Day One / FAQ

If you need help, please review the items below; otherwise, feel free to email support.

Is Day One encrypted?

Currently with Day One, you can password protect the app from being open, but the data is not encrypted on the disk. Syncing to Dropbox and iCloud uses SSL protection and then is stored with whatever protection those services offer.

We are serious about privacy and protection, but creating user-stored keys is a difficult task to do well with proper syncing, conflict resolution and offline support. Although we plan to offer a user-stored encryption key at some point in the future, we have no information to announce on when that will become available.

Can I add multiple Photos?

Multiple photos for a single entry is a highly requested feature. We’re working on an elegant solution, and plan to add support for multi-photo entries in a future update.

Currently, we suggest you create more than one entry for a single event for which you wish to include multiple photos. Once you’ve created these entries, it’s really easy to quickly view all the photos: start by selecting the first entry in the series, then tap the photo to enter the photo viewer. Use the arrows, or swipe the screen left and right, to move from one photo to the next.

Another idea that works well is to create a grid collage with apps like PicFrame, Diptic, FrameArtist, and ScrapPad, then insert the collage into the Day One entry. Both Diptic and FrameArtist have free versions that are very adequate.

Photos being inadvertently removed? / Dropbox removing Day One photos?

In a recent Dropbox iPad and iPhone app update (v2.2), they introduced a new feature that shows all photo / image files in your entire Dropbox folder (including in your sandboxed “/Apps” folder) when viewing the “Photos” tab (in the Dropbox app).

Since this now shows the photos that are contained in your Day One journal, you may see duplicates because one may have been imported from your camera and another is in your journal. If you happen to delete one of these, and you pick the one that’s in Day One, it will be removed from your journal.

In this case you can recover removed photos using the Dropbox.com web-admin tools that let you view and recover deleted items for up to 30 days.

These instructions will guide you through the process; note that the photos saved to your Day One journal are in the folder Apps/Day One/journal.dayone/photos; you will need to navigate there to start the restore process.

We have contacted Dropbox about this conflict and hope to have it resolved in some manner, but it’s out of our hands at this point. Sorry for any confusion or loss of data.

When is the next update?

Hard to say for sure. We’re a small team focused on high quality updates, which means that new features and major updates take time — and it’s difficult to predict just how long they will take.

We’re dedicated to Day One and making it better, and will continue to focus on improvements for the foreseeable future.

What updates are planned for the Mac app?

Photo timeline, Map views, Single entry views, much much more!

Missing Buttons in the mobile app: where did the Location / Photo / Star / Tags buttons go?

It’s likely that you inadvertently swiped the Edit Bar, which contains 4 panels of options. By default, Day One displays the set with the ‘Add Photo’ button, but you can swipe left / right to view:

  1. Forward / Settings / New Entry / Delete Entry / Edit Date & Time
  2. Weather / Location / Photo / Star / Tags
  3. Markdown Helpers (Cursor Left / Header / Bold / Italic / List / Code / Tab / Cursor Right)
  4. Character and Word Counts / Full Screen Toggle

If you are in Edit mode and cannot see the edit bar above the keyboard, it’s likely because you inadvertently enabled Full Screen mode. In this case, you will see only “Done” and an icon with two arrows. Tap that icon to exit Full Screen mode and reveal the full edit bar.

Will you ever add Favorite Locations?

Yes, that feature is coming, along with other great location-based features. It will soon be easier to select and view your locations and places.

Can I have multiple Journals?

We don’t currently support the use of multiple journals in Day One. This is a feature we are planning for a future update.

Is my data private?

Your journal is private and is not shared with us – and thus it’s completely impossible for us to gain access to your data. With sync enabled, all data storage is done by the service of your choice (iCloud or Dropbox) with your personal account on those services.

How does Foursquare work? (iOS only)

If enabled (Settings – Advanced – Auto Add Location), a new Day One entry will auto-detect your GPS coordinates / location, but will only apply the city name and possibly an address. If you choose to select a specific “Nearby Place” such as “Starbucks,” we use Foursquare’s public index of these places to allow you to place the proper, accurate location name in your entry.

A foursquare user account is not required to apply this information.

However, once a Foursquare “Place” has been set: if you choose, you have the ability to “Check-in” to Foursquare. Doing so will not share your entry text, but we have added the option to include your entry photo.

We are in the process of improving the sharing options to make this feature easier and more transparent.

Why doesn’t Day One work with Camera+ for the iPad?

Camera+HD for the iPad, by TapTapTap, does not yet support 3rd-party app integration. We’ve requested they add this soon. You can too! In the meantime, you can continue to use the Camera + iPhone app with Day One on your iPad.

