I have had a Citroën car for two years and I find it's great for road trips but crap for maneuvering due to the gear system. I also find that the app is a frustrating app to use. At least twice I have lost my trip data. The first time because I think I used "don't share real e-mail address so I couldn't recover the password when I forgot it and then again last night because I, or iOS removed the log files.
The result is that I had two and a half hours of driving logged when I checked last night, whereas I drove to Spain and back twice in recent history. By recent I mean within the last two years.
## Logged in But No Data
Paradoxically although you log in to the Citroën app the data is not logged to their servers. The data is saved locally rather than to the cloud. By locally I mean to the phone, and by the phone I mean that it's not saved to the iCloud directory as you'd expect, but to the citroën directory on the phone.
## A Mistake by Apple
In my opinion all app data on an iOS data should be downloaded to iCloud, and from there easy to backup locally. If it can't be backed up automatically then it is not backed up at all. Apple need to fix this serious flaw.
## The Simplest Solution.
In Octobre of 2023 I backed up a .myc file by email from my phone with the trip data for at least 6000 previous kilometres. I was able to recover that data to my phone so now the app thinks that I have driven over 6000 kilometres with the car. I am closer to 20-30,000 kilometres.
## The Paradox
The paradox is that Google Latitude, which then became Google Maps, has a much better track of where I have been, as well as when, for how long and more. This functionality is only available to me because I'm grandfathered into having the ability to keep a lifetime of data on Google Maps. Some might hate this, but I love it.
I love it because, if, for any reason I need to know where and when I was somewhere on a specific date I can check within a minute or two.
As I have said for decades, "if telecom operators and the police have access to such data then I want access to that data too". I'm reverse paranoid. If allegations are made against me, for example a speeding fine, I want to be able to check that I was not the person driving my car, not to contest the fine, but to know that my habits, when it comes to driving, are still fine.
## From Now On
The solution to this regular data loss is simple. Every week or two I should e-mail myself the driving history, so that, if, and when I lose my data next I will be able to recover it within a few minutes.
## And Finally
I like to see how little, or how much I use the car. I like to know that I only drive twice per week, and how much I spent on petrol in a month. The app track this. If I lose that data then it changes nothing about my life.
I would expect MyCitroën to keep that data, and if not them, then for Apple to make it less vulnerable to data loss. Yesterday I backed up the updated log to my e-mail account.
