Trying Again Isn't Easy

A damaged phone, lost files, and my streak is at zero again.

Today, I am grateful for the gift of “trying again.”

I recently switched from an iPhone 8 to an iPhone 14 Pro Max. The switch was already successful; all the apps and files from my old phone had been transferred to my new phone. I had already continued my “Journal Every Day of 2026” challenge on my new phone before I attempted to update the Gratitude app. That was when I suddenly realized all my journal entries were gone.

I have no idea how it happened; I just couldn’t find any of them on the app. I searched through the entire app, hoping I’d find a button I could click to restore everything, but nothing worked. I hated the situation so much that I stopped journaling on the app.

After a few days, I decided to reach out to the support email to report the issue. They responded, but I didn’t know because I hadn’t checked my email. Some days later, I was still upset about the situation, and I made up my mind: if I couldn’t get all my previous journal entries back, then I wasn’t going to continue using the app.

I was this close to deleting the Gratitude app, but on the final page, I saw a message box asking why I wanted to remove the app. I didn’t hesitate to explain that all my journal entries had surprisingly disappeared, and if I couldn’t recover them, then I was sorry, but I wouldn’t continue using the app.

The support team responded that they had already replied to my first email and that I should check it, so the conversation could be linked to one thread. The response was kind, and it felt like my concerns about the missing journal entries genuinely mattered to them. I immediately replied with the requested information, and from there, it became a back-and-forth exchange of inquiries, feedback, and next steps.

Everything was going well until the camel’s back finally broke: my phone screen got damaged (yes, the iPhone 14! I had barely used it for up to two months). Due to the screen damage, the wrong password was entered up to 10 times, so Apple locked the phone. Oh! I cried over this one. It happened on a Sunday, and Monday was going to be the start of a new work week. I work primarily with my phone. “How will I cope?” Different questions flooded my mind, and each one came with a huge question mark. It honestly felt like something was trying to get at me. And it was really getting to me because why ‘really’ me?

Well, I am not without help, and help indeed came. Right from that very Sunday, and the days after.

But, while I was crying about my phone on that Sunday, I extended prayers to people who might be experiencing deeper pain than what I was feeling. I wondered, if I felt this bad about my phone unexpectedly getting damaged, how much more people who had lost more valuable things or were in more painful situations? Even while thinking about that, I still wished I didn’t have to deal with this.

I digressed a little, but long story short, I eventually got my phone screen fixed two days after.

However, another issue was just around the corner. Due to the phone being logged out, it had to be reset after the repair. I mean a factory reset kind of reset. “What do you mean, all my media files are gone?”

So, while I was grateful that my phone was back, each time I remembered that everything on it had been wiped, I didn’t know how to feel. You would ask, “Was there no backup?” Well, it appeared the backup wasn’t backing up because I only found media files from 2021 after signing back into iCloud.

Back to my conversation with the Gratitude support team: the last email I received before the phone damage contained the final step needed to recover my journal entries, but at that point, I was already less bothered because there was a more serious issue at hand.

Eventually, I followed through with the next steps from the Gratitude support team, and I was able to recover 22 journal entries. I originally had over 80 entries when I logged the complaint, but I assumed those 22 were the only ones successfully backed up on my Google Drive.

I expressed my gratitude to the support team, letting them know I had recovered 22 entries and was willing to move forward from there.

It’s been three days since then, and my Gratitude app streak is still at zero (0). But journaling is a part of me, and here I am, journaling about why I’m grateful for the gift of “trying again.”

This experience reminded me of the scripture:

“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” Proverbs 24:16 NIV

Lately, everything around me seems to be pushing me to try again. And I’ll tell you, it isn’t as easy as it seems. But thanks be to God, who constantly renews us on all sides.

What are you learning in this period?

With gratitude,

Anuoluwapo💕