Day One App Reviews

Same problem in review below. Seems the introduction to sync like so many other applications is a bigger problem than folks realize. I’m going to recover and avoid the new features until the great application becomes whole again.

Mar 24 2016 Update: Excellent job getting a fix for the below issue out quickly. This app is very much deserving of five stars; performing a Google search on this app should bring up many reviews. Bottom line: If you want a non-intrusive diary/journal that allows you to record your daily thoughts/issues/whatever, this is it. Very intuitive and a pleasure to use. Thanks! ---- I love the app and have been using both the iPhone and Mac versions for some time. However, after having just downloaded the recent update, I am seeing Arabic characters near the weather indicator for a given Entry, and I also see an Arabic tooltip when hovering over the sync cloud. Once these items can get fixed, there would be no issue giving the app a 5-star review :) Thanks otherwise for the great work.

Hands down, this app is becoming my most used app on my Mac and iPhone, second only to 2Do. And, with this latest update, they have knocked the concept of journaling out of the park! Being able to write down thoughts on “blanket” topics like “Politics,” “Business Thoughts,” “Sports,” and other topics, using tags within your posts to further organize your thoughts, and being able to write at ANY time, whether on the iPhone or Mac via OS X or iOS’s “sharing” features is what makes this app special. Best of all, the makers of Day One did a great job of integrating weather info, the temperature outside, and even the steps you took during the course of the day! All in all, this app has significantly helped me to write about my life “the more,” and it also has become a “point of release” for me to write down my thoughts and feelings at the end of a day. And, because you can automatically setup a backup frequency for your entire journal, you can be rest assured that you can easily have a backup copy to store wherever you choose. Day One 2 is absolutely AWESOME on both platforms, and for the cost that it is right now, you won’t be disappointed! Also, great job on their part for getting rid of the Arabic/foreign text showing up.

Use it on my iPad and iPhone - paid for the app for my Mac but as someone else said - it is not syncing up correctly and I’m still waiting for support….Seems like this should have been figured out before release.

It saddens me to see such a low average on this absolutely excellent application. I have no problem with using their sync solution, as I’ve also mentioned in my 5-star iOS review. If it was technically necessary and it does the job, I’m all for it. The app itself is nearly perfect, and I’m so glad I spent the money. Instead of memories completely washing down the drain of time, at least some of them are being captured now. The iOS sync is flawless, the reminders are nice, I heart heart heart Markdown, so I have very few things I’d like to see changed or added. I can’t talk about the improvements from the previous version, but I do use multiple journals, which I understand wasn’t possible before. But this is the app we have now, and it’s great. If you’re thinking about journaling, and reading this, take the plunge. I agonized over the cost, and now I can’t remember it, but have priceless memories instead.

Major privacy and security risk! I really want to like this app. But I have the same problem with it I have had with the classic version for years. Which they initally promised to fix, and never did. But now that problem is worse. I don’t like that my most private thoughts are stored in the cloud. The classic app lets you store that data and sync from DropBox or iCloud. So I felt somewhat better about that because I could contol access to those things. Now this app requires you to store your journal on their servers, and their policy is that they will release your entire journal if compelled. Plus I don’t think of this company as being as prepared for hacks as DropBox or iCloud. So… pretty much risking my most private thoughts being exposed the moment a good hacker gets some time, or when the NSA decides they want to aggregate my journal data. How can they not encrypt your journal?

I have been using Day One for over two years every single day. I cannot live without it, and I was thrilled when Day One 2 was announced! I’m very pleased with it, however there appears to be some bugs here and there. Nothing major, but if an entry was created in a different time zone, the time of the entry will be different in each view within Day One. Quite a few of these small nuisances, which is why I can’t give the app 5 stars, althuogh it would otherwise definitely deserve it. I have also reached out to support because photos in Day One were suddenly taking up almost 1.5gb on my iPhone, that they did not ever do in Day One Classic. Of course this doesn’t have to do with the Mac App, but I have had to follow up with support so far and not received an answer. In fact, the only answer I received asked me to try something that I stated in my original message that I had already tried. So not too pleased with that, but I understand they are super busy after the launch of a new product. BUT all in all, I can only recommend this app from the very bottom of my heart.

Love Day One and have used it for years.

DayOne continues to be a nice piece of software for what it does. What frustrates me with the product is that we shell out the hefty upgrade price but get no support. No instructions on how to migrate from ‘classic’ to ‘two’ and so you’re left with two pieces of software - not necessarily working together. Go look at the support page and you’ll see how thin and poorly organized the support is and if you read the information much of it has not been updated to draw distinction between ‘classic’ and ‘two’ and detials with paths, prefrences, etc have not been updated. This is just bad customer service; looking forward to improved support for your users.

Simply as a journaling app this is probably the best out there. That said, I’m going to need to pile on with others who are frustrated with their new, home-grown sync process. If sync’ing across devices and Macs is not something you need then you can ignore my comments. But a primary reason for me using Day One in the first place was that I could use either of my two Macs as well as my iPad and iPhone to capture thoughts, events, whatever. Now every other multi-platform syncing app that I use (and I have a bunch) automatically syncs when I open it if not in the background. Day One Classic did this just fine - it was great. Apparently not with Day One 2 for Mac. With Day One 2 for Mac, every time you start the app on your Mac you (apparently) need to go into preferences and sign in again. And this isn’t only across reboots of your Mac. Every time I close and then re-open Day One 2 on my Mac I need to go into Preferences and sign in - again. If I don’t forget to do this then any entries I make will not be sync’d until at some later point I remember to reopen the app and re-sync. So let’s imagine that it is first thing in the morning I am sitting at my personal Mac at home and I have a brainstorm of a new idea for work. I quickly open Day One 2 and capture my thoughts/ideas. Then I head off to work where I open my Mac at work or my iPad where I expect to find all the ideas I captured that morning. Oh no. I forgot to go into the Preferences dialogue and Sign In so it didn’t sync. Really?! Apps that use iCloud sync. automatically. Dropbox syncs automatically. OneNote syncs automatically. Evernote syncs automatically. 2DO syncs automatically. And just to be sure, each of these had a manual sync button readily avaiable should you feel the need to be sure something sync’d. IF syncing matters to use, this is a real pain and, IMHO, something that the Day One folks messed up. They had something that worked well. They added the ability to do multiple journals which is great and the only reason I have giving them stars. But they took a major step backwards with their sync stuff. Boo.

UPDATE: 2.0.4 - I am confused. I have been using Day One for a long time now. I have thousands of entries with pictures/tags/location/… details created with markdown syntax and 0 issues of any kind SYNC works since I use this on iOS as well. I haven’t had a single problem and continue to love this App. Based on my volume of data, frequency of use, and push of cool features; I would suspect that I would have found a problem by now. But I haven’t. Nothing. I say this because I see some odd reviews that do not line up with my experience. DropBox is not well supported but the cloud sync provided by Day One works flawlessly so Drop Box is just not needed. I continue to be extrememly happy. Although this release is a small evolution it shows the Day One team wants to continue to evolve this product. UPDATE: 2.0.3 - Such a cool list of new power features. Day One 2 continues to rock in all ways possible. Now I can export in JSON formats which is really cool and will allow for export and transformation. I continue to find no fault in this modern and well thought out application. It continues to be used by me daily and I think ALL people should use it as well. It is inexpensive and very productiity driven. UPDATE: For those of you who have NOT upgraded from the Classic Day One to “2” version, you are seriously missing out. I find myself adding more entries through-out the day due to the thoughful improvements made to the “quick entry” widget in the notifications area. The old one worked nice but the new version is a night-day impovement and acts as a “mini Day One” app. I continue to feel extremely happy with this release and truly understand the need to upgrade. I have had zero issues of any kind, not even petty stuff running on a mid-2010 Macbook Pro. UPDATE: IF you work with the Photos app and Day One, this new version lets you use the new “side by side” feature in OS X. I love it because I can ealy drag/drop picture into a journal entry. This continues to show the excellent usability of this app. It continues to be my favorite and most consistently used app. It has not let me down and is an excellent evolution in the successful history of this product. Syncing works perfectly. I use Day One’s sync service which has worked without any issues on iOS and OSX. Be sure to look at the keyboard shortcuts. There are many and they are very handy to increase productivity. 0% issues 100% awesome. UPDATE: I keep finding all this cool stuff. Like now you can pop a new journal entry into a separate window and there are a lot more quick and easy options. An already beautiflul and wondeful update keeps getting more beatutiful and more wonderful. I installed this the day it was released on both iOS and OSX. The install and migration of entries from the Classic version to this version was easy. An easy to follow wizard walks you through the steps. Be aware that the initial sync may impact the performance of the app initially on older systems (like I have) but that goes away after the sync is complete (5 minutes tops) I love the new interface. The common things are where you expect them to be but the look and feel has been massively refreshed. Everything is even easier to use. My favorite change is the new widget in the notification area. You can now tag and fully manage entries quickly without having to launch and touch-up details in the fully app. Sync with iOS works perfectly and I have had no issues of any kinds. For those of you on the fence on upgrading, just do it. This evolution is well worth the upgrade price and the benefits overshadow the cost. This continues to be my favorite App I use and I am extremely happy for the development team who delivered such a fine and useful product.

