How to export your journal and keep your entries safe when you switch apps

Read the one-star reviews of many journal apps and you find the same story in many languages: a year of entries gone after an update, a sync that quietly stopped working, a new phone that started empty. Sometimes the entries come back. Sometimes they don't.

The best protection is not the perfect app. It is a copy of your journal that doesn't depend on any app. This guide shows how to make that copy, where the export is in the most common journal apps, what gets lost in a move, and what to check before you trust a new app with years of your life.

Before you switch: export, then check what you got

Make the export before you uninstall anything, cancel a subscription or reset a phone. Then open the file on a computer and spend ten minutes checking it. An export that "finished" is not always complete.

• Count. Does the number of entries roughly match the app? Is the oldest entry there?
• Dates. Open a few entries from different years. Are the dates right, including entries written while travelling in another time zone?
• Photos, video and audio. Are the media files in the archive, or only the text? Open a few to make sure they play.
• Tags, moods, places. Are they in the file, and can you read them, or did they become numbers and codes?
• Locked or encrypted entries. Some apps need your password to include them, or leave them out. Check that the private entries are there.
• Several journals. Did the export cover all of them, or only the one that was open?

Where the export is, app by app

Everything below comes from each company's own help pages. Menus change between versions, so follow the linked page if the button has moved.

Day One

On iPhone the export is under Settings → Import/Export; on Android under Settings → Export; on a Mac under File → Export. According to Day One's export guide, the formats depend on the platform: PDF, JSON and plain text/Markdown on iPhone, Android and Mac, CSV on iPhone and Android, and JSON only on the web and Windows. The JSON export is a ZIP with your entries in a .json file, and you can "optionally include media" (photos, videos, audio and PDFs in their own folders). The plain text export is different: "Photos are not included, nor are references to photos at this time."

Journey

Journey exports to ZIP: on iPhone under Preferences → Data & Cloud Services → choose your cloud service → Export/Cloud Backups, on Android under Settings → Data & Cloud Services → choose your cloud service → Export/Backup. A single entry can be exported from its Share button (Journey: export to ZIP). The same help section covers PDF, Word and ePub. Worth knowing: the PDF export depends on which sync service you use, and in Word "Video cannot be exported to Docx"; you get a thumbnail instead (Journey: export to Word).

Daylio

Daylio backs up to Google Drive on Android and to iCloud on iPhone. To move between iPhone and Android you need a separate Backup File, exported by hand via Advanced Options; Daylio says it "contains all your entries, moods, activities, and settings" (Daylio: move backup between iOS and Android). For reading and printing there is a PDF export, which Daylio lists among its Premium features, along with automatic backups. Daylio also says it "cannot help you to restore lost backups" (Daylio: backup options), so keep that file safe.

Apple Journal

The full export isn't in the Journal app itself but in Settings. Go to Settings → Apps → Journal → Export All Journal Entries. You get a ZIP file called AppleJournalEntries, and Apple says "photos, locations, and other media you added to each entry are included". In iOS 18 or later, entries (one, a date range or all) can be saved as PDF through Print. The same page has a warning many people miss: "By default, Journal entries aren't included in unencrypted iPhone backups." To have them in iCloud, check that Journal is switched on under your iCloud settings (Apple: back up, export, and print Journal entries).

Diarium

According to its website, Diarium exports to Word (.docx), plain text (.txt), a web page (.html) or JSON. Word export is listed among the Pro features, together with cloud sync. Where the button is depends on the platform (Diarium runs on Windows, Android, iPhone and Mac), so check in the app.

Diaro

In the Android app, PDF export is under Settings → Data → Export to PDF, for all entries or filtered by mood, location or tags (Diaro: export PDF on Android). Diaro Online can export to PDF, DOCX or TXT (Diaro: export to PDF/DOCX). Backups are made under Settings → Data → Backup & restore and are saved on the phone itself, in a Diaro/backup folder; Diaro suggests uploading them to Dropbox; Dropbox sync is part of Diaro PRO (Diaro: backup). A backup that lives only on the phone is lost with the phone.

