Journey ➜ Day One Converter

A command‑line utility that losslessly migrates your Journey diary export (JSON + media) into a ready‑to‑import Day One archive.

• Photos are copied bit‑for‑bit and renamed to their MD5 hash
• MP3 voice notes are transcoded to AAC (.m4a) using libfdk_aac at 320 kb/s CBR
• Existing .m4a / .aac / .wav recordings are preserved as‑is
• Rich‑text (headers, bulleted / numbered lists, bold, inline code) is rebuilt as native Day One richText
• Location, weather and tags are transferred when present

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1. Prerequisites

Requirement	Version / Notes
Python	3.9 + (tested 3.11)
FFmpeg	Built with libfdk_aac support – not enabled in Homebrew’s default bottle

Why a custom FFmpeg build?

libfdk_aac is GPL/Non‑Free and therefore excluded from the stock Homebrew build.
The converter uses it to transcode Journey’s MP3 voice notes to high‑quality AAC so that Day One can play them inline.

Follow the build script below to compile FFmpeg with all needed codecs.

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2. FFmpeg build for Apple Silicon

Save as build-ffmpeg.sh, chmod +x, then ./build-ffmpeg.sh.

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# ---------- dependencies -------------------------------------------------
brew install automake autoconf libtool pkg-config texi2html wget              fdk-aac lame x264 x265 libvpx opus xvid nasm

# ---------- FFmpeg source ------------------------------------------------
mkdir -p ~/ffmpeg-build && cd ~/ffmpeg-build
git clone https://github.com/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.git || true
cd ffmpeg && git pull

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/fdk-aac/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/homebrew/opt/lame/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/homebrew/opt/opus/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/homebrew/opt/libvpx/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/homebrew/opt/xvid/lib/pkgconfig"

export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/fdk-aac/lib -L/opt/homebrew/opt/lame/lib -L/opt/homebrew/opt/opus/lib -L/opt/homebrew/opt/libvpx/lib -L/opt/homebrew/opt/xvid/lib"

export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/fdk-aac/include -I/opt/homebrew/opt/lame/include -I/opt/homebrew/opt/opus/include -I/opt/homebrew/opt/libvpx/include -I/opt/homebrew/opt/xvid/include"

./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree             --enable-libfdk_aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus             --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid

make -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
sudo make install
ffmpeg -version

Note
Paths use /opt/homebrew (Apple Silicon).
Replace with /usr/local on Intel Macs or adapt for Linux.

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3. Installation

git clone https://github.com/miloshimself/journey2dayone.git
cd journey2dayone
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

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4. Usage

1. Export from Journey
   Journey ➜ Settings ➜ Preferences ➜ Account, Data & Cloud Services ➜ <Your Account> ➜ Export/Backup Select the date range, and enable "Download High Quality Photos".
   Place all exported files (.json, photo and audio) in journey_exports/.

2. Run the converter

   python3 journey2dayone.py

   • A Day One–ready folder dayone_export/ is created.
   • It is automatically zipped as Journey.dayone.zip.

3. Import into Day One
   macOS / iOS → File ➜ Import ➜ JSON ZIP File → select the generated archive.

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5. Field mapping

Journey field	Day One field
text (HTML)	text + richText (Markdown & native JSON)
photos[]	photos[] (metadata + MD5 filenames)
audios[]	audios[] (AAC)
lat / lon	location
weather.*	weather
tags[]	tags[]

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6. Limitations

• Only .jpg / .jpeg / .png images and .mp3 / .m4a / .aac / .wav audio are processed, though easily extended.
• Journey entries without lat/lon are imported without location
• Time‑zone‑to‑country resolution relies on the included IANA ↔ ISO 3166 map

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7. License

MIT. Use at your own risk. No affiliation with Journey Cloud or Day One.