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How to Move Your Diary to a New Phone Without the Cloud

When you get a new phone, most apps come along by themselves: you sign in, and your data appears. A private diary without an account works differently. There is nothing to sign in to, so nothing arrives on its own. That is the point of keeping a diary offline, and it also means the move is a short job you do yourself.

This guide explains how moving a diary without a cloud account works, what to prepare before you reset or hand over the old phone, and how the move goes in TAEONIA.

Why the diary does not follow you automatically

Apps that sync keep a copy of your entries on a server. On a new phone you sign in, and the server sends the copy back. An offline diary has no such copy anywhere. The entries exist on the old phone and, if you made one, in a backup file.

The phone’s own transfer tools may not help either. An encrypted diary usually keeps its keys in the system key store, and those keys are tied to the device. Even if the encrypted files are copied across, the new phone may not be able to open them. The reliable route is the one the diary app itself offers: a backup file that carries the whole diary and opens with a separate code.

Before you start: keep the old phone

The most common way to lose a diary during an upgrade is to erase or trade in the old phone before the new one has the entries. Keep the old phone as it is until you have opened the diary on the new one and checked that your entries are there.

A short list before you begin:

• Both phones charged, or on a charger.
• The diary app installed on the new phone.
• A way to move a file between the phones: a cable and a computer, a memory card, a local transfer between devices, or a folder you already use.
• A pen and paper for the recovery code.

Step 1: Make a fresh backup on the old phone

Make a new backup right before the move, even if you have an older one. Anything you wrote after the last backup is not in it.

In an encrypted diary, a backup is usually a single file protected by its own code. Treat the file and the code as two halves of one key. The file can travel through almost any channel, because it is encrypted. The code should travel separately, ideally only in your own handwriting.

Step 2: Carry the file to the new phone

Move the backup file the way you usually move files. Since the file is encrypted, it can pass through places you would not trust with a diary in plain text.

If you put it in a synced folder, remember that a copy now lives wherever that folder is synced. Once the move is done, delete it there if you do not want it kept.

Step 3: Restore on the new phone

Open the app on the new phone and look for the option to restore from a backup. It is usually offered on the first screen, before you create a new diary. Choose the file, enter the code, and set up the lock on the new phone.

Step 4: Check before you erase anything

Open a few entries from different months. Look at an entry with a photo and one with a voice note, if you keep them. Search for a word you know you used. When everything is where you expect it, the old phone can be reset.

Moving between iPhone and Android

A backup file does not depend on the platform that made it, as long as the diary app runs on both. The app itself does not move with you: you install it again from the other store. Purchases work differently from your entries. Anything you bought stays with the store you paid in.

In TAEONIA

TAEONIA has no account and no server, so the move goes through a backup. Moving to a new phone is free, and so is restoring.

1. On the old phone, choose “Move to another phone” in the app. The diary leaves as one encrypted file with the whole diary, including earlier versions of entries.
2. The file is encrypted with a 25-character recovery code that is shown once. Write it down and pass it on separately from the file. Without the code, the backup cannot be opened, and the code cannot be reset, not by you and not by us.
3. On the new phone, install TAEONIA and choose “I have a copy” on the first screen.

The backup format is the same on iPhone and Android. A TAEONIA Horizon purchase stays with the store you paid in. On a new device of the same platform, use “Restore purchases”. On the other platform, Horizon has to be bought again.

If you have already started writing on the new phone, you can add entries from a backup to the ones you already have.

If the old phone is already gone

If the old phone is lost or broken and there is no backup, the diary cannot be restored. There is no copy with us and none in a cloud. That is the reason to make the backup before a move rather than after one.

For the next time, read how to back up a private diary without the cloud, and where to keep the copy.

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