What usually gets lost in a move

Most losses don't come from a broken export. They come from choosing a format that was never meant to carry everything.

• PDF is for reading, not for moving. It is the nicest file to open in twenty years, but another app usually can't turn it back into entries. Keep a PDF as well as a data file, not instead of one.
• Plain text and Word drop things. Day One's text export leaves out photos; Journey's Word export turns videos into thumbnails. A CSV is a table: text and dates, no media. Audio and video are usually the first to go.
• Tags, moods and custom fields don't map cleanly. One app's moods are another app's tags, or nothing at all. Expect to lose some structure even when the words arrive safely.
• A backup is not an export. Many backup files can only be restored into the same app. They protect you from losing a phone, not from losing the app.

If you do want to move everything into another journal, look at the new app's own import page first. Some apps publish importers for others: Diarium's site lists migration from Day One, Diaro, Journey, Daylio and others, and Journey's help pages have import guides for Day One, Apple Journal and Daylio. The importer decides which export format you need, so read it before you export.

Keep the export, even after the move

When the move seems to have worked, it is tempting to delete the old file. Don't. Importers miss things you notice only months later, and the old export is your one complete record.

• Name it with the app and the date, and keep two copies in different places: a computer and a cloud drive, or a USB stick in a drawer.
• Remember that an export is usually not encrypted, even if your journal was. Store it like you would store the journal itself.
• Make a fresh export once or twice a year, not only when you switch. You can't plan the day an app fails.

Check the exit door before you move in

The best time to judge an app's export is before your first entry:

1. Is there an export of everything, or only of single entries?
2. Is it free, or behind a subscription? What happens to your entries if you stop paying?
3. Is it in an open format (Markdown, JSON, HTML, plain text) that opens without the app?
4. Are photos, video and audio included?
5. Are locked or encrypted entries included, and what does that require?
6. Do your entries live on the phone too, or only on a server? Can you read them offline?

Try it: write three entries with a photo and a voice note, export, and open the file on a computer. If that is hard on day one, it will be harder in year five.

Where Lifeline fits

Lifeline isn't a daily journal, so it isn't a replacement for one. It is a timeline of the big moments of a life: a move, a birth, a loss, a first day, each as one memory on a single line, with photos, a voice note, a song and how it felt. You can keep your daily journal where it is and use Lifeline alongside it for the moments that matter.

To be plain: Lifeline has no import. It can't read a Day One, Journey or Daylio export, and it doesn't pull in your photo library in bulk. You add the moments you want on the line by hand, one memory at a time. For hundreds of daily entries that is the wrong tool; for the few dozen moments you would tell someone about, it is the point.

The exit door is held to the same standard as above:

• The whole archive is free to export. Profile → My data → Whole archive makes one ZIP: every memory as a Markdown file, everything together in a memories.json file, and your photos, videos and voice notes in a folder per memory. It opens without the app. You can add a PDF with all the texts in one document.
• Locked memories are included once you enter your master password, and inside the ZIP they are no longer encrypted, so keep the file somewhere safe.
• It tells you if a media file is missing. If one can't be downloaded, the app shows how many files weren't included instead of quietly finishing.
• A single memory can be shared as a PDF from the memory's menu ("Share as PDF").

Questions people ask

My entries disappeared after an update. Is there anything I can do?

Don't delete or reinstall the app yet; that can remove local data. Check that you are signed in to the same account as before, and whether the app's backup in iCloud or Google Drive still has a copy. Then write to the app's support with the date the entries vanished. Once they are back, make an export.

Does my phone's backup protect my journal?

Not always; it depends on the app. Apple, for example, says Journal entries aren't in unencrypted iPhone backups by default. Make an export from the journal app itself.

Lifeline for iPhone and iPad · Lifeline for Android