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Published by Floriva · Updated 2026-04-28 · How Floriva checks its guides

How to Switch From Glow to a Private Period Tracker

Step-by-step guide to exporting your Glow cycle history, deleting your account, and switching to an on-device tracker with no cloud exposure.

Glow is a cloud-based fertility and period tracking app with no documented on-device storage option. Your cycle data sits on their servers whether or not you still use the app. This guide covers how to get your history out and move to a tracker where the core records stay on your phone.

Why switch from Glow

Glow built its reputation as a fertility and cycle tracking app with a medically serious feel: ovulation windows, BBT logging, TTC support. That feature depth is real. What's also real is that Glow is a cloud-first product. Your cycle data, symptom logs, and fertility tracking all live on Glow's servers.

No FTC enforcement action has been confirmed against Glow. But cloud storage creates exposure that doesn't depend on any individual company doing something wrong. Server-held data can be subpoenaed. It can be caught in a breach. And it is subject to whatever Glow's privacy policy says when a request arrives, not what it said when you signed up.

For users who have been watching what happened with Flo's $59.5M settlement and are reconsidering every period app that stores data in the cloud, Glow is an obvious next question. The switch is not complicated once you know the steps.

Step 1: Export your cycle history

Open Glow and navigate to your profile, then Settings, then Privacy & Data. Tap Request Data Export. Glow sends a download link to your registered email address. The export typically includes cycle start dates, logged symptoms, ovulation tracking data, and account metadata.

Download and save the file before doing anything else. Once you delete the account, recovering this history requires rebuilding it from memory. The export file is your portable record.

For more on what period apps actually collect and how they store it, see our guide to how period tracker apps collect data.

Step 2: Delete your account

Go to Settings, then Privacy & Data (or Account, depending on your app version), and tap Delete Account. Glow requires email confirmation, check your inbox and complete the confirmation step. The deletion typically processes within a few minutes to a few hours.

Uninstalling the Glow app does not delete your account. The account and everything in it persists on Glow's servers until you take this step.

Step 3: Submit a formal data deletion request

Email [email protected] with the subject line "Data Deletion Request." In the body, include the email address tied to your Glow account and state that you are requesting complete deletion of all personal data, including backup copies and any data in derived datasets.

If you are a California resident, invoke CCPA Section 1798.105 explicitly. Glow has 45 days to respond under CCPA. Keep a copy of the email and any confirmation you receive. This is the paper trail that compels backup purging, which in-app deletion alone typically does not guarantee.

Step 4: Verify the deletion

Wait 24-48 hours after completing step 2. Then try to log in with your old Glow credentials. A successfully deleted account should return an "account not found" or "invalid credentials" error. If you can still log in, the deletion did not complete, repeat step 2 or follow up directly with Glow's privacy team.

See our privacy audit guide for what to look for when evaluating whether any tracker is handling deletion correctly.

Step 5: Choose your replacement

Two on-device trackers cover the features most Glow users rely on:

Floriva is paid, local-first, and designed for fertility tracking as well as general cycle logging. Core records stay on your phone. No account is required for core tracking, so Floriva does not hold a readable central cycle database.

Euki is free and maintained by a reproductive health nonprofit. No account, no sync, no server. Less feature-dense than Glow, but for basic cycle and symptom tracking, the data architecture is strong.

Both are included in our roundup of private period trackers.

Step 6: Seed the new app with your history

Open your Glow export and find the cycle start dates. Enter the last 3-6 into your new tracker during setup. Most prediction algorithms need 2-3 recorded cycles to stabilize, so seeding the history from your export means you skip the warm-up period of less accurate predictions.

Once your new tracker has accumulated enough history to feel reliable, delete the Glow export file. Data you did not want on a server should not sit on your local drive indefinitely either.

For more on why on-device storage changes the privacy model, see our on-device storage explainer.