How to back up your journal and keep it yours

The flip side of a journal that lives only on your phone is a simple responsibility: if you want a copy, you make it. The good news is that keeping your own backup is easy, and it keeps you in control.

Export on your terms

A privacy first app lets you export your entries to a file when you choose. Nothing is uploaded automatically. You create the file, and you decide where it goes.

Store it somewhere you trust

• An encrypted drive or a password manager's file vault.
• Your own cloud folder, if you accept that trade, ideally in an encrypted archive.
• A second device you own.

The point is that you pick the destination, so the privacy of the backup is a choice you make, not one made for you.

Back up before big changes

Export before you switch phones, wipe a device, or uninstall the app. Local data usually goes when the app does. A two minute export saves a year of entries.

Your journal, your copy, your call. That is what keeping it yours looks like.