Help/Moving from Day One

Moving from Day One

Leaving a long-term journal is a big step. We've built Ember's Day One importer to carefully preserve your memories, photos, and formatting so you can pick up exactly where you left off.

1. Exporting from Day One

First, you need to export your journal data from Day One into a format Ember can read.

  1. Open the Day One app on your Mac.
  2. Go to File > Export > JSON...
  3. Select the journals you want to export. We recommend exporting them all into one file.
  4. Make sure to include photos/media in the export settings if you want them in Ember.
  5. Save the generated .zip file to your desktop or downloads folder.

2. Importing into Ember

Now, bring those memories into Ember.

  1. Open Ember and go to Settings > Import/Export.
  2. Click Import from Day One.
  3. Select the .zip file you just exported.
  4. Ember will begin processing your entries. This might take a few minutes if you have thousands of entries and photos. Please keep the app open.

Ember works locally on your device, so your photos and text are processed privately and securely without being uploaded anywhere.

How your data translates

Ember and Day One have different structures, but we map everything as faithfully as possible.

  • Text & Formatting: Your Markdown formatting, lists, and links will appear exactly as you wrote them.
  • Photos: Images attached to your Day One entries will be imported and placed inline exactly where they were in the original entry.
  • Dates & Times: The original timestamp of every entry is perfectly preserved.
  • Tags: Day One tags are converted to Ember tags (#tag). You can find them all via search or on the Tags page.
  • Journals: If you had multiple journals in Day One (e.g., "Personal", "Work", "Travel"), Ember tags each entry with the name of its original journal, like #Travel.

Safe and sound

We know your journal is precious. The import process is strictly additive — it will never delete or overwrite anything you've already written in Ember. If an import gets interrupted, you can safely run it again; Ember will skip entries it has already successfully imported.

Once your data is successfully imported, your journal will be immediately available in Ember.

Next Step: Because Day One doesn't have "people" entities like Ember does, you'll want to run the Find & Tag People tool. It will automatically scan your newly imported journal, find all the names you've written over the years, and let you retroactively tag them with a single click to instantly build your Graph!
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