Are you adding the ability to record and play audio files?

Yes, we feel this will be a great enhancement to the platform and should be available in a future version.

Are you adding the ability to add video?

Yes we are. This is a bit harder than photos and audio, as video files can become much larger and require much more processing power to re-encode to a manageable size. We hope to have a solution for saving videos directly into your Day One journal.

In the meantime, we’ve added the ability to auto-embed videos from Youtube and Vimeo. You simply need to paste in a URL from Youtube or Vimeo on a single line and the video will show up in Read Mode.

How do you change a location? (iOS only)

  • Open the entry that needs editing.
  • Tap Edit
  • On the first screen of the little edit bar above the keyboard: tap the location pointer (second icon from left)
  • Tap Search/Map
  • Type in the desired city name (not a Place, that’s next)
  • In the list of search results, select the correct one
  • If you’re happy with what the map is showing you, tap Use This Location.
  • If you’d like to select a specific “Place”, tap Select Nearby Place and pick or search for an actual Place (like “Starbucks”) in that area.
  • Tap Done

Will there ever be an Android app?

Yes, although it’s hard to say when it will be completed.

Is there a demo or trial version?

We are only set up for App Store distribution at this time. Accordingly, we have no technology built into the apps to monitor trial times, licenses, etc. Sorry.

There have been a couple of video reviews that can give you a more detailed idea of how the app works:

Can I auto-import from Twitter / Facebook / Instagram?

We’re working on an elegant solution. When it’s available, you will be able to import your historical entries.

Can I import from another journal?

We currently support importing from MacJournal and Momento using the Day One Mac app only at this time. We are planning to support additional import formats.

The Day One Mac app has CLI (Command Line Interface), so you can write your own import scripts and methods. Also, see this list of scripts that users have shared for various integrations and imports. Please note that if you try any of the third-party scripts, you do so at your own risk – we did not have a hand in developing any of these, and cannot guarantee that they will continue to work, nor can we provide support if you have problems.

Markdown: what is it?

Please see our Day One Markdown Documentation

Also, please refer to this sample entry to see how Day One renders Markdown: Day One Markdown Sample Entry (Click to open in the Day One App, Mac or iOS)

How do you create a journal entry in the Mac app?

There are several ways to start a new entry in the Mac app:

  • Click on the big plus sign that’s always visible in the left-hand navigation bar to generate a new entry with today’s date.
  • When you are viewing the entries for a particular day, tap the plus sign near the top right of the page to start a new entry that takes the date for the page you’re viewing.
  • When you are in calendar view, click any date cell to start a new entry for that day.

How do you create a journal entry in the iOS (mobile) app?

There are several ways to start a new entry in the mobile (iOS) app:

  • Tap the huge plus sign near the top of the left-hand menu.
  • Tap the huge camera icon near the top of the left-hand menu to choose a picture; once you’ve chosen the photo, a new entry will open.
  • In Timeline view, tap the plus sign at the top right of the window.
  • When you are in Calendar view, select the date for which you want to create a new entry, then tap “Create New Entry” below the calendar. Note that if you have already written entries for that day, they will be ABOVE the “Create New Entry” button.
  • When you are in read mode for any entry, tap the plus sign at the bottom of the page to generate a new entry with today’s date.

How do you delete a journal entry?

To delete an entry in the Mac version: Right-click on the entry in the timeline, and select “Delete” in the context menu.

To delete an entry in the iOS (mobile) version: In the timeline, swipe the entry (either right or left), and tap the red X.

How do you change the date or time of a journal entry?

To change the date or time on a mobile device: with the entry open in Edit mode, look for a calendar icon on one of the screens of the swipeable edit bar above the keyboard. Tap that icon to invoke a date and time picker.

To change the date or time on a Mac: with the entry open, tap the calendar icon that appears near the top right to invoke a date and time picker.

Restore from Backup (Mac only)

For detailed instructions on Restoring from Backup see: Day One Backup

Can I add Tags?

Yes, both the iOS (mobile) and Mac apps now include tagging.

There are 2 ways to add native tags to an entry in the iOS version of Day One:

  • From Edit mode (while editing an entry), tap on the little tag button in the edit bar (above the keyboard) to give focus to the tags area above the entry text. Here, you can type the desired tag, or tap the plus button to select from existing tags. You can also enter tag mode by pulling down on the entry text to reveal the tag area at the top of the screen.

  • From the Timeline view, swipe an entry to reveal the tags button, which you can use to toggle existing tags on or off. Note that you cannot create new tags via this button.