I have had two issues with backups. The first time was an issue with iCloud. Because of a weird situation, Day One sync’d with an older backup and wiped out my journal. I was able to restore it. The second issue was my own fault. I know that there are backup files, but the web instructions are incorrect. I have reached out twice to support and have not gotten any help. I can’t use Day One Two (what a name) until this is resolved, so I have been writing journal entries in Evernote until one of these days I get some help.

First and foremost, I’ve been a longtime user of Day One Classic. They really nailed it with this update. I enjoy the new UI – it’s beautiful, now customizable with colors, and its revamped appearance still maintains some of the original elegance. The ability to add more than one photo to a post feels like a prayer that has been finally delivered. Also, you’re now able to use markdown editing within the app, which is very helpful for users who are not familiar with the coding language. I feel like everything has been simplified, but in a good way and without removing key features and functionality. Truth be told, I didnt feel too comfortable with removing iCloud syncing in favor of Day Ones own syncing tool. It seems that the bugs have now been worked out, and only on one (1) occasion have I encountered a server downtime/outage. Still, I don’t really know just how secure their servers are, and I’ve been meaning to look into their privacy policy for releasing/sharing personal data with the authorities. Something I wanna see: Handoff compatibility with the OS X and iOS apps. That would be a complete dream come true!!! The verdict? This app brings new features and customization to optimize your journaling experience with Day One. Most of these features should have been available months ago, and the original Day One app (on both Mac and iOS) were beginning to be a little dated for me. I wish that third-party syncing will be a feature that’s brought back in the future. And most importantly, the price – I don’t think that charging for these apps are justified. It should have simply been the manner for an update, so charging a premium for its loyal users seems was a little disappointing, EVEN WITH all the new things considered.

Think of the most basic, fundamental, goes-without-saying aspects of any journal. Isn’t “PRIVATE” at the top of that list? Bloom Built has been telling people, “yep, encryption’s coming soon” for years now. The thing is, though, that back with Day One v. 1 (now “Classic”), you could use iCloud for syncing, which was encrypted. Now, this 2.0 “upgrade" does away with iCloud (and Dropbox) syncing, in favor of Bloom’s own UNencrypted sync service. So all of your most private thoughts and pictures are sitting on Bloom’s servers, not Apple’s. Does anyone out there seriously think that Bloom has the money or the will to stand up to the NSA or anyone else in the federal or state governments? There are things about Apple that I don’t care for, but I do trust Apple’s commitment to my privacy. If you’re thinking about buying Day One before they add encryption (if that ever happens), why not just sign up with one of the blogging services instead, and journal there? Just as private, but free.

