Import & Export

Ember is built so you can always leave with everything. Back up your whole library to one file, export to another app, or bring your history in from somewhere else. All of it is free, whether or not you subscribe.

Backing up

Choose File ▸ Back Up Ember… (or Settings ▸ Backup & Sync ▸ Back Up Ember…). Ember saves one .zip file with everything: entries, people, stories, interactions, worlds, tags, templates and your original photos, memos and files.

The data is plain JSON with a schema and a manifest, so it's readable without Ember. See the Archive Format reference.
Keep it anywhere: an external drive, another cloud, a USB stick in a drawer.

Sync keeps your devices in agreement, but it isn't a copy you control. A backup now and then is a good habit.

Restoring a backup

Choose File ▸ Restore from Backup…, or Ember Backup on the welcome screen. Restoring adds what isn't already in your library and keeps anything you've changed since the backup, so it never overwrites newer work. You see what's coming in before anything is added, and you can undo the import before you close it.

Exporting to other apps

Under File ▸ Export:

Obsidian Vault…: a .zip that opens as a ready-made vault: Markdown notes for your entries, stories and people, linked to each other, with your media in a shared folder. Read it in Obsidian or any text editor.
Bear (TextPack)…: a file Bear can import: one note per entry, story and person, linked to each other, with Ember's structure kept as nested tags such as #Ember/People/Work.

Exports are copies. Nothing is removed from Ember.

Importing

Under File ▸ Import, or from the welcome screen on your first launch:

Day One…: entries, dates, photos and places, with each Day One journal kept as a tag. See Moving from Day One.
Apple Journal…: entries, photos, voice notes and the locations attached to them. See Moving from Apple Journal.
From Contacts…: pick people from your address book. See Import from Contacts.

When an import finishes, Ember offers Find People in Journal, to link the names in your imported entries to the right people.

Apple's Journal export doesn't record which of its journals an entry belongs to, so everything comes in as one set. Day One's export does, so those entries keep their journal as a tag.

Imports aren't available in Film mode, so nothing can land in the sample library by mistake.

Your data is yours

No lock-in, ever. Backups and exports work without a subscription, and keep working if one ends. Leaving is as easy as arriving.

Still stuck? Ask on the feedback board → All guides