Apple Journal alternatives that do not lose entries | Natus
The best Apple Journal alternatives are Day One if you want the fullest feature set, Diarium if you want a one-time purchase, Journey if you want prompts and templates, and Natus if you want a journal that reads your week back to you. People leave Apple Journal for one main reason: entries disappear. If that is you, prioritise an app with reliable sync and export over anything else.
What Apple Journal users say in their own reviews
Verbatim from public 1 and 2 star App Store reviews. Apple Journal is rated 4.8 on the App Store overall, so plenty of people are happy. These are the ones who were not.
Always loses the entries1 star review
Twice this app has lost all of my entries!! And lots of people have this problem! Use notes app or a real paper journal. It's so upsetting.
Lost all entries1 star review
Got a new phone, all entries lost in transition.
You will lose your entries1 star review
I got a new phone backed everything up like I always do. Opened journal on the new phone and all my entries were gone. I was heartbroken.
Disappears1 star review
After I've written a bunch, I click the purple arrow to save it. Then, if I click to edit it, literally 90% of it disappears.
Should never download it1 star review
I write diary every day and after a few days it deleted all of the things I write. It's still deleting all my stuff.
The options
Day One
Best for: the fullest feature set, if you accept the subscription
The most complete option on iPhone: search, photos, multiple journals, export. The catch is the price and a history of features moving behind bigger tiers. If you go here, export regularly.
Diarium
Best for: reliable sync without a subscription
One-time purchase, syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows, and imports from other journals. The practical fix if lost entries are what sent you looking.
Journey
Best for: guided prompts and templates across devices
More structure than Apple Journal with prompts, mood tagging and cloud sync. Read the billing reviews first: subscription complaints are the most common 1 star theme for Journey.
Natus(this is us)
Best for: a journal that gives something back
Natus is built so writing is never just storage. You journal through the week and every Sunday it reads your week back to you in your own words, against a map of how you operate. Your entries are the point, not a side effect.
Why people go looking
Apple Journal is free, private and already on the phone. The problem is not the idea. Reading the 1 star reviews, the same story repeats: an update, a new phone, or a bug, and months or years of entries are gone. A journal you cannot trust is worse than no journal.
What to check before you switch
Two things matter more than features: whether the app syncs somewhere you can verify, and whether it exports your entries in a format another app can read. Any journal that cannot export cleanly is a place your writing can get stuck.
If you wanted more than storage anyway
If part of you was journaling to understand yourself, the safest switch is the app that reads your entries back. Natus starts with a First Reading about how you operate, then meets your week against it every Sunday. Your writing stays yours, and it starts working for you.
Common questions
- Does Apple Journal sync to iPad or Mac?
- No. Apple Journal is iPhone only, and its 1 star reviews are dominated by entries disappearing between devices or updates. If you write on more than one device, you need a different app.
- What journal app does not lose entries?
- No app can promise zero data loss, so favour apps with visible sync status and easy export: Diarium and Day One both export cleanly. Whatever you use, keep a periodic export outside the app.
- Is there a free journal app better than Apple Journal?
- For pure writing, Apple Journal is hard to beat on price since it is built in. If you want the journal to mean something, Natus has a free tier with a First Reading, Preview, private journal, and first Sunday letter.