Day One Android supports two automatic backup methods—Day One Sync and text backups to Google Drive—and one manual backup method—JSON exports.
Backups are used to safeguard your data from loss. If you lose your phone or have a problematic update, backups are useful for restoring your data to your device(s).
Backup and Restore Options in Day One
Sync
Available for Premium subscribers
Sync keeps data up-to-date across multiple devices and manages conflicts. Data remains encrypted through the entire sync process until it reaches your device. Sync is primarily used if you use Day One on multiple devices (Android, iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac). Day One supports syncing data to as many devices as you’d like. Day One Sync stores your journal in the cloud and is easily re-downloaded when you log in on a new phone.
Sign into the web app at https://dayone.me at anytime to verify data currently synced/backed up. You can do this by clicking All Entries
Note: The Day One app does not require an Internet connection to use it. All data is stored locally, so you have access to your information at any time. You can create and edit entries on multiple devices while offline and all the data will merge together properly once you are back online.
Secure Cloud Backup
Available for all users
Secure Cloud Backup uses the same service as we do for Sync. This is limited to backing up from one device. See our guide here for more information.
Automatic Backups to Google Drive
These are enabled in Day One > Settings > Advanced > Auto Backup to Google Drive. This must be enabled by you due to permissions needed to store data on Google Drive. These backups are a JSON export of the text of the entries only. This text export is not encrypted. Photos are not included in these automatic backups. To include photos, please use the manual export to JSON option (see below).
Exports
Day One Android supports exporting your journal data into PDF or Day One JSON file format. PDF file format is great for printing and viewing your entries. JSON is an open data format that can be used to import your entries back into Day One on any of your devices or saved in another location for later.
To manually export your entries into, perform the following steps:
- Go to Day One Android > Settings > Import/Export
- Tap Export Day One JSON or Export PDF
- Wait for the export to be created. This may take several minutes for larger journals
- Tap on either Save to device to save the export to a local folder, or Share to send it to Google Drive, Dropbox, or another application of your choosing.
If you choose Save to device, the export will be located in a folder called Day One in the main directory of your device. Only Day One JSON exports can be imported. No other JSON formats are supported.
