Open Shadowrocket on a new phone and the list is often empty. That does not look like a broken app, and it does not look like a second purchase. Configurations, subscriptions, rules, and per-app settings live in the app data on the old device. They do not move just because you signed in with the same Apple ID. The store purchase follows the account. The list in the app follows that device. Both appear on the same screen, so an empty list looks like “the purchase vanished.”
On a new device, the same Apple ID can usually reinstall from Purchased without paying again. What comes back is the client. Nodes, remarks, and rules you edited by hand are still on the old phone unless you exported first. Saving only the subscription URL can rebuild the node list on the new device, but hand-edited rules and remarks will not return. Exporting a full backup before you migrate or reinstall costs less than trying to remember ports afterwards.
What is in a backup
A full export usually includes subscriptions, nodes, rules, and options you changed in the app. Copying one subscription link restores “which nodes exist.” It does not restore “which domains you singled out.” If you use rule mode every day, the second half often takes more time than the first. The list can update again. Exceptions you wrote yourself are hard to rebuild from memory.
Using several devices at once does not mean configurations sync. App data on each device is separate. Rules you change on the old phone will not follow a new iPad unless you import again, or repeat the same edits there. Family Sharing covers the software license only—up to six people for this purchase. It does not send the backup file to family devices. Getting the same configuration onto another device still takes export and import.
A backup file contains subscription and node information. Do not send it to a public chat, and do not upload it to an unknown file-sharing link “to restore it for you.” A lost file can be exported again. A public file hands your egress to someone else.
When the list is empty, ask which device is still there
If the old phone still turns on, export there and import on the new device. If the old phone is gone and you only have a URL in mail or notes, rebuild from the subscription and accept that rules must be redone. If you have neither, the client can still install; there is just no egress to connect to. That returns to the previous article: the software license is still there; the proxy material is not.
Reinstalling the app, flipping a switch in iCloud, or restoring the system from a backup can all leave app data misaligned. Do not buy again immediately after those steps. First open Purchased with the Apple ID that paid, and confirm the software is still there. Then look for an export file or a subscription URL. Separate “do I need to pay” from “where is the list,” and you skip a trip through the store.
The new device still needs permission to add a VPN configuration. The system will not add the same profile because you allowed it on the old phone. Authorization is system-level and follows this device. Importing a configuration and allowing VPN are two steps. You can follow the tutorial order, but do not read the system prompt as “the purchase is invalid.”
When you do not need to export
If you have only ever used one subscription, never edited rules, and do not care about remarks, saving the subscription URL is enough. That is the lowest cost, not the most complete. Once you start editing rules, per-app settings, or remarks, export is no longer an extra step.
Changing only the cable, and keeping the same Apple ID, does not mean you can skip export. System migration sometimes brings the app, and sometimes only Purchased. If app data came along, you skip one import. If it did not, the empty list still appears. Exporting a copy to a place you control is cheaper than betting on migration. A file in an encrypted local backup is enough; you do not need a public file-sharing link as “sync.” After a successful migration, keep that file. The next reinstall will use it.
Do not merge the two steps on a new device
Install the genuine client first, then import. Importing into an installer whose developer you have not checked hands the backup to an unknown app. The developer should be Shadow Launch Technology Limited. The app ID should be 932747118. After that check, allow VPN, then import the configuration. The three steps can be fast. Do not collapse them into “open it and it works.”
After import, the list can be there and pages can still fail. That is a node or mode problem, not a failed backup. Do not export immediately over the old file. Keep the backup that still works, then compare. The old file at least proves the pre-migration configuration was complete. On the new device, look at nodes and mode, instead of blaming the export button.
The steps are in Backup, new device, and multiple devices. How to confirm the install is genuine is in How to tell you downloaded the genuine app.