Hope someone can help me. I've been looking for something like this for ages. Just a basic calendar app like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar, which lets you write directly in each date without having to create an event, and that lets you drag drag photos in. Would be great if the Apple calendar could allow these functions, because I quite like it otherwise. Would prefer one that does not have a monthly subscription.
Calendar App That Also Serves as a Diary
LRear CreviceEruption on 07/09/2023 - 07:25
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I was hoping there is an app that functions both as a calendar and a journal. Makes sense for them both to be combined. I guess some journal apps may have reminders, etc.?
Would prefer one that does not have a monthly subscription.
And pay no rent? The zeitgeist of next stage capitalism is offended.
(But yes, good question, I'd like something similar)
create an all day event in excel, with dates for the entire year, then import into google calendar. turn off notifications.
Otherwise, google keep. but the title is todays date
Storing photos inside a calendar app is well beyond the storage and bandwidth of what those apps are intended to do, you could potentially store a link to a photo stored elsewhere.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'write directly in each date' but everything in a caldav calendar is an event, whether it be a single, recurring or daily event (yes, it is possible to have an event tied to a specific date but with no time or duration, this is usually shown as a banner and is used for things such as special days or public holidays).
You can add notes to an event, so potentially you could use it like a diary but I'd suggest it's not a good idea to store large amounts of information in there.
I use TimeLogger on iOS to create diary style entries in my calendar but it's not going to do what most of what you want but you should check it out because it might give you some ideas or solve part of your problem.
Bottom line is storing large amounts of text and media files is a completely different problem to storing events and reminders and there is a reason why nobody has made what you want. Not to say it's a bad idea, I'd suggest you learn to code and try to make it but be aware that the chances that anybody will pay money for such a thing are somewhere between slim and none.
And as far as diary specific apps like Day One, well I've never been long-term happy with any of them and I don't want my data stuck in some proprietary system. I used Day One quite happily for the better part of a decade, recording things several times a day and putting all my family memories in there, but it whist it was easy to put things in, the search function was essentially useless so it was a terrible way to store information you wanted to get back in the future. When they wanted to move to a subscription I was done.
My current solution is a collection of well ordered files with strict naming scheme that makes things easy to search and order in any decent file manager program. These are mostly text files and jpegs but I can potentially put anything in there without limitations of what some proprietary company thinks I should be able to, so occasionally I'll put a spread sheet file or even an exe file in there, alongside some video and voice memos. I used to have a script that pulled calendar entries into this system, creating one text file per event so that I a record in my diary of events in my calendar. Since I reloaded my machine I've had issues with it and so I haven't used it for some time but it is at least theoretically possible to grab data from your calendar and store it in your diary so you can have a permanent record of all that in once place but it's not a solution you are likely to find in the wild, I had to learn way more than I wished to know about CalDAV to figure out how to do that and in the end it never worked reliably or for all cases.
I am considering moving all this into https://obsidian.md/ but I'm not sure how well it will cope with 350,000 files. However you should check it out. There is a learning curve, and you'll need some plugins, but it might just do most of what you want.
Thanks for your insights. Very helpful. I'll have a think about all this, and see what I can do.
Unfortunately this is something I'm noticing more these days - data lock-in. SaaS probably started it, but vendors are more and more restricting/closing down APIs and trying to lock users in to their ecosystem. If other vendors or AI want in, they'll need to do it on the vendor's terms… and because of this users are missing out on being able to use their own data how they want.
This is one of the things that attracted me to Obsidian also - it's just Markdown files with a fancy interface/database behind it. So your data is still there 100% touchable by you; Obsidian builds on top of that data. (or at least this is my understanding of it).
This is the same thing that has stopped me from transitioning from KeePass to Bitwarden - KeePass I have a file that holds my passwords. Bitwarden it's obfuscated into a service (even if that service is self-hostable).
One day a bunch of people are going to find out that their data is gone or held to ransom or has been breached and if it's personal thoughts in a diary that could be worse than a fappening.
Back in the day, Day One synced via Dropbox and even though the data was more obfuscated than it needed to be, it was all there, and I was able to use Excel data migration and some scripts to pull it all out into my own system of files. But the point is I had the files where I could see them and do stuff with them outside of the program.
Yeah, all your obsidian stuff is just a series of files and directories that you are free to do with as you please, including editing them with outside programs and it copes with all that pretty well.
I have recently transitioned my passwords to Bitwarden from a more proprietary system. I'm not overly happy with the Bitwarden interface and have considered switching to KeePass or using it as a secondary system. I just never could figure out where to start, and I need stuff to sync from my destop to my laptop to my phone and work with iOS password filling. So many things to do…
On the password side of things, I use Syncthing to sync my KeePass file across my devices. I have Syncthing running on my mobile, so there is always at least one sync node available. Have had to do one or two merges in the past due to my work laptop not always syncing properly (corporate firewall :/) but apart from that it's been working pretty seamlessly, so definitely recommend that.
You might be able to setup your own Syncthing lighthouse if you'd like to remove the public side of things (looks like this might actually be achievable); alternatively you could look at using something like Nextcloud via Tailscale (although you've still got the public lighthouse on the Tailscