting a FriendTrack account never touches it. On the new account, open Profile, tap FriendTrack Pro, and tap Restore purchases — the same store account you bought it with must be signed in on the phone. Pro comes back within moments, with the same renewal date. Two things to know: a subscription bought on an iPhone does not restore on an Android phone or the other way round, because the two stores cannot see each other; and you do not get a second free trial, because the store grants one per store account. Details on subscribe, restore, cancel.
Why the order matters
Export before you delete, because deletion is the end of the account and nothing can be copied from it afterwards.
Delete before you sign in on the new number, for a less obvious reason: an account you leave behind does not fade away. It stays exactly as it was, waiting for the next sign-in with that number — and phone numbers get reused. Whoever your carrier issues your old number to later could sign in with it. FriendTrack asks that person to confirm the Groups and Maps are theirs once the number has been quiet for about three months, and shows them only how many there are — see confirm these are yours — but the only thing that makes your old account certainly gone is deleting it yourself, while you still can.
⚠️ Do not export and delete, then stop. Between step 2 and step 3 you have nothing: the old account is gone and the new one does not exist yet. If you are not sure the new number works, or you are not going to finish today, do not start.
If you no longer have the old number
If the old number is already gone — the contract ended, the SIM was lost, the carrier reassigned it — you cannot follow these steps, because you cannot receive the code that opens the old account. The app has no other way to prove the account was yours, so there is nothing on the phone that can help here, and this page cannot tell you what will happen.
What you can still do is ask, in writing, for the personal data held under that number to be erased or sent to you: write to privacy@friendtrack.net and say that you no longer control the number. That is a right you have in law, and it is handled by a person, case by case. Expect to be asked for evidence that the number was yours, and expect the answer to be cautious: the same request could be made by whoever holds the number now.
Meanwhile, sign in with your new number and rebuild as in step 4. The people in your Groups can still let you back in — and until your request is decided, an account under the old number may still exist, and after about three months of quiet it may be removed by whoever holds that number next.