The Gift Journal
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The Gift Journal · User Guide

iCloud, backup, restore and Portable Journal Export

These features solve different problems. Do not treat them as interchangeable.

These features solve different problems. Do not treat them as interchangeable.

Local-first journal

The Gift Journal saves locally first. iCloud/CloudKit is the optional private synchronisation/recovery layer rather than a requirement for opening the journal.

Sync Now

  1. Open Settings → Privacy & iCloud.
  2. Review the current sync/account state.
  3. Tap Sync Now when you want to request a refresh.
  4. If a conflict/account-change choice appears, read it carefully before choosing which journal should be authoritative.

The app is designed to prefer a valid readable journal over silently replacing it with an empty state.

Full journal backup

Use Full Backup when your goal is lossless restoration back into The Gift Journal.

To export one:

  1. Open Settings → Data protection.
  2. Choose Export full journal backup.
  3. Save the backup somewhere you control.

A full backup may contain implementation-specific recovery information and available managed image assets. It is not the public interchange specification.

Restore a journal backup

  1. Open Settings → Data protection.
  2. Choose Restore journal backup.
  3. Select the backup.
  4. Review the inspection/confirmation flow.
  5. Confirm only when you intend to replace the current journal with the restored content.

Restore is deliberately explicit and safety-oriented.

Portable Journal Export v1

Use Portable Journal Export when your goal is data ownership, long-term readability or use by an external tool.

  1. Open Settings → Portable journal.
  2. Leave Include protected items off for the normal privacy-preserving export.
  3. Tap Export portable journal….
  4. Choose where to save the Portable Journal .zip file.

The ZIP contains README.txt, a versioned manifest.json, semantic journal.json, the v1 JSON Schema and referenced image assets where available. It can be opened directly with ordinary ZIP tools.

Include protected records

  1. Turn on Include protected items.
  2. Choose Export portable journal….
  3. Authenticate with the device.
  4. Save the ZIP file.

Protected records are not silently included just because they were unlocked earlier during ordinary app use.

What Portable Journal Export is not

It is not:

  • a full recovery backup;
  • a CloudKit database dump;
  • a StoreKit/account export;
  • a sharing projection;
  • a supported v1.0 Portable Journal Import file.

Validated Portable Journal Import is not part of v1.0.

For the public technical structure, see Portable Journal Export v1 format.

Clear this device vs Delete iCloud copy

These are different destructive operations.

  • Clear this device removes the local journal from the current device according to the confirmation flow.
  • Delete iCloud copy deliberately removes the private iCloud journal copy.

Read every destructive confirmation carefully. Do not use either as a substitute for ordinary sync troubleshooting.