It’s very easy to add a tag in the Mac version of Day One. In Edit mode, tap the tag icon (in the menu bar at the top of the entry) to give focus to the tags box. Type the desired tag.

Can I run the old version of Day One for Mac and the new version Day One for iPhone/iPad?

Starting with v1.7 of Day One for Mac we require your computer to be running a minimum of OS X 10.7.4 (Lion). If you are unable to upgrade to Lion you can continue to use the old version, but you should be aware of a couple of things:

If you create an entry in v1.8 for iPhone/iPad that contains weather and location, and you then edit that entry in v1.5.5 for Mac, when you save the entry the weather and location will be removed. Photos are not affected in this manner.

Beginning in v1.7 for Mac and v1.8 for iPhone/iPad the location of your journal within Dropbox has changed. It has been moved into the Apps folder. You can continue to use v1.5.5 for Mac with this new location, but you will need to find it and select it manually. To do so:

  1. Open a Finder window
  2. Navigate to your Dropbox home folder (usually this will be a Dropbox folder in your user directory)
  3. Within your Dropbox home folder find the Apps folder. This will usually be named “Apps” but may vary by language: “Aplicaciones” (Spanish), “Applications” (French), “アプリ” (Japanese), 앱 (Korean).
  4. Inside the Apps folder find the “Day One” folder
  5. Inside the “Day One” folder you should see a file called “Journal.dayone”
  6. Double-click “Journal.dayone”. Day One will open and start using that file. Subsequent changes that you make will be synchronized with your other devices running Day One.

The Inspirational Messages are gone! How do I bring them back?

  1. Click on the big plus sign in the left-hand navigation bar.
  2. In the top Menu Bar, click on View then Inspirational Messages

Note that inspirational messages are currently available only in the Mac app, but are coming to the mobile app in a future update.

How do I set a password on the Mac?

  1. Open Day One
  2. In the Menu Bar, click on File, then Preferences
  3. In Preferences, click on the 3rd item, called Security

Forgot my Password

See this page.

Why is the entry time set to 12:00PM?

New entries created from the the Calendar view and the Day view are intended for creating an entry on a past date, so the default time is set to a standard 12:00 (which may be adjusted as needed from there). When creating a new entry from these sections on the current date it will instead use the current time.

How do I print?

Version 1.5 and later for Mac includes printing for individual days. We are working on more advanced options including a date range selector.

Version 1.10 for iOS includes PDF export. Users can specify a date range, or one or more tags, and then save the selected set of entries to PDF. Once a PDF file is created, it can be printed via AirPrint; or the user can email it to themselves and save it to a computer, and print from there.

How do I remove the Day One icon from the Dock?

You can remove it from the dock just like you can with any other application after you quit the app: just drag it out of the dock. The Menu Bar (Quick Entry) application will continue to run without Day One in the Dock if enabled in Preferences.

How do I show or remove the Day One icon in the Menu Bar?

Preferences > General > Check or Uncheck “Show Application Icon in Menu Bar.”

Dropbox vs. iCloud – which should I use?

Both are excellent options. iCloud is enabled by default and is more integrated with the system, so syncs happen more often, almost instantaneously. Dropbox, however, is now very fast with Delta calls, and provides the extra security of knowing your data has a historical backup in case anything happened and you didn’t have a backup. This (now outdated) blog post has more information: iCloud vs Dropbox for Day One

Where is the Day One data file stored?

The easiest way to find your journal file in Finder is:

  1. Open Day One Preferences (Day One > Preferences)
  2. Click the “Sync” tab
  3. Click the displayed path and it will be revealed in Finder

The default journal locations are:

  • iCloud: 
    ~/Library/Mobile Documents/5U8NS4GX82~com~dayoneapp~dayone/Documents/Journal_dayone
  • Dropbox: 
    ~/Dropbox/Apps/Day One/Journal.dayone
  • Local filesystem (v1.7 and later): 
    ~/Library/Group Containers/5U8NS4GX82.dayoneapp/Data/Documents/Journal.dayone
  • Local filesystem (v1.5.5 and earlier): 
    ~/Library/Application Support/Day One/Journal.dayone

How can I merge two journals together? (Mac only)

When you move your journal between sync services in the preferences pane merging happens automatically. If for some reason you have a need to manually merge two journal files, follow these instructions:

  1. In Finder, locate the journal file you want to merge FROM (we’ll call this JournalA.dayone)
  2. In another Finder window, locate the journal file you want to merge TO (we’ll call this JournalB.dayone)
  3. Right click on JournalA.dayone and select “Show Package Contents”.
  4. Do the same for JournalB.dayone
  5. Copy the contents of JournalA.dayone/entries to JournalB.dayone/entries
  6. Copy the contents of JournalA.dayone/photos to JournalB.dayone/photos

Do I need to buy 2 licenses to this app to install it on my desktop and my laptop? How many licenses do I need if I want to run it on both a computer and a mobile device?

