How Daykeep works

A short tour of the app — everything here is optional, and nothing is locked in. You can always change or remove what you have written.

Getting started

Open Daykeep and you have a first journal ready to write in. If you are signed in to iCloud, your journals sync quietly between your iPhone, iPad and Mac — there is no Daykeep account to create. Tap the pen to begin a new entry.

Coming from Day One

If you keep a journal in Day One, you can bring it straight into Daykeep — you do not have to start again.

1. In Day One, export the journal you want as a JSON export. Day One gives you a .zip file.
2. Get that zip onto the device you are importing on (AirDrop, Files or iCloud Drive).
3. In Daykeep, choose Import from Day One and pick the zip.

Daykeep creates a new journal and brings across your entries, photos, tags, dates, and any place and weather it finds. When it finishes it shows a short summary of exactly what was imported, and it is careful — a single odd entry is skipped and noted rather than stopping the whole import, and your original Day One data is left untouched.

Daykeep entries are text and photos only, so anything else a Day One entry might hold — audio, video or PDF attachments — isn’t brought across.

Writing an entry

An entry is made of blocks — pieces of text and photos in the order you want them. Type a paragraph, add a photo, type some more; the writing keeps its place around the pictures.

• Tap the gap between blocks to drop a new text block exactly there.
• Give the entry a title if you like, or leave it and the date stands in.
• Reorder blocks by dragging, or with the ⋯ menu on each one.

Adding photos

Add photos from your library or from files. Daykeep keeps a sensible, print-friendly copy so a long journal does not balloon in size, and it can read the date, place and (where available) the weather from a photo to fill in the entry for you.

• Add as many photos to an entry as you like.
• Give any photo a caption — it travels with the photo into books and exports.
• Pick a key photo to represent the entry, or set a journal cover.

Journals

Keep separate journals for separate things — a trip, the family, a private one. Each journal has its own name, colour and cover. Switch between them from the sidebar.

Finding things again

• Tags — label entries and then browse everything with a given tag.
• On This Day — see what you wrote on this date in past years.
• Search — look back through everything you have written.
• By date — jump to a day or a range.

Sharing a card

Share a single entry as a designed card — the photo is the hero, with just a taste of your words — straight to Messages, Instagram, WhatsApp or wherever you like. You choose the photo, the style and the shape. The free app adds a small Daykeep mark; Plus removes it.

Printing a book

Turn a journal into a readable book and print it or save it as a PDF, directly from Daykeep — the quick, do-it-yourself route. For a fully designed photobook, use the export below.

Export to Mosaic Collage Maker

Daykeep can package a whole journal — photos, captions and writing — as a single file for Mosaic Collage Maker on Mac or Windows. Open it there and it pours into an editable, print-ready photobook: pick a style, tidy anything you like, add a cover, and export a print-ready PDF to order from any service.

1. In Daykeep, choose Export for Collage on the journal and save the file (or AirDrop / email it to your computer).
2. In Mosaic Collage Maker, choose Import from Daykeep and pick the file.
3. Choose a journal style and layout, then edit and export as you wish.

Backup & restore

Back up any journal to a file you keep yourself, and bring it back at any time. Your journal is never held hostage — restoring your own backup is always free.

Daykeep Plus

Everything you need to keep a journal is free — writing, unlimited photos, iCloud sync, backup and restore, Day One import, and export to Collage. Daykeep Plus is a single, one-off purchase (no subscription) that adds:

• Watermark-free printing — free books and PDFs carry a Daykeep watermark for previewing; Plus prints them clean.
• Share cards without the Daykeep mark.
• Unlimited journals — the free version keeps up to two.
• Full split & merge tools when restoring a backup.

Your privacy

Your journal stays in your own iCloud and on your devices. There is no Daykeep account and no server of mine that stores or reads your entries. Full detail is in the privacy policy.