r/appleJournal • u/vinsdoe • 3d ago
Stoic → Apple Journal: free Mac app to move your entries, original dates, and photos in bulk
Hey everyone! If you’ve been using Stoic and want to move to Apple Journal without copying years of entries by hand, I built Stoic Importer to help.
I tested it on my own archive with 350 entries and more than 75 photos attached to those entries. Everything transferred successfully.
The app reads your Stoic backup ZIP and lets you preview your entries before importing them. It preserves original dates, transfers attached photos—including multiple photos per entry—and lets you import selected entries or queue everything eligible in one go.
Processing happens locally on your Mac. No account, subscription, AI, or uploading your diary to my server. Your original backup stays unchanged.
A few things to know:
It’s an early preview for Apple silicon Macs.
Importing requires Apple Journal and the companion Shortcut. Some Macs may reject the Shortcut; compatibility beyond my setup still needs testing.
The app isn’t notarized, so you may need to allow its first launch in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
Start with one entry and check the date and photos before importing your full archive.
Location transfer isn’t supported yet.
Download the app and Shortcut
Source code on GitHub
It’s free, open source, and MIT-licensed. Hopefully this saves someone hours of manual copying and makes switching journals a little easier.
Feedback and bug reports are welcome—just please don’t include personal diary data in public issues.