New Phone, Lost All Recordings?

An empty library after switching phones almost always means you're signed into a different account — here's how to get back into the right one.

Set up a new phone, opened Wave, and found nothing there? Your recordings are almost certainly fine. They live in the cloud attached to your account, and an empty library nearly always means the app is signed into a different account — not that anything was deleted.

Why it happens

Wave ties your library to the email address behind your sign-in provider. Sign in with an address Wave hasn't seen before and you get a brand-new, empty account. The usual culprits:

You used your work email before and signed in with a personal one this time (or vice versa).
You have several Google accounts and the picker defaulted to the wrong one.
You originally signed up with Facebook. That option has been retired, and Wave's automatic account merge doesn't cover Facebook accounts. Sign in with Google, Apple, or Microsoft — that starts a new account — then ask support to move your old recordings across.
You signed in with Apple and chose Hide My Email, so Wave received a private relay address instead of your real one. See what is Apple Private Relay.

Picking a different button is usually harmless now. If you sign in with Microsoft but your account was created with Google, Wave asks you to confirm with Google once and then links the two — same account, same recordings. The merge covers Google, Apple, and Microsoft only, and it needs both providers to hand Wave the same email address.

Get back into the right account

Open Settings in the app.

Scroll to Danger Zone and tap Sign Out.

Not sure which one that was? Check which inbox received your Wave summary emails, which address your Wave receipts went to in the App Store or Google Play, and which account your other devices are still signed into. You can sign out and back in as many times as you need; the moment you hit the right account, everything reappears.

Right account, still nothing?

Give the app a nudge: Settings, then Help & Support, then Restart App. Wave reloads and re-syncs from the cloud, which clears up most cases where sessions exist but aren't drawing.

If your library is only partly there, check Recently Deleted — deleted sessions stay recoverable for 30 days.

Recordings that never left your old phone

A recording that was interrupted mid-upload — a crash, a dead battery, a lost connection — sits on the device until it can finish. To check:

Go to Settings, then Help & Support, then File Recovery Info.
Anything recoverable is listed. Tap the green refresh button on a file to re-upload it.
If you see All Clear!, nothing is stuck.

Recovery only works on the device that holds the audio file. If a recording never uploaded from your old phone, it can't be pulled back from the new one — do this on the old phone while you still have it. More detail in file recovery.

Recordings made on an Apple Watch or Wear OS watch upload through the paired phone, so they can be waiting on the watch after a phone swap. Pair the watch again, then tap Settings, Capture Sources, Sync Watch Recordings.

Make it a non-issue next time

Go to Settings, then Account, then Login Methods and connect every provider you might reach for. Any connected method signs you into the same account, so there's no wrong button to press on your next phone. See login methods and using Wave on multiple devices.

Still stuck?

Tap Settings, then Help & Support, then Chat with Support. Tell us the email address you think the account is under, and we'll track it down.