Import Day One. Journal by email.

How to move your Day One journal

1. 1 In Day One, export your journal as JSON and include media if you want photos.
2. 2 Create a Dabble Me account (PRO unlocks imports) and open Entries → Import → Day One.
3. 3 Upload the ZIP Day One created. Dabble Me imports your entries and emails you when it finishes.

Multiple Day One entries on the same calendar day are combined into one Dabble Me entry. Existing Dabble Me dates are left unchanged.

Choose Dabble Me as a Day One alternative when…

• ✓You want journaling reminders in email — and replies that become private entries.
• ✓You already have years in Day One and need a straightforward JSON ZIP import.
• ✓You use more than one device or OS and do not want the habit tied to a single app.
• ✓You want optional AI reflection through a remote MCP connection, not a local Mac server.

Stay with Day One when…

• ✓Day One’s native apps, multi-journal layout, and media features are central to how you write.
• ✓You prefer local MCP on a Mac over a hosted email-first journal.
• ✓You do not want to change your daily capture workflow.

What comes across from Day One

The importer reads the JSON journal inside your Day One export ZIP and creates one Dabble Me entry per calendar day. Your text and dates carry over, and photos come with them when you included media in the export.

• ✓Same-day entries are merged. Dabble Me keeps one entry per day, so several Day One entries from one date are combined in time order, separated by a horizontal line.
• ✓Nothing is overwritten. If you already have a Dabble Me entry for a date, that day is skipped and your existing entry stays as it is.
• ✓Photos are supported in common formats. JPEG, PNG, GIF, HEIC/HEIF, and WebP. Each day gets one image: a single photo, or a collage when several were attached.
• ✓Empty entries are left out. Days with no text and no photos are skipped rather than imported as blanks.

Importing only reads the ZIP you upload. Your Day One journal is not changed, so you can keep it while you try Dabble Me.

What a day looks like after you switch

In the evening you get an email asking how your day went. Reply with a few sentences, or a photo, and that reply is saved as the day’s entry. The next prompt email brings back a past entry, which now includes the years you imported from Day One. With PRO you can also browse a calendar, search everything you have written including #hashtags, and choose exactly which days and hours the prompts arrive.

Pricing for importing

Importing is part of Dabble Me PRO, which is $4/month or $40/year. The free plan ($0, no time limit) covers reply-by-email journaling, reading your entries online, past entries in your emails, and export, so you can try the email habit first. See the pricing page for details.

Day One import FAQ