Data Management and Database Cleanup

Data Management and Database Cleanup 🩺

Because Vanlife Assistant synchronises your data via iCloud, it sometimes has to work across incredibly poor mobile networks (like when you are parked deep in a national park).

Occasionally, a network drop during a sync can cause iCloud to duplicate a category or “lose” the location of an item in your manifest. The Data Management tool is a built-in health scanner that constantly monitors your database for these errors and fixes them safely.

✅ The Health Scanner

If you scroll to the bottom of the main Settings page, you will see the Data Management row.

• Healthy: If it displays a green tick and says “Database is healthy”, you don’t need to do anything!
• Issues Detected: If the app spots an error, this row instantly transforms into a large, orange warning card. Tap it to open the Database Cleanup Sheet.

🛠️ How to Fix Detected Issues

The Database Cleanup sheet categorises the exact issues it found and provides a simple, one-tap button to fix them.

1. Duplicate Settings or Scenarios

If iCloud accidentally creates two identical What-If Scenarios or app settings files, the scanner will flag them.

• The Fix: Tap Fix Duplicates. The app will intelligently identify the oldest, original file, keep it, and safely delete the duplicates.

2. Duplicate Categories or Groups

This is the most common iCloud conflict. If you end up with two categories named “Fuel”, it can break your financial charts.

• The Fix: Tap Fix Category Duplicates. The engine is incredibly smart: it will find the “Fuel” category that contains all your logged transactions, keep it, and then safely merge any transactions from the “fake” duplicate before deleting it. You will never lose a logged expense.

3. Manifest Health (Orphaned Items)

If you move a storage container while offline, an item might occasionally lose its assigned location, turning into an “Orphan”. It exists in the database, but it isn’t assigned to any Zone or Container!

• The Fix: Tap Clean Up Manifest. A sheet will open displaying every orphaned item (e.g., “1x Torch”). You can then swipe to delete these ghost items to keep your payload calculations perfectly accurate.

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⚠️ The Danger Zone (Factory Reset)

At the very bottom of the Data Management sheet sits the Danger Zone.

If you are selling your van, ending your trip, or just want to start completely fresh, you can tap Erase All Data & Start Fresh.

• What it does: This triggers a full factory reset. It will permanently wipe your entire database—including all your Vehicles, Trips, Ledgers, Documents, and Settings—from both your physical device and your Apple iCloud account.
• Warning: This action is immediate and cannot be undone. You will be instantly logged out and returned to the app’s Welcome screen.