# Personal Diary (Journal) App — No Ads, Simple & Easy to Use

> Simple, secure, and free digital journalling app with iCloud sync. (iPhone/iPad app by Wern Jie Lim.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/personal-diary-journal-app/id1052570257 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Wern Jie Lim](https://appshunter.io/developer/1032934247)
- Category: Lifestyle, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.40/5 from 104 App Store ratings · 183 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 12.0 · 26 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2015-11-05
- Data updated: 2026-08-18
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/personal-diary-journal-app/id1052570257/reviews.md

## What is Personal Diary (Journal) App?

"When all you want is the digital equivalent of a paper diary, this is the perfect one." - goyyboy

"Loving the lighthearted feel of this deceptively powerful app." - plinkplok

"Good and accessible with VoiceOver" - Allan.summers

Need a simple, free, and easy-to-use journalling app? Meet Personal Diary!

With no advertisements, limitations, nor any upfront cost, Personal Diary is your simplest and best journalling tool yet. Easily access all your entries in all your devices with iCloud Sync. Write diary entries without worrying that someone will peek at what you wrote, with passcode & biometric protection. Forgot about your diary? The app can 'summon' you back with a friendly nudge. You can also import as many photos as you wish into your entries. As an optional addition, you can set your mood, and add weather and tags to an entry.

Notable Features:

  -  Numeric passcode lock (any number of digits).
  -  Unlock using Touch ID or Face ID on supported devices.
  -  Auto-saves as you type.
  -  Simple & easy to use.
  -  Sync data between devices via iCloud Drive.
  -  Ability to pick a mood and weather of the day.
  -  Mood & weather can be automatically chosen.
  -  Import photos to your entries.
  -  Select a theme to suit your style.
  -  Dark Mode for better night use.
  -  VoiceOver fully supported.
  -  Simple Rich Text editing supported.
  -  Optimized for multitasking on iPad.
  -  Full support for physical keyboards, trackpad, and mice.
  -  watchOS keyboard support on Series 7+, and FlickType keyboard support for legacy watch models.
  -  Fully compatible with all modern iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch* models.
  -  Daily notifications for writing in your diary.
  -  No advertisements & absolutely FREE! :D

*Some features may not be available on the Apple Watch. Primary editing and viewing functions, such as the Timeline interface and entry editor, are available on the watch.

Don't forget to let me know what you think of Personal Diary by leaving a review on the App Store! Reviews and ratings help and let other users find this app. If you have any problems or questions, feel free to send a feedback; I might be able to help! :)

Warning:
- Please do not forget your password. If you forget your password and your identity cannot be verified, you may not be able to access your data.

This app allows you to tip/donate to directly support the development of this app through in-app purchases. No new features will be provided when you tip, it's just to support the app's development if you would like to. Selecting a Small/Medium/Large Tip will initiate a one-time payment for tipping. A Continuous Tip is an automatic-renewal subscription to tip every month, and will renew automatically every month unless it's turned off or cancelled (through your account settings) at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. For this, your Apple account will be charged when payment is confirmed, and charged for auto-renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period at the selected price. 

You may locate our terms at https://legal.wern.cc/app/terms and privacy policy at https://legal.wern.cc/app/privacy.

## Key features

- Passcode & biometric protection
- iCloud sync across devices
- Import photos into entries
- Set mood and weather
- Daily writing reminders
- VoiceOver support
- Dark Mode

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Continuous Tip | $1.99 | per month |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Large Tip | $9.99 | one-time |
| Medium Tip | $2.99 | one-time |
| Small Tip | $0.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Personal Diary (Journal) App?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 💻 Simple and easy to use
- 🔒 Secure with passcode/Touch ID
- 🌤️ Ability to track mood and weather
- 📸 Option to add photos
- 🔍 Useful search functionality
- 🌟 Great for journaling and personal writing
- 🆓 Completely free with no ads or in-app purchases

**Cons**

- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 🗓️ Lack of calendar view to easily navigate entries
- 🔍 Search functionality could be improved
- 📁 Issues with syncing and backing up data
- 🤖 Automatic mood/weather detection not always accurate

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Entries sometimes disappear or fail to load
- Passcode/Touch ID not working reliably
- Syncing issues between devices
- Unexpected crashes when opening the app

**Most requested features**

- Add ability to password protect individual entries
- Implement calendar view for better navigation
- Allow adding videos and other media types
- Improve search capabilities with advanced filters
- Provide better data backup and export options

## Recent user reviews (10 of 183)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/personal-diary-journal-app/id1052570257/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Well done

*2026-06-25, version 3.0.14*

So good I’ve tipped twice.

