Backups in Day One Android

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 Silver or Gold 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 any time 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 Day One JSON export of your entry text and metadata (dates, tags, location, weather), saved as a .zip file. The export is not encrypted. Media is not included: no photos, videos, audio, or PDFs. To include media, use the manual JSON export described below.

Automatic backups to Google Drive run when the app starts, as long as a backup hasn’t already run that day, you have more than one entry, and the Google account you selected is still signed in on the device. Backups are stored in a “Day One Backups” folder, which will be automatically created in your Google Drive when your first backup is uploaded. Day One keeps the 20 most recent backups there and removes older ones automatically.

Purge Local Backups

When backing up to Google Drive, Day One first creates the zip export locally. These local backups should be deleted automatically, but if your Google Drive backups are failing it could be due to local backups not being deleted. In that case, tapping Purge Local Backups in Settings > Advanced will force any local backups to be deleted.

Exports

Day One Android supports four export formats: Day One JSON, Plain Text, CSV, and PDF. PDF 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. Plain Text and CSV produce text-only files and do not include media.

To manually export your entries, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Day One Android > Settings > Export
2. Tap the format you want: Export Day One JSON (.zip), Export Plain Text, Export CSV, or Export PDF
3. The export will run in the background — a notification will appear showing progress. This may take several minutes for larger journals.
4. When the export is complete, the notification will show two actions: Save to device (to choose where the file is saved) or Share (to send the file to Google Drive, Dropbox, or another app). Tap your preferred option — if you dismiss the notification without acting, you will need to run the export again.

If you choose Save to device, Android opens a file picker so you can choose where to save the export. Pick any location you like (Downloads, an SD card, Google Drive, or another folder) and confirm. To find the file afterwards, open your file manager app (My Files on Samsung devices), browse to the location you chose, or search for “Export”. Only Day One JSON exports can be imported. No other JSON formats are supported.