Shared Journals

Getting Started with a New Shared Journal

To share your journal entries with someone else, you’ll need to create a Shared Journal first – existing personal journals can’t be directly converted into one, though you can create a new Shared Journal and then copy or move entries into it. All Day One users can create a Shared Journal for free; a Silver or Gold subscription isn’t required.

1. Create the journal

On iOS (iPhone and iPad):

Tap the “+” button to start a new journal – for example, the New Journal option on the Journals screen.
On the Journal Creation screen, switch the journal type from Personal to Shared.
Give the journal a name, then tap the checkmark to create it.

Day One will then take you straight to the invite screen so you can start adding members.

On Android:

Go to Settings > Journals.
Tap New Shared Journal – the “+” button in the Shared section – which starts you off with the Shared journal type already selected.
Give the journal a name, then tap Save.

On Windows and the web app at dayone.me, start a new journal and choose the Shared journal type when creating it. Creating a new Shared Journal is not available in the Day One Mac app – use iOS, Android, Windows, or the web app instead.

If you don’t already have an encryption key set up, you may be asked to set one up first – this keeps your Shared Journal end-to-end encrypted, just like your personal journals.

2. Invite members

Once your Shared Journal is created, invite others by generating an invite link from the journal’s sharing settings – see Inviting Members to an Existing Shared Journal below for exact steps on each platform. Only the journal owner can invite new members, invite links expire after 14 days, and a Shared Journal can have up to 30 members (including the owner).

3. Approve join requests

Once they have requested to join, you’ll be able to approve and decline member requests. Member management (including approving and declining requests) is available on iOS, Android, Windows, and the web app at dayone.me – it is not available in the Day One Mac app. On these platforms, you’ll see journal requests in the Notifications section on the left menu at the very top. Click Approve to complete the request.

Start writing!

To start your first entry in your new Shared Journal, tap the “+” icon. Remember, your private and Shared Journals are always kept separate, so you always know when you’re sharing an entry.

Once you’ve published your first Shared Journal entry, it will show up in the timeline view for the Shared Journal. The Timeline view will show the date of the entry, the entry’s author name, a preview of any media added to the entry, along with any reactions and a comment count for entries.

Comments are enabled by default on all shared journals – no setup or activation is needed. All members of a shared journal can comment and react to entries right away. Add your comments to engage in conversations, provide feedback, or simply express your thoughts and feelings about an entry. Reactions are a quick and easy way to show your appreciation or emotional response.

Note: If you’d like to disable comments on a shared journal, the journal owner can do so from the journal settings on iOS or the web app at dayone.me. Tap Advanced, then toggle off the Enable Comments setting. This option is not currently available on Android.

Reflect, revisit, and continue adding new entries.

Finally, beyond just creating initial entries, plan to regularly contribute new moments and stories to your Shared Journal. This ongoing process of adding new entries, coupled with revisiting past ones, will enrich your collective journaling.

macOS

Shared Journals are currently in beta on Day One for macOS with a limited feature set. You can view and write shared journal entries on Mac, but member management (inviting, approving, removing participants) is not available in the Day One Mac app. To manage members, use the Day One iOS app, Day One Android app, Day One Windows app, or the web app at dayone.me.

Shared Journals Appear in the Sidebar

Your Shared Journals appear directly in the Mac app sidebar, right below your personal journals.

Edit and Organize Entries

You can edit your own entries in Shared Journals and read entries from others.

Drag-and-Drop Functionality

Reorder your Shared Journals in the sidebar with a simple drag-and-drop action.
Move or copy entries from private journals to shared journals by dragging and dropping them into the right place. (Note: you can’t move entries from a shared journal to a private journal, or between two shared journals)

Entry Move Confirmation

If you move an entry from a private journal to a shared one, a confirmation screen will notify you before finalizing the action.

Features not currently available on Mac

The following shared journal features are not available in the Day One Mac app. To use these features, use the Day One iOS app, Day One Android app, Day One Windows app, or the web app at dayone.me:

Creating new Shared Journals
Inviting participants to Shared Journals (generating invite links)
Approving or declining pending member requests (there is no Notifications tab on Mac)
Viewing the list of members or member details
Removing members or transferring ownership
Comments and reactions on entries (viewing and adding)

Inviting Members to an Existing Shared Journal

Once you have created a Shared Journal, you can invite others to join by generating an invite link. Inviting members is supported on iOS, Android, Windows, and the web app at dayone.me. It is not available in the Day One Mac app – use one of the other platforms to send invitations.

Only the journal owner can invite new members. Invite links expire after 14 days, and a Shared Journal can have up to 30 members (including the owner).

