Data & Privacy
Data ownership philosophy and protection options.
Welcome to the Data & Privacy section. Your journal entries are your most private asset and your most valuable memories. Here, we outline our data philosophy and provide tools to keep your data safe, private, and portable.
Data Ownership & Philosophy
At Grid Diary, we believe your journal is your most private asset, and it belongs 100% to you.
We built Grid Diary as a "Local-First" application to ensure you have absolute control:
- You Hold the Master Copy: Your data is stored locally on your device first. Unlike cloud-only apps, you don't need to trust a server to access your own memories.
- Privacy by Design: We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or lock it behind proprietary formats.
- Uncompromised Reliability: Your diary works perfectly offline. Bad internet never stops you from writing or reading.
- Freedom of Choice: The cloud is a utility, not a requirement. You can choose to use our Sync service to keep devices in step, or stay completely offline in Guest Mode.
Whether you sync or not, you are always the owner of your data.
Backup Options
Grid Diary offers multiple layers of data protection. To learn how to configure backups, import/export databases, and manage snapshots, please see our detailed Backup & Restore Guide.
JSON Export
Manual export of your entire database in a universal format for external archiving.
Local Snapshots
Daily snapshots of your database stored locally or automatically saved to iCloud Drive.
Grid Diary Sync
Automatic, real-time backup with end-to-end encryption. Requires Membership.
Under this Section
Explore detailed guides on sync settings, bulk export, and troubleshooting data issues:
- Backup & Restore - Detailed step-by-step instructions on JSON databases and local snapshot recovery.
- Grid Diary Sync - Discover how our secure, end-to-end encrypted cloud sync works across devices.
- Export & Import - Learn how to export your journals in JSON, PDF, or text formats, or import from Day One.
- Sync Troubleshooting - Step-by-step troubleshooting checklist to resolve cloud sync failures and prevent data loss issues.