I loved DayOne’s original version (now “Classic”). DayOne is visually clean and pretty, the ability to use Markdown is great, and the process flow works well. I love that I it will pull in location and weather to my entries too. I was annoyed that I had to pay again to upgrade to version 2, but I sucked it up and now wish I had saved the money. Thanks for adding the ability to put more than one photo in an entry, but it’s pretty much useless if I’m required to use DayOne’s proprietary sync service — which I have no reason to trust and no way to access other than the app. One of the most critical features for a journal is the ability to keep one’s private thoughts private, but DayOne 2 isnt secure enough to do that. Now I’m looking for an alternative app that will sync to DropBox and has encryption, and hope that I can export my DayOne entries in some kind of usable format. It’s not just the price, it’s all the time and work I put into my journal and now have to migrate somewhere else.

I bought Day One planning to move old entries from Word to Day One but to my surprise, I can’t cut and paste! There is no support in the Help area for this question. I wouldn’t have bought this product had I known that something as simple as Cut and Paste from Word is not do-able.

I have been using the DayOne app on my iPhone/iPad for awhile, and I had recently had a Mac available for my use. Since I knew they were coming out with a new Mac version I had been waiting for it to be released. I have to say I am very pleased. It looks great and everything syncs between my devices. The sync service works perfectly, and I have had no problems. I much prefer a sync service developed with protecting and backing up my journal enteries instead of a generic one that is used for many different uses.

When deleting images they immediately reappear. Seems to afflict the OS X desktop app more than the iOS app. Also: when dragging images into Day One they should retain their original file names, but instead they are renamed them with long, random string of numbers and letters. So, if you drag an image out of Day One you no longer have that original file name, which may be more informative than some long random mix of characters. I think the downsizing of images is unfortunate. Retaining the FULL RESOLUTION of images should be available as an option. Feels a bit awkward and kludgy in everyday use. The editing UI needs to be more elegant: if I make a word bold then simply make it bold instead of using markup symbols. Dropbox or iCloud sync MUST be brought back. This is a woeful lapse by the developers. In conclusion, the photo bug need to be fixed ASAP. I think this software is useful but is losing its way.

First, Bloom is either ignorant of the difficulty and cost of securing user data or insincere in their commitment to do it. Second, they’re ignoring the serious and legitimate concerns of their user base - there is no acknowledgement on their “top requested features” and support site that their user base is incensed over the DayOne Sync service. Online security is hard. I’ve done security projects for banks and wire transfer companies. The sophistication of attacks is staggering. The notion that Bloom is going to provide a FREE sync service that is secure is pure fiction. It takes full time staff - expensive staff with expensive intrusion detection systems - at a minimum. The costs just keep rising from there. Apple and DropBox have EVERY reason to spend mountains of money on security. Bloom doesn’t have the money to spend and the business incentives are purely about marketing optics. The notion that “public key encryption” might be added at some later date is silly on two fronts: 1) it isnt there now leaving all current user data vulnerable and 2) private key management is the weakness of Bloom’s encryption plans. Bloom wants to provide web access to your journal - which means Bloom has must have access to the private keys - which means hackers can have access to the private keys and it’s all for naught. Yes, you can use a password to obsfucate the private key but now you’re playing a game with the customers: pretending your providing “public key encryption” when really your still dealing with passwords. All Bloom could really claim is that they’ve made it more difficult for a hacker to steal ALL of the journals at once. It wouldn’t do much to protect an YOUR individual journal unless only you have the keys. But if only you have the keys, the web access to the journal is impractical and again it’s all for naught. Time to find some other journaling tool. This time, I’ll need one that uses some kind of open format - since it seems any given tool is only good for a few years either because of platform changes, company longevity or unsavory decision making as displayed by Bloom.

I use both the iOS and Mac versions of this application. And used the Day One Classic version for a few years prior to this. I really love the interface, and the way that I can insert more than one photo into an entry now. But I really miss having the prompts. Sometimes I just didnt have something to write about and those were helpful when I needed to just get started. It would be great if that were a feature that you could toggle on and off.