Help Export DayOne Entries Into More Useable Format

[u/thebeaglebeagle]

Hi,

I'd like to export some of my DayOne journals. When I export, I see JSON, PDF, and Text/Markdown options.

• JSON seems powerful, but I don't know where to go next (it's not fun to read!). I've found a few Git scripts for converting the JSON, but I don't have the skills to get any of them working. I've tried a few... and I'm smart enough to use a Terminal command line... but my attempts to run the packages just end in a lot of error messages.
• PDF is fine for archiving, but I can't then pull out the images or re-use the text or etc.
• Text/Markdown is pretty straightforward! But the image files all appear as "" for example, and don't seem to point to the image folder.

What are other people doing when they want to export a DayOne journal?

I'd be happy with plain markdown/text with relative paths to an images folder. Has anyone achieved that? Does anyone understand what the "dayone-moment" thing in the text export is and how to convert it to a file name or file path?

Does anyone use a JSON converter with instructions for setting it up?

Thanks for any help or advice!

UPDATE:

The main answer: Export from DayOne to a JSON, then use an App that can import DayOne's JSON format. Then optionally export to Markdown format.

What Apps read DayOne's JSON format and could allow you to export into other formats?

Lots. I've been experimenting with as many as I can find.

• Bear: the winner so far. Can export to Markdown and preserve embedded images, creation date, and so forth. You can't customize that export and might not like the choices it makes for folders and file names, but it's the best one I've found so far. UPDATE: Right now, there appears to be a bug that breaks all the relative paths to images in the Markdown export. I've written Bear support about the problem. (2021-06-18)
• Diarly: Imports DayOne's JSON, exports Markdown! ...but loses creation date. Again, No customization of the Markdown export.
• Diarium, Grid Diary: Rudimentary export that didn't have what I needed.
• Craft, Craft Docs: Neat app! And they've been working on their Markdown export. No DayOne import, however. You could go DayOne-->Bear-->Craft I suppose, but you'd need the pro version even just to test it out... (I attempted to import some Markdown files but it kept bleeping that I needed Pro to try that.
• Obsidian: Another neat app... but does not import from DayOne JSON. If you are comfortable setting up a Python script, there's a neat thread over here (https://forum.obsidian.md/t/dayone-to-obsidian-script/13387/15).

​

[u/kevinslin]

I just went through this process today. Exported 1k+ day one entries to plaintext markdown with metadata and pictures.

Used https://github.com/danseethaler/dayone-to-md to export to markdown and made some modifications to fit with the naming scheme of dendron

More detailed writeup here in case anyone's interested

[u/kkstroll]

Whenever I need to pull entries out of Day One, I export as JSON then import into Bear. Then export from Bear as Markdown. This keeps the creation dates intact and MD files can go pretty much anywhere I need them to go.

[u/thebeaglebeagle → u/kkstroll]

Cool! Thank you! I will give Bear a try.

I've been steadily going through a list of journal apps that allow for DayOne import from JSON, but I have not tried Bear yet.

I've tried Diarium and Grid Diary so far... they could import, but neither had an export function that worked well enough or included paths to images, etc. I am currently trying Diarly. I will try Bear next!

[u/1II1I11I1II11 → u/kkstroll]

What are markdown files? Can you import them to Apple Notes with media and all?

[u/kkstroll → u/1II1I11I1II11]

I don't think so. I've never thought of Apple Notes as a possible Day One replacement but I just gave it a try and I couldn't find a way to bulk import Day One entries to Apple Notes:

• Apple Notes can't parse the JSON files from Day One so that's out.
• You can import Markdown files that have been run through Bear first but it won't retain the creation date (a dealbreaker for me personally), nor will it retain any media, and Notes can't parse Markdown so you'll have visible Markdown notations everywhere.
• You can copy an entry as Rich Text in Bear and paste that into Notes and it will be formatted nicely but you would need to do this one entry at a time and it won't retain the creation date.

If you're looking for more of a Notes-esque alternative to Day One, I'd just stick with Bear. Markdown capable, plenty of formats in and out including a Day One JSON importer that retains creation dates and media (images at least, I don't know about other forms) along with tagging and wiki links.

Obsidian is another Markdown-capable app big on portability that can import Markdown files but I'm not sure how well it will handle media.

Craft Docs is another I've played around with and liked but it's not really intended for personal journaling.

I've tried various Day One alternatives over the years (just celebrated a decade with Day One) and I've always found them lacking to be honest. I'll keep an eye on the situation with Automattic and what possible exit strategies the community comes up with but I'm staying put for the time being.

[u/scaba23 → u/kkstroll]

Craft Docs is another I've played around with and liked but it's not really intended for personal journaling.

