Your photos will survive one way or another — they’re already uploading somewhere automatically. Your contacts too. But years of journal entries in an app are different: if you don’t look after them, nobody will.
This isn’t something to do on the day you switch phones; it’s something to do now. Once the screen cracks or the phone goes in the water, there’s no order of steps left to follow.
First: automatic backups often skip your journal
Android has automatic app-data backup, and a new phone offers to “restore from your old device”. Plenty of people trust that, then later find their journal completely empty.
Automatic backup has size limits, some apps ship with it turned off, and large files like photos are easy to leave out. On top of that, it’s hard to check when it last ran. A backup you can’t check isn’t a backup. You need a file you make yourself, inside the app.
The order to move it in
Menu names differ from app to app, but the order is the same. Finish steps 1 and 2 before the new phone is even in your hands.
1. Make a backup file on the old phone
Create a file from the app's backup menu. If there's a separate option to include photos, choose that one.
2. Get the file off the phone
A cloud drive, a computer or an email to yourself all work. A file left only on the phone disappears with the phone.
3. Install the app on the new phone
The same app, ideally the same version or newer. Older versions sometimes can't open newer backups.
4. Move the file over and restore
If you've already written anything on the new phone, back that up first. Apps differ in how a restore treats existing data.
5. Check with your own eyes, then wipe the old phone
Open your oldest entry, one with photos and a recent one. Don't wipe the old phone until you've done this.
If your backup has a password
An encrypted backup is safe to keep in the cloud. It comes with one rule, though: forget the password and nobody can open that file — not even the people who made the app. If an app never stores your password, there’s no such thing as a reset.
So don’t rely on memory for a backup password; keep it in a password manager. A note on your phone doesn’t help, because it disappears along with the phone.
How often to back up
You don’t need to do it daily. Decide how much you could stand to lose and back up on that schedule. For most people once a month is enough, plus an extra one after a busy stretch — a trip, a move, a big month.
Keep at least two copies: one in the cloud, one on a computer or external drive. Two copies in different places beat ten in the same place. The most common accident isn’t a corrupted file; it’s losing access to a single account.
How to check that a backup actually works
Few people ever check that their backup file opens. If it doesn’t open on the day you need it, it might as well not exist. Two checks are enough.
One: move the file to a computer and open it. If it’s JSON or plain text, it should open in a text editor and be readable. If it’s a zip, unzipping it should give you your photos. If it’s an unreadable blob, you can do nothing without that app.
Two: if the app offers a viewer that opens backups in a browser, that’s the surest check. You can see what’s inside the file without restoring it.
In mylog
mylog keeps your records only on your device, so everything above applies to it directly. That’s why we put extra care into backups.
Make a file from Backup/Restore in the More screen. The backup screen shows how many items of each kind go in, and on Android it’s saved to a folder you choose. To include photos and profile pictures, choose the zip backup. To pull out just your diary text in a readable form, there’s also a Markdown (.md) export.
Set a password and you get a .mylog file encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM. The key is derived from the password with scrypt, and the password itself is never stored in the app. With an account, you can keep that encrypted file in the cloud vault, where we can’t open it. There’s no automatic sync that uploads from the app yet — for now, making a backup is something you do.
You can check that your file opens right now in the backup viewer. It opens only inside your browser, never uploads anything and needs no sign-in. Stats and timetables show up as well, so you can tell the file is intact without restoring it. More on backups is on the Backup & security page.