Location History
Enabling location history in Day One.
Location History records the places you visit so you can use them to create entries or add them to entries to enhance the metadata details. Visits are recorded only by the Day One app on iOS (for example, your iPhone). The Mac app (version 2026.8 and later), the Web app and the Windows app show the visits your iOS device has recorded and synced, but they do not record visits themselves.
Please know that privacy is one of our key principles, and we recognize that your Location History is none of our business. Your Location History syncs between your devices through Day One’s servers, but it is end-to-end encrypted on your device before it is uploaded. Your coordinates, place names, and arrival and departure times are encrypted with your private Encryption Key, which Day One never holds. Our servers store only encrypted data that neither they nor Day One employees can read.
iOS
To add this feature on your iOS device, go to Day One > Settings > Location History. This setting uses the location data your device is already tracking so it does not add impact to battery life.
Additionally, we have added an “Auto-apply Point of Interest” feature, that will be applied to visits found in location history. This feature is enabled by default if you enable Location History. To disable it, visit Settings > Location History and switch the “Auto-apply Point of Interest” toggle to off.
Visit Backups
Settings > Location History also includes a Visit Backups option. This is a legacy feature that predates end-to-end encrypted Location History sync. It saves a copy of your visit data to your own private iCloud storage, and that copy is protected by Apple’s iCloud protections rather than Day One’s end-to-end encryption.
Despite the “auto-backups” label, backups are never created automatically. Each one is made manually by you. To remove backups you have already made, delete them individually from the View Backup menu.
macOS
The Mac app does not record visits. In Day One for Mac 2026.8 and later, it shows the visits recorded by your iOS devices once they have synced:
- Places appears under Moments in the Today view. Click it to see that day’s visits and use one to create an entry.
- Location History in the sidebar opens the full list of your visits, where you can add a name to a place or edit a visit’s location.
- Day One > Settings > Location has a Location History section listing each device that has recorded visits and how many locations it has. Use “Delete Selected” or “Delete All Location History” to remove visits.
If that section says “No location history data.”, turn on Location History on your iPhone first, as described under iOS above.
The same Settings > Location tab also has the options for “Auto Add Location” and “Auto-apply Point of Interest”. (On older versions of the Mac app without a Location tab, they are check boxes under Settings > General.)
Web and Windows
Location History is available in the Web app and in the Windows app, which loads the Web app. Open Location History from the sidebar to view the visits recorded by your iOS devices, edit them, or create entries from them. Neither app records visits.
Location History is not available on the Android app.
Troubleshooting
Places shows “No Places”. Day One records a visit when you arrive somewhere, and the visit appears in Places on the day you arrived. It is not repeated on the following days while you are still there. A day spent entirely in one place, such as a full day at home, can therefore show “No Places” even though Location History is working. Visits appear again the next time you arrive somewhere new.
Location History is not the same as Auto Add Location. Auto Add Location attaches your current location to a new entry at the moment you create it. It does not fill Places. Only Location History fills Places, so turning on Auto Add Location will not make visits appear there. See Automatically add your location to new entries.
Visits stopped being recorded, but location access is still set to “Always”. Location History needs Precise Location as well as “Always” access. With Precise Location turned off, your iPhone only gives Day One an approximate location, which is not accurate enough to tell which places you visited, so no new visits are recorded. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Day One and turn on Precise Location.
For more information on Location History, please look at the following documentation:
