Day One / Dropbox

Download Dropbox here

If you are having trouble with Dropbox syncing, first try these troubleshooting steps:

  1. If you are using Day One on a Mac, clear your Dropbox cache. How do I clear my cache?
  2. If you are using an iPhone or iPad, make sure your Date & Time is correct. We strongly recommend enabling the Set Automatically option (Settings > General > Date & Time)

If you are still having problems, please follow these steps. We recommend that you do this while connected to WiFi as it may result in your journal being re-uploaded to Dropbox.

Step 1: Disable Dropbox sync on all devices.

To disable Dropbox sync on iPhone or iPad:

  • From the Day One home screen, tap Settings
  • Tap Sync
  • Turn Dropbox switch to the Off position

To disable Dropbox sync on Mac:

  • Open Preferences from the Menu (Day One > Preferences)
  • Click the “Sync” tab
  • Click the “Stop using Dropbox…” button

Step 2: Enable Dropbox sync on one of your iPhones or iPads.

It is important to do this first on your iPhone or iPad before enabling it on Mac and it is important to this only on one device at a time.

To enable Dropbox sync on your iPhone or iPad:

  • From the Day One home screen, tap Settings
  • Tap Sync
  • Turn Dropbox switch to the On position
  • Follow the instructions for authorizing and syncing

Step 3: Wait until the initial sync has completed.

You will know it has completed successfully when you see something like “Last Sync: Aug 15, 202 11:25 AM” in the Settings > Sync menu on your iPhone or iPad.

Step 4: Enable Dropbox sync on your other iPhones and iPads.

Step 5: Wait for any changes to sync to your Mac.

You can use the Dropbox menu bar icon to see if there are any active changes.

Step 6: Find the Journal.dayone file on your Mac.

To find it:

  1. Open your Dropbox home folder in Finder. The easiest way is to right click on the Dropbox menu bar icon and select “Open Dropbox Folder”.
  2. Find your “Apps” folder. This will usually be called “Apps” but varies by language:
  • Spanish: “Aplicaciones”
  • French: “Applications”
  • Japanese: “アプリ”
  • Korean: “앱”
  • English/Other: “Apps”

If your folder was named something other than “Apps” please substitute that name for “Apps” in the following discussion.

Once you’ve found the correct folder, double-click it in Finder to open it. You should see a “Day One” folder inside. Double-click it to open that folder. Inside of that you should see a “Journal.dayone” file. Double-click it. Day One will ask you if you want to use the selected journal file. Click “Yes”. All your devices should now be back in sync.

If the folder does not contain a “Day One” folder, then your Apps folder may be named differently. This can happen if you already had an existing folder named “Apps” when Dropbox was initially authorized. In that case look for a folder called “Apps (1)”, “Apps (2)”, etc.

If you followed the above steps and successfully found Journal.dayone but your devices are still not in sync, then there is a possibility that the “Day One” folder was created incorrectly by Day One for Mac during Dropbox authorization. To solve this problem, first disable Dropbox on all devices (see Step 1). Then delete the “Day One” folder that you found previously. Then start in Step 2 and follow the instructions again.

If you are still having trouble, please contact us and we will help you get it figured out.

We know this is an unacceptably difficult process for affected customers and we are actively working on a better solution for Dropbox syncing. A combination of Mac App sandboxing, Dropbox limitations and our own bugs have contributed to this situation. We will be addressing this very soon. Thank you for your patience and please contact us if the steps outlined above do not work for you.