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Security overview

Password and Face ID or Touch ID app lock are available in both Free and Premium. App lock controls access to Diarly, but does not encrypt stored entry text. Without encryption enabled, entries and notes are stored as plain text. Premium offers optional encryption for entry text.

Encryption

Encryption is only available to Diarly Premium users.

When you first enable encryption, you will be asked for a password which will be used to encode all your entries and notes and save them on your local hard drive. The stored entry text remains encrypted when synced through iCloud. App lock helps control access to the diary in Diarly. Thereafter, it will only be possible to read the content of your entries and notes with this password. If you lose your password, you will lose access to the encrypted entries and notes. Diarly uses RN Cryptor open-source library and follows it’s V3 best practice recommendation.

Please note: files are not encrypted, only text is encrypted. If you think that would be a good feature to add, please let us know!

Enabling Touch ID / Face ID

If you don’t want to type your password each time, you can enable Touch ID and / or Face ID. This option is available only on devices which support this (currently newer iPhones, iPads and MacBooks).

Keep in mind — when you enable Touch ID, Diarly will store your password in Keychain on a given device. If other users on that device have their Touch ID added as well, they will also be able to unlock Diarly.

Enabling Unlock with Apple Watch

This option is available only on Mac with a paired iWatch. If you enable this option, when unlocking, you will be able to double tap on iWatch to enter the password automatically.

Locking on Mac

You can lock your journal by closing the window or the app. If you don’t want to close the app but are worried you will forget to lock Diarly, you can go to MenuBar > Diarly > Preferences > Sync & Encryption and modify the Lock Automatically option. When this setting is on, the app will require you to enter the password to view the entries again.

Good password practices

Please save the password somewhere you can access it.

  • You can use special password manager apps.
  • You could also consider writing down the password in some secure or special place, such as a special number page in a favorite book.
  • You can also use a passphrase, instead of a traditional password, like a short quote.

The longer the password, the more secure it is. But at the same time, a very long password can make it harder to start journaling quickly. You need to weigh how secure you want the app to be.

Because we care about your privacy, we have made it impossible for us to access or unlock your journal. We cannot recover a lost password or decrypt the entries and notes, so please make sure to have a backup location. Read more about what to do if you forgot your password.