To run Day One on more than one desktop or laptop computer, you only need to purchase it once, as is the case for any app in the Mac app store. Just open the App Store on your Mac, click on “Purchased” and you can install Day One on several computers. Of course, to do this, you will have to be logged into the same account from which you made the original purchase – otherwise, Apple will require an additional purchase.

Note that two separate purchases ARE required if you wish to have Day One on an iPhone, iPad, or iPad as well as on a Mac. The platforms are completely different; an app that works on a Mac cannot be installed on a mobile device, and vice versa.

Similar to the Mac app, you can install Day One for iOS on multiple mobile devices, so if you have – for example – an iPhone and an iPad, you only need to purchase the mobile app once. Note that if you obtained Day One for iOS free during the iTunes 5 year anniversary sale, your rights are exactly the same as if you had purchased the app: you can install Day One on multiple mobile devices, and you are entitled to install all free updates at no cost.

What file format is used for the data?

Day One stores your journal in a file with .dayone file extension. This file is something known as a file package. A file package is file that appears to be a single file but is actually a folder. In Finder you can right click on these files and select “Show Package Contents” to see the contents of the folder.

Inside of the journal file are subfolders containing your journal data. Inside of the entries folder is a file for each of your entries. Each entry is named with a UUID and has the extension of .doentry. These files contain the basic entry data such as text, creation date, location, etc. The entry file format is an XML Property List.

The photos folder contains the photos for your entries. Each photo has the same name as its corresponding entry but with a .jpg file extension.

When your journal file is moved to iCloud things change slightly. Instead of Journal.dayone it is renamed to a folder called Journal_dayone. This is because iCloud does not work well with file packages. In every other respect Journal_dayone is exactly the same as a Journal.dayone file.

How is the file name generated for each entry?

The name of an entry file is a UUID. A UUID is a number that is guaranteed to be universally unique in both space and time. Basically this means that we can create a UUID on one of your devices and guarantee that the same UUID will never be created on another device. Because Day One journal files sync between devices this is a very important property to ensure that data does not get overwritten.

If you wish to generate a UUID in the same format as Day One you can use this command:

uuidgen | sed s/-//g

Why are you using XML for your entry files?

Day One entry files are stored as XML Property List files.

When we created Day One we wanted to ensure that even if Day One ceased to exist (though we certainly don’t plan on leaving anytime soon!) that you would be able to have access to your journal data. At first we thought of using plain text files, but we needed a file format that was structured so that we could store lots of metadata such as weather and location. XML provided a good fit—you can easily open an XML file in any editor and make sense of the contents, but it is also well-defined so that we can store all sorts of interesting information in there. Additionally, there are great tools on all platforms for reading and writing XML.

How do I import from Momento? (Mac only)

UPDATE: We’ve encountered several bug and issues with the importing scripts in the current app. We have resolved a lot of these issues already and plan to release the update in the next month or so. Until then you can look at this support forum page: https://dayone.zendesk.com/entries/21924423-how-do-i-import-from-momento

Otherwise, I suggest holding off your import until the next update. Thanks!

Posted Instructions:

Day One for Mac can import a Momento export file. To export from Momento, follow these instructions.

To import in Day One for Mac:

  1. Export from Momento following these instructions. Ensure that you choose to export your data as a single file in the Momento export options.
  2. Make sure you have unzipped the file on your computer according to the instructions on the Momento site. You should have a file named something like 2012.08.24 - Momento Export.txt
  3. Open Day One for Mac
  4. Select Import… from the File menu
  5. Select the Momento export file
  6. Select Momento (.txt) from the drop down menu at the bottom of the Open File panel.
  7. Click Open
  8. Review the entries to be imported in the preview window
  9. Click the Import button.

If you are getting an error when trying to import a Momento export file, please read the following about Region Formats:

When Momento exports the text file it uses the Region Format configured in Settings. The Region Format determines the way that time strings are output in the resulting export file. The export format used by Momento prevents us from reliably detecting all possible formats. Currently we support timestamps in 12-hour English form (e.g. 11:30 PM) and starting in v1.7.2 we will also support 24-hour form (e.g. 23:30).

If your Region Format results in a different timestamp (for example, the Chinese Region Format outputs 下午11:30) then the import will fail. To workaround this problem, change your Region Format in Settings (Settings > General > International > Region Format) temporarily to United States before exporting the file from Momento. After exporting you can change it back.