Save your donation to your Google account

If you have donated to Life Reminders on Android, there is one thing I recommend you do today: save your purchase to a Google account. It takes less than a minute.

Why I added this

Until now, your donation lived on your phone and in the Google Play Store. Google is removing the way apps could find past donations again, and since a donation can be given more than once, the Play Store can no longer be counted on to give it back after a reinstall or on a new phone. Linking your purchase to a Google account gives me a way to restore your Premium without relying on that.

What is stored

Your Google account’s email address identifies the backup. It is stored with your purchase records (purchase token, order ID, date). Nothing else from your Google account is kept.

Linking does not turn on sync. It is a separate step, even if sync is already on. Any Google account works.

How to save

Open the menu and tap Donate (remove Ads). This opens the Support Life Reminders screen.
In the Purchase backup section, tap Save my purchases.
Pick your Google account.

You should see “Your purchases are saved on” followed by your email address. That message confirms the backup was recorded; it is not, on its own, a guarantee that Premium can be restored (see below for older donations).

The app also asks you at startup with a dialog called Save your purchase on the first launches, then less often. Save does it, Later asks again later. Continue without an account opens a warning; tap Continue without an account again there to stop this prompt for good, or Save to link after all.

If you are about to reinstall the app or change phone, do it now, while Premium is still active.

How to restore

After a reinstall or on a new phone, use the Already a donor? slide if the first-launch setup shows it (once per install, only when the app is not already Premium), or open Donate (remove Ads) and tap Restore my purchases. Use the same Google account you saved with. On success you will see “Premium restored: your purchases are saved on” followed by your email address.

If something goes wrong

Premium is active, but the app keeps asking me to save my purchase. That is expected. “Premium active” means Premium is on this phone only. The message does not ask you to confirm Premium; it asks you to save a copy of your purchase to a Google account. As long as the Purchase backup section still shows Save my purchases, nothing is saved. Tap it and pick your Google account: once your account is linked, the message stops and the section shows “Purchases saved on” followed by your email address. If you would rather not save it, tap Continue without an account in the message, then Continue without an account again to confirm. Premium stays active on this phone, but it cannot be restored after a reinstall.
“No purchase found for” your email. Either the purchase was never saved before the reinstall, or you were a donor through the old Donate app or PayPal, or you picked a different account. Write to [email protected] with your proof of purchase and the email of the Google account you want to use.
“A purchase from this phone is already linked to the account” another email. Tap Choose another account, or Contact support. There is no unlink button in the app; I can transfer it for you.
“Backup pending”. The server could not be reached. Tap Retry when you are back online. If you see “The network is unavailable. Please try again.”, try again later.

Donated before 2021?

If you donated through the old Donate app or PayPal, linking is not enough: the app may say your purchases are saved, but I cannot check those older donations automatically. Email support with your proof of purchase and the Google account email to use, and I will add it manually. The Donate app keeps working as long as it is installed.

Which version?

This applies if your Donate screen shows a Purchase backup section (app version 2.10.0.2 or later). Full steps are in the help page Donate version. For older app versions, see Restore donate version (legacy).