Manage family devices and change the owner’s phone

Name each phone clearly (“Mom’s iPhone,” not just “iPhone”) so you can tell them apart when removing or changing one. TraceNook has no account to recover, so when the owner changes phones, you restore the owner’s family backup on the new phone instead. To be ready for a lost phone, the owner should turn on Google Drive auto backup.

Give each phone a recognizable name

In Family Sync, tap the pencil next to your own phone and use Rename device. That is the name every family phone sees. The owner can also open another device’s menu and choose Set a local nickname. That nickname shows only on the owner’s phone; everyone else still sees the name that device chose for itself.

Remove access when a device should leave

The owner, on a phone with Max, opens that device’s menu, chooses Remove device and confirms. The phone loses access to the family space and stops syncing. The family’s records stay as they are, and removal does not erase the copy already on that phone.

Change the owner’s phone by restoring the family backup

1. While the old phone still works, export a family backup on the owner’s phone or turn on Google Drive auto backup. Both carry the owner rights needed to restore as owner.
2. Install TraceNook on the new phone and use Restore Purchases so it has Max.
3. Restore an exported file from Backup & restore, or a Google Drive backup with Restore from Google Drive on the first screen.

Owner rights can only be restored onto a fresh install that has never joined a family. A phone that is already a member can’t be turned into the owner. The family backup and restore guide has the full steps.

If the owner’s phone is lost

With a family backup (an exported file or a Google Drive backup) and its password, restore it on a new phone as above. Without a backup, there is no way to get the owner rights back. The records on family members’ phones stay, but if a phone goes 30 days without syncing with the owner’s phone, the family space becomes view-only.

The family PIN was removed in version 1.0.8

From 1.0.8, there is no family PIN takeover, and creating a family space no longer asks for a PIN. Versions before 1.0.8 still show PIN screens, but phones on those versions can’t sync with phones on 1.0.8 or later. Update TraceNook on every family phone, then change the owner as described above.