Where your Daylio backup is, and how to get it onto a computer
The backup you can open on a computer is the file you export by hand: in Daylio, More, Backup & Restore, Advanced options, Export. Send it to yourself by email, save the attachment, and open it in Dayfold to read every entry, mood and photo in your browser.
Automatic backups and the backup file
Daylio can back up on its own to the cloud (the Android steps below mention Google Drive). Those backups are for restoring inside the app. To move your data, Daylio’s help page says to use the backup file, which “needs to be exported manually via Advanced Options”. That file is the one to open on a computer. Daylio also says it has no access to any copy of your backups, so the file you export is yours alone.
Export it from Android
- Open Daylio and tap More, then Backup & Restore. If it asks you to pick a Google account, press back: that prompt is for Google Drive backups.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Advanced options.
- Tap Export.
- Choose Gmail or another email app and send the backup to an address you can open on the computer.
Export it from an iPhone
- Open Daylio and go to More, then Backup & Restore.
- Tap Advanced options.
- Tap Export.
- Choose Mail or another email app and send the backup to yourself.
Daylio’s help recommends email over Google Drive or Dropbox for this, and asks you to keep the file’s .daylio ending. Dayfold reads the file by its contents, so it opens even if the ending was lost on the way.
What is inside the file
A .daylio backup is a ZIP archive. Two open-source projects that read it describe the same layout:
| Inside the ZIP | What it holds |
|---|---|
| backup.daylio | The whole journal as JSON text, written in base64: every entry (date, time, mood, activities, title, note), your moods and their names, your activities and groups, goals and app settings. |
| assets/photos/<year>/<month>/ | The photos attached to entries, one file each, named by a checksum and without an extension. |
Notes are stored as formatted text (HTML), months are counted from 0 for January, and an iPhone backup has no Android device details on its photos. Dayfold handles all of these, so iPhone and Android backups read the same.
Is the Daylio backup encrypted?
No. The file is an ordinary ZIP and the journal inside it is base64, which anyone can turn back into text. The app’s PIN is in there too, in plain text. Treat the file like the diary it is: keep it in your own email or drive, and do not upload it to converters you do not trust. Dayfold opens it inside your browser tab and sends nothing anywhere.
If it does not open
- The file is 0 bytes. Some email apps save a placeholder instead of the attachment. Save the attachment again, or forward the email to yourself and save it from there.
- You have a CSV or PDF. Those are other exports. Open the backup file from Advanced options, Export.
- The backup shows no entries. It was exported from a device you do not write on, or before your entries were restored. Export a fresh backup from the phone you use.
Sources, last checked 22 October 2026: Daylio’s help pages Move backup between iOS and Android (updated 20 January 2025) and Backup File: Manual Import and Export; the file layout from dayligo and daylio-markdown-export. Dayfold is not affiliated with Daylio.