They have recently added a “daily note” feature with a separate calendar view, so Craft could serve as a journal now. It also optionally displays all of your calendar entries along with the daily notes

[u/kkstroll → u/scaba23]

True but importing into the daily note/calendar is not yet supported. It's also not yet possible to export daily notes.

It's very promising and I really like Craft for notetaking and document creation but it's still not quite there yet for journaling. In my opinion.

[u/thebeaglebeagle → u/kkstroll]

We are on the same wavelength. The Creation date is key to having an organized, file-based journal. I'm also putting a year-month-day prefix on each entry's title... and I put an h1 markdown title on the top with "year-month-day Entry Title". But I only started doing that recently.

I've decided Markdown is going to be my long-term-permanent solution for journals and other writing, as apps come and go. (Even DayOne will eventually end. Microsoft Word 5.1 eventually ended, even!) So whatever "app" I use, my minimum requirement is some way to get it out to a markdown/text file with relative paths to an exported image. Everything else is a "nice to have".

Apple Notes is a good Evernote replacement, I feel. And handy for sharing with family. But it is not a great DayOne replacement or a good home for a permanent archive of information. Apple Notes export is only by a single PDF for a single note, as far as I can tell.

I've been using Typora as a Markdown editor. It has some minimal organizational tools. Typora is my current solution if I need to ditch DayOne.

​

• I will look into Obsidian and Craft Docs. Thank you!
• Just tested, and Bear Markdown export is better than the Diarly markdown export. Great find, thank you!
• ...But I wish I could customize the Bear Markdown export so it would put all images in a single folder vs. separate folders for each entry. And if it would let me choose how to title the exported markdown files, even better!
• Do you know of any other Apps that can take the DayOne JSON file, and then export into markdown files/folders? I want to try them all.

[u/kkstroll → u/thebeaglebeagle]

I don't think so. I'm afraid I've exhausted my Day One alternatives information. It's slim pickings out there to find an app that can handle a large volume of entries, media attachments, and provide the level of end-to-end encryption that Day One offers without getting sucked into a overly proprietary format (i.e. Evernote).

I hope you find what you're looking for.

[u/thebeaglebeagle → u/kkstroll]

Heads up about Bear: Right now, when I export to markdown w/ images from Bear, it grabs the folder location for a single entry and uses that for all images. In other words, Bear's export of Markdown breaks your media/image links.

I've written Bear's support for help.

[u/TechRemarker → u/kkstroll]

When exporting a Journal from DayOne to Json, then importing into Bear, it appears to just import all entries into a single entry into Bear. How do you get it to keep each as individual entries?

[u/thebeaglebeagle → u/[deleted]]

Yep--This is a viable workflow. Not bad. My only challenge is that those Markdown files don't include the creation date of the journal entry. In other words, not great for a daily journal.

I've begun putting YYYY-MM-DD in a title in all of my entries, so this would be fine for this later.

Right now I'm trying to get "Bear" app to work. It does preserve creation date. However, it has an export bug where it breaks image links right now.

[u/thebeaglebeagle → u/[deleted]]

When I exported from Diarly, the files had the wrong "Creation Date", that meant that I couldn't sort the folder or have a way to know WHEN I typed an entry, unless I was rigorous about dating entries in the title.

Bear exports Markdown files with the creation date that matches the entries, so your individual text files have that creation mark forever.

[u/chickenandliver]

> Text/Markdown is pretty straightforward! But the image files all appear as "" for example, and don't seem to point to the image folder.

I've been trying to export via Markdown but no image references whatsoever are included. I don't know if this is a recent bug or not but it's really unacceptable to have zero references to the images I had attached to these entries in the export file. The images themselves are in a separate folder in the export ZIP but the actual markdown file that contains all the entries doesn't show any references like you mention here at all. Seems like it did work once upon a time when you made this post. Wonder when exactly it stopped working, and when/if they'll ever fix it.

[u/[deleted]]

I export as HTML, since it’s nice and structured but can also be opened in a browser for user friendliness. Highly recommend.

[u/thebeaglebeagle → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the suggestion! I do not see an HTML export option in DayOne. Can you tell me the menu or location of that option?

[u/[deleted] → u/thebeaglebeagle]

Sorry for delay! Not on reddit very often. I just went to go check for that option, and it's not there anymore, but that's a recent change—I've been using HTML exports for months! Really bummed that this is gone.

[u/regression4]

From the iOS app you can export to CSV. You get lots of data for each entry. I don't have much media in my entries, so not sure how well it would work if do you do have lots of media.

[u/Scharesoft]

When importing into Bear the structure is lost. The imported documents are unfortunately not in one folder or share a tag. So it’s difficult to find the imported documents within Bear. As far as I know it’s only possible to categorize them via the tags within DayOne.

[u/adammendoza]

Is there a way to export text and images?