### 5/5 — Awesome app

*2026-05-12, version 3.0.14*

I’ve been using this app for I think 5+ years. It’s very important to me. I love the emojis and honestly the simplicity. I use it almost every day! Thank you for this app!!!

### 5/5 — The best journal/diary app

*2026-01-19, version 3.0.14*

It’s absolutely perfect for simply writing down your thoughts like a journal.
 
It has lots of settings so you can adjust the app to how you prefer, for example I removed the weather and emotion icons, so it’s literally just text. 

It has no ads, no subscriptions, no annoying or cluttered UI. 

I didn’t want to donate, so this felt like the next best thing to do. I absolutely love this app. Thank you for making it.

### 3/5 — Decent but annoying

*2025-11-17, version 3.0.14*

It’s a good to use basic diary, just as I was looking for.  It’s spoiled because when you turn off annoying helpers like spelling/double-dash changes (I prefer to get what I type, no more, no less) they automatically return to defaults shortly afterwards.

### 5/5 — Simple

*2025-06-08, version 3.0.14*

Great app. Simple to use

### 5/5 — Exactly as expected

*2025-03-12, version 3.0.14*

keep up the good work king

### 5/5 — Love it

*2025-02-11, version 3.0.14*

I love how simple and easy to use.

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2025-02-03, version 3.0.14*

Have to say this diary is superb. It’s not overwhelming and has just enough customisation needed. Have now made this my every day journal and got rid of a few in favour of this. Credit to the developer.

### 5/5 — A Little Gem

*2025-01-27, version 3.0.14*

This is a clever, well thought out app that I use for multiple date focused information storage collections, as the app can support more than one diary/journal. I am very pleased to discover this free app and was happy to contribute a donation to recognise the work. In a world often driven by subscriptions these days, it is refreshing to discover little gems that are free yet worth some reward.

### 5/5 — W

*2025-01-16, version 3.0.14*

Thank you so much for this app. A always needed a simple and easy diary. Only one thing. Pls and something to make you want to right your diary. Like a streak or something. But overall I love simple so this is awesome.

## Frequently asked questions about Personal Diary (Journal) App

### What is this app?

This app is a simple, free, and easy-to-use journalling tool that functions as a digital equivalent of a paper diary. It offers features like passcode and biometric protection, iCloud sync, photo import, and the ability to log your mood and the weather.

### Is this app free to use?

Yes, the app is absolutely free to use with no advertisements or limitations. While the core functionality is free, there are optional in-app purchases available for users who wish to donate and support the app's development.

### What devices is this app compatible with?

The app is fully compatible with all modern iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models. Some features may have limited availability on Apple Watch, but primary editing and viewing functions are supported.

### How do I protect my journal entries?

Your entries can be protected using a numeric passcode lock or by unlocking with Touch ID or Face ID on supported devices. This ensures that your private thoughts are kept secure from unauthorized access.

### Can I sync my journal across devices?

Yes, the app offers iCloud Sync, allowing you to easily access all your journal entries across all your Apple devices. This ensures your memories are always available wherever you are.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.0.14 — 2024-11-27

- Fixed: The app may crash on launch on certain older OS versions.
- Fixed: The 'System' theme option under Themes may occasionally behave like 'Auto'.
- Fixed: The 'Auto' theme option under Themes may take forever to reflect screen brightness changes.
- Improved: Clarified the behavior of theme options, and that 'Auto' may not work on certain configurations.

Other recent updates:
- Improved: Loading all entries in a large journal is now up to 4 times faster, with up to 90% reduction in peak memory usage.
- Improved: Search now displays a progress indicator, and you may now begin searching even if entries weren't fully loaded (you'll still need to wait for all entries to be loaded to have a complete result).
- Improved: The app now automatically reduces its memory usage when your device is running low on memory (e.g., when multitasking with other apps).
- Improved: For new entry defaults, automatic inclusion of mood and weather info can now be separately disabled.
- Fixed: The app may crash on devices with limited memory when loading a large journal.
- Fixed: The app may, in certain rare cases, crash when concurrently processing multiple tasks.
- Fixed: The date range picker for journal exports may take an unexpectedly long time to be editable on large journals, even if they were already loaded in the Timeline.
- Fixed: Keyboard shortcuts may not work correctly when your last interaction was not in the relevant view.
- Fixed: The entry preview when using 3D / Haptic Touch may not show the correct entry while searching.
- Fixed: The watchOS app long press menu may occasionally not show up, making certain options inaccessible.
- Fixed: The watchOS app may fail to perform auto mood detection.
- Misc: Updated app icon, dependencies, descriptions, and links.

