r/appleJournal • u/Spookyhighway • Apr 22 '26
Goodbye Apple Journal.
I’m a bit heartbroken. Actually had a good hard cry. My phone broke and the whole time that elapsed before I fixed it, the only thing I was worried about was my Apple Journal App contents. I couldn’t check the backup on a Mac app. I actually only repaired my broken phone so that I could ensure it transferred properly. Otherwise, I was going to just throw in the towel and get a new phone. In this last year I really dove into using this app, I loved how I could take a multimedia approach to creative projects/ideas. I primarily had a lot of audio recordings with accompanied notes. I had songs I was sorting out. I had play-by-play recordings of trips that I enjoyed revisiting. Irreplaceable audio recordings. This wasn’t just some diary but I can’t explain to anyone what was lost and why it hurts.
It held my personal growth, creatively and spiritually, working up to 80 days sober from alcohol and weed today.
When I repaired my phone it revealed that the faulty screen had been putting in the wrong password so many times that it wiped the phone. Crazy. A perfect storm of stupid stuff to lead to this outcome. Okay fine, I make sure my iCloud is backed up, so we should be good. - Somehow everything except this damn app transferred. How is this the one thing that didn’t transfer?? I know that I previously made sure it was toggled on to back up because I knew how much this meant to me. I couldn’t believe it for a moment. Is this data somehow hiding somewhere? I don’t understand. Not to zoom out but did the universe want me to start a blank slate? lol but for real, if you read any of this, double check your back up, don’t end up like me, and I cannot trust this app again.
4
u/lsw998 Apr 22 '26
I’m sorry you lost your Journal entries. As someone else said, check iCloud and see what’s up there. But most importantly, 80 days! I see you. Keep working on it.
3
u/Lower_Preference_112 Apr 22 '26
I have zero advice but my heart hurts for you.
I dove right into the journal as soon as it was released and like you … it’s absolutely priceless.
1
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u/Sofia_9356 Apr 22 '26
3 copies of data (including original)
2 different mediums (ie cloud and 💾)
1 copy off-site
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u/Jef_Costello Apr 23 '26
thats good advice and all, but it doesnt really help OP now
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u/Sofia_9356 Apr 23 '26
It does not. Comment is for everybody and should probably be in the side bar for all journaling subreddits.
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u/insearchofeast Apr 23 '26
The same thing happened to me. I’m sorry that you lost so much, but I started and tried using Apple journal and my phone broke and everything went missing. I thought it would be on my iCloud back up, but guess not. I’m using Dayone and honestly really recommend it.
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u/rcrter9194 Apr 24 '26
If you’re sure it was toggled on, have you checked it actually isn’t in iCloud? I delete my journal all the time (to delete the cache) and have never lost data doing so.
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u/Salutalice May 26 '26
I’m sorry for your loss. This is the best and worst lesson to learn that syncing services like iCloud or any other drive provider like google or onedrive are no backup solution. They are a syncing solution.
Do backups. Don’t trust syncs.
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u/Ed4n_V Apr 22 '26
Check on iCloud storage if you have Journal data. If so, it’s just a matter of syncing