Inviting members on iOS (iPhone and iPad)

To invite someone to an existing Shared Journal in Day One on iPhone or iPad:

In the Day One app, go to Settings > Journals and tap the Shared Journal you want to invite someone to.
Tap Journal Sharing.
Tap the Add Members row (the row with a plus icon, shown below the list of current members in the Members section).
A sheet appears with the invite link and a short description (“Share this invite link so they can request to join. You can approve requests for up to 30 members. Link expires in 14 days.”).
Share the invite link in one of two ways:
- Tap the copy icon next to the link to copy it to your clipboard, then paste it into any app.
- Tap the blue Share invite link button to open the iOS share sheet (Messages, Mail, AirDrop, etc.).
Once the person you invited opens the link and requests to join, approve their request from the Notifications section at the top of the left menu.

Inviting members on Android

To invite someone to an existing Shared Journal in Day One for Android:

Go to Settings > Journals and tap the Shared Journal you want to invite someone to.
Tap Journal Sharing.
Tap the Add Members row (the row with a plus icon, shown below the list of current members).
A sheet appears with the invite link and a short description (“Share this invite link so they can request to join. You can approve requests for up to 30 members. Link expires in 14 days.”).
Share the invite link in one of two ways:
- Tap the copy icon next to the link to copy it to your clipboard, then paste it into any app.
- Tap the Share invite link button to open the Android share sheet.
Once the person you invited opens the link and requests to join, approve their request from the Notifications section.

Inviting members on Windows or the web app

On Windows and the web app at dayone.me:

Open the Shared Journal you want to invite someone to.
Open Journal Settings for that journal.
Open the Journal Sharing section.
Choose the option to add a member and copy or share the invite link.
Approve incoming requests from the Notifications section once the person you invited follows the link and requests to join.

Inviting members on Mac

Inviting participants to a Shared Journal is not available in the Day One Mac app. To invite someone, use the Day One iOS app, Day One Android app, Day One Windows app, or the web app at dayone.me.

Transferring Ownership of Shared Journal

As the owner of the shared journal, you can transfer the ownership of the shared journal to a member of the shared journal. Currently, transferring ownership of a shared journal is only supported on iOS and Web apps.

To transfer the Shared Journal ownership, on your Day One iOS or Web app:

Open the Shared Journal you’d like to transfer your ownership of.
Click the Edit Journal button and select Journal Settings

Under the Journal Sharing section, select the members section.

Select the member you want to transfer the journal ownership to. Select the three dots on the left top corner to expand the menu, and select “Transfer Journal”.

Shared Journal Notifications

With the introduction of Shared Journals, the Android and iOS apps now include notifications about events in the Shared Journal. For more information on which things the app will notify you of, please head over to this guide.

Shared Journals FAQs

What are Shared Journals?

Shared Journals are a new type of journal in Day One that allows you to invite others to view, comment, or add entries of their own to a Shared Journal. All Day One users can create unlimited Shared Journals, and anyone they invite can view, comment, or add entries to a Shared Journal.

Journals, by nature, are intimate spaces to process thoughts, feelings, experiences, and ideas. Choosing to share your journal or keep it private is a personal decision. There are various reasons to consider sharing a journal, as well as strong reasons to keep it private.

Over the years, we’ve heard from a lot of Day One users who would like to be able to share one of their journals with a spouse or family, a small circle of friends, or a therapist, teacher, or mentor. So, Shared Journals are a new Day One feature to bridge this gap.

Are Shared Journals secure?

Shared journals have all the same protections as your Day One personal journals. The only people who can access a Shared Journal are the people you invite to them. All Shared Journals are end-to-end encrypted. Even Day One can’t access your journal or any content within your journals.

We’ve designed Shared Journals so it will be obvious to you when you’re about to share something that others might see. For example, when you’re creating a new entry in a Shared Journal with more than one member, you’ll see a banner indicating the people who will see it. When you move an entry into a shared journal with more than one member, you’ll see a warning message asking you to confirm the action first.

No, free and subscribed users of Day One can create a Shared Journal.

Only journal entries created in a Shared Journal can be shared, and only with those that you invite to the Shared Journal. Journal entries in your personal journals aren’t shareable, but you can copy the journal entry into a Shared Journal in order to share.

No. Day One has no publish-to-web feature and no way to create a public link to an entry or a journal – there is no blog, no public page, and no public profile. Shared Journals only allow sharing within Day One, and those you invite will need a free Day One account to access the Shared Journal. Because there is no public version of an entry, people outside Day One can’t comment on, react to, or “like” your entries – only members of the Shared Journal can.

Will my Shared Journal be available on all my devices?

Yes, if you are a Silver or Gold member, your shared journals will sync across your devices just like personal journals do. Right now, Shared Journals are available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac (in beta) and Day One on the Web. Here’s a comparison chart of the Shared Journals features supported by each platform.

Are Shared Journals available in Day One on Mac?

Shared Journals are currently a beta feature of our macOS app, so it has limited functionality. You can view and write entries in Shared Journals on Mac, but member management – inviting, approving, or removing participants – is not available in the Day One Mac app. To manage members, use the Day One iOS, Android, Windows app, or the web app at dayone.me. See currently supported features here.

Right now, Shared Journals can have 30 members (including the owner).

You can share anything you would add to a regular journal. As a Silver or Gold member, you can add up to 30 media attachments per entry (combined across photos, videos, audio recordings, drawings, and files). If you’re a free Basic member, you can add entries with one photo per entry (free members cannot add videos to an entry). There is no overall limit to the number of media attachments you can add to the journal as a whole – the 30-media cap applies per entry, not per journal. You can also add comments and reactions to shared entries. Even if you’re a free member, you’ll be able to open and view everything that everyone else shares with you in a Shared Journal – photos, videos, audio, and all. Everything you add to a Shared Journal is end-to-end encrypted.

Can I convert my Personal Journals or Existing Journals into a Shared Journal?

No, existing personal journals cannot be directly converted into a Shared Journal. However, there are steps you can take to share your journal entries with others, such as copying or moving entries from a personal journal into a new Shared Journal.

How many Shared Journals can I have?

You can create as many as you would like.

Will I ever see ads in Shared Journals?

Absolutely not! We’ll never show ads in your journals. Day One will always be an ad-free, private space.

What if I invited someone to my Shared Journal but now I’ve changed my mind?

As the owner of a Shared Journal, you can remove someone from your journal at any time. You can also withdraw from a Shared Journal at any time.

Here is how you can remove someone from your shared journal:

Go to your Settings
Select “Journals”
Click on the shared journal you want to manage
Click the “Journal Sharing” section, or if you are in the Web/Windows app, click where it shows the number of members.
Find the member you want to remove
Click the three-dot menu at the top
Select “Revoke Access”

We’d love to know what you think about Shared Journals. Please share your feedback here.

Can multiple people edit an entry in a Shared Journal?

When Entry Editing is set to Author Only, entries in a Shared Journal can only be edited by the member who created the entry. Journal participants can comment on entries, but cannot edit the content of an entry they did not create.

Starting with Day One 2026.19, the journal owner can choose Anyone under Entry Editing to allow members to edit entries created by other members on supported platforms.

Only one person can edit an entry at a time to prevent conflicting changes.

Can I move an entry from one Shared Journal to another?

Entries in shared journals cannot be moved:

You cannot move your own entries out of a shared journal.
You cannot move entries from one shared journal to another.

Are shared journals encrypted?

Yes, your shared journals are protected by encryption. Only users you have invited to your Journal can decrypt and see the contents of the entries. It’s important to know that the key used to decrypt each journal, whether it’s a shared journal or a private one, is unique. This per-journal key is then protected by your personal Day One encryption key. You will never need to enter a separate encryption key for a specific journal; you always use your personal key.

Important: Never share your Day One encryption key with anyone else, and only enter your own encryption key in your own account.

Can I merge two shared journals together?

No, due to the unique permissions on shared journals, there is no way to merge two shared journals together, and entries cannot be moved out of a shared journal into another journal. The only way to merge two shared journals would be to manually copy the entries from one to the other.

Troubleshooting Shared Journals

I joined a Shared Journal but I don’t see any entries.

If you have accepted an invite to a Shared Journal and the journal is empty (no entries, blank timeline, nothing shows up), this is usually a join-specific condition rather than a general sync failure – including when Day One also shows a sync error at the same time. The standard sync troubleshooting steps will not resolve it. Check these in order:

The journal owner still needs to approve your request. Opening an invite link sends a request to join – it does not add you to the journal. The entries only download once the owner approves that request. Ask the owner to open Notifications at the top of the left menu on iOS, Android, Windows, or the web app at dayone.me and tap Approve. There is no Notifications section in the Day One Mac app, so an owner who only uses Mac will not see your request at all and will need to approve it from one of the other platforms.
You can’t join a Shared Journal from the Day One Mac app. Joining from an invitation is not supported on Mac. Open the invite link on iOS, Android, Windows, or the web app at dayone.me instead. Once you have joined and been approved, the journal and its entries will appear in the Mac app as well. See Shared Journals Features Available by Platform for the full list of what each platform supports.
Make sure you’re signed in to the right account. The Shared Journal appears only in the Day One account that requested to join. If you are signed in with a different email address on this device, sign out and sign back in with the account you used to open the invite link.
Enter your encryption key if you’re prompted for it. Shared Journals are end-to-end encrypted, so a device that does not have your encryption key cannot decrypt the entries. If you see an “Enter Encryption Key” prompt, enter your own personal key – you never need the journal owner’s key. You can find your key on another device where you are already signed in, under Profile icon > Sync > Encryption Key on iOS and Android, Settings > Sync > Advanced > View Encryption Key on Mac, or Settings > Account > Encryption Key on the web. If you no longer have it, see Finding a Lost Encryption Key.
Give the first sync time to finish. After you are approved, the entries and media download in the background. A journal with a lot of entries or photos can take a while to appear in full, especially on a slow connection.

To work out whether the problem is with this device or with the journal itself, sign in at dayone.me and open the Shared Journal there. If the entries are visible on the web but not in your app, the journal itself is fine and it is a sync problem on that device – see the Sync Troubleshooting Guide. If the journal is empty on the web as well, work back through the steps above. If none of them apply, contact our support team with the journal name and the platform you’re using.

I can’t add members to my Shared Journal!

If you’re unable to add members to your shared journal, please try the following steps:

Check for App Updates: Make sure your Day One app is updated to the latest version. Sometimes, issues like these are resolved in newer updates.
Network Connection: Ensure that you have a strong Wi-Fi connection and try toggling your Wi-Fi off and on again, or switch to mobile data to see if the issue persists.
Restart the App: Close the Day One app completely and then reopen it. This can sometimes resolve temporary glitches.
Try inviting from the web app: try adding members from the web app at https://dayone.me.

My encryption key isn’t working for a shared journal.

Make sure you are entering your own encryption key. You never need to enter another user’s key, and you should never share your own encryption key with anyone else.

I can’t comment on or react to entries in a Shared Journal.

If you can no longer leave a comment on someone else’s entries, or you can’t react to (“like”) a post in a Shared Journal, the feature has not gone away. Comments and reactions are a standard part of Shared Journals: every member of a Shared Journal can comment on entries and react to them, and comments are turned on by default with no setup needed. If the comment box or reaction button has disappeared, one of these is usually the reason:

You’re using the Day One Mac app. Comments and reactions can’t be viewed or added in the Day One Mac app, where Shared Journals are still in beta. Open the same journal in the Day One iOS, Android, or Windows app, or in the web app at dayone.me, and your comments and reactions will be there.
The journal owner has turned comments off. The owner of a Shared Journal can disable comments for that journal from the journal settings on iOS or the web app at dayone.me – tap Advanced, then toggle off Enable Comments. If comments have stopped working for everyone in one particular journal, ask the owner to check that setting.
You’re no longer a member of that journal. Only members of a Shared Journal can comment on or react to its entries. If the owner has revoked your access, or you left the journal, the journal and its entries will no longer appear in your Day One app at all.
Your app is out of date. Update Day One to the latest version on the device you’re using, then reopen the journal.

There is no read-only or viewer-only role in a Shared Journal – anyone who has been invited and approved can comment and react. If none of the above applies, contact our support team with the journal ID and the platform you’re using.

My change to another member’s entry won’t save.

When Entry Editing is set to Author Only, entries in a Shared Journal can only be edited by the member who wrote them. If you open an entry another member created and change it, Day One does not save your change, and the entry returns to the version its author last saved. Depending on the platform, you may also see a message such as “Your change cannot be synced because the permissions of this shared journal have changed. The entry will revert to the last saved version.”

This is expected—it is not a sync failure or a problem with your account. The journal’s permissions are not broken, and there is nothing that needs to be reset or repaired. You can still add, edit, and delete your own entries as usual; see Shared Journal Permissions for the full list of what members and owners can do. If you spot something worth correcting in someone else’s entry, leave a comment on that entry so its author can make the change.

To allow members to edit entries created by other members, the journal owner can choose Anyone under Entry Editing. This requires Day One 2026.19 or later and is available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, and the web app. Support for this feature in the Mac app is coming soon.

If Anyone is enabled and your change still won’t save, make sure you are using Day One 2026.19 or later and ask the journal owner to confirm that Entry Editing is still set to Anyone. Someone else may be editing the entry. Only one person can edit an entry at a time, so wait until they finish, then try again.

If the owner changes Entry Editing to Author Only while you are editing, Day One will not save your change and will restore the latest saved version.

The journal’s Entry Editing setting does not change when a Shared Journal changes hands. Transferring ownership moves the owner-only actions—changing journal settings, inviting members, revoking a member’s access, and deleting the journal—from the previous owner to the new one. The new owner can change Entry Editing afterward.