### 3.0.13 — 2024-11-20

- Improved: For new entry defaults, automatic inclusion of mood and weather info can now be separately disabled.
- Misc: Updated app description.

Recent changes in version 3.0.12:

- Improved: Loading all entries in a large journal is now up to 4 times faster, with up to 90% reduction in peak memory usage.
- Improved: Search now displays a progress indicator, and you may now begin searching even if entries weren't fully loaded (you'll still need to wait for all entries to be loaded to have a complete result).
- Improved: The app now automatically reduces its memory usage when your device is running low on memory (e.g., when multitasking with other apps).
- Fixed: The app may crash on devices with limited memory when loading a large journal.
- Fixed: The app may, in certain rare cases, crash when concurrently processing multiple tasks.
- Fixed: The date range picker for journal exports may take an unexpectedly long time to be editable on large journals, even if they were already loaded in the Timeline.
- Fixed: Keyboard shortcuts may not work correctly when your last interaction was not in the relevant view.
- Fixed: The entry preview when using 3D / Haptic Touch may not show the correct entry while searching.
- Fixed: The watchOS app long press menu may occasionally not show up, making certain options inaccessible.
- Fixed: The watchOS app may fail to perform auto mood detection.
- Misc: Updated app icon, dependencies and links.

### 3.0.12 — 2024-11-12

- Improved: Loading all entries in a large journal is now up to 4 times faster, with up to 90% reduction in peak memory usage.
- Improved: Search now displays a progress indicator, and you may now begin searching even if entries weren't fully loaded (you'll still need to wait for all entries to be loaded to have a complete result).
- Improved: The app now automatically reduces its memory usage when your device is running low on memory (e.g., when multitasking with other apps).
- Fixed: The app may crash on devices with limited memory when loading a large journal.
- Fixed: The app may, in certain rare cases, crash when concurrently processing multiple tasks.
- Fixed: The date range picker for journal exports may take an unexpectedly long time to be editable on large journals, even if they were already loaded in the Timeline.
- Fixed: Keyboard shortcuts may not work correctly when your last interaction was not in the relevant view.
- Fixed: The entry preview when using 3D / Haptic Touch may not show the correct entry while searching.
- Fixed: The watchOS app long press menu may occasionally not show up, making certain options inaccessible.
- Fixed: The watchOS app may fail to perform auto mood detection.
- Misc: Updated app icon, dependencies and links.

### 3.0.11 — 2024-05-10

- Fixed: The image viewer may not work correctly for HEIC images on some systems.
- Fixed: The image viewer now has dedicated buttons to export images. This was incorrectly removed.
- Fixed: The export function no longer randomly resets the date range to export after explicitly set when entries are being updated in the background.
- Improved: The image viewer now supports keyboard navigation.
- Misc: Updated dependencies.

### 3.0.10 — 2023-12-11

- Fixed: Hyperlinks and Strikethroughs did not save until other unrelated modifications have been done to trigger autosave.
- Fixed: Importing photos taken directly from the Camera within the app did not do anything.
- Fixed: Some users may have had troubles installing the app on the Apple Watch.
- Fixed: Images may be stuck "loading" - they are caused by previously deleted images of which the app still thinks exists and is trying to load.
- Fixed: Dragging and dropping images to export images out of the app, or copy images to multiple entries, may cause the app to incorrectly use low resolution thumbnails of the image.
- Fixed: Images may flicker upon selection of an entry, upon autosave, or upon scrolling through lists or pages with images.
- Fixed: Smart Search did not correctly account for search terms consisting of the day of the week (so searching for "Saturday" did not work).
- Improved: Added more hints of Safe Mode and direct shortcuts to exit it.
- Improved: Disabling image previews will now show a placeholder image instead of a blank space.

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## More apps by Wern Jie Lim

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All apps by Wern Jie Lim: https://appshunter.io/developer/1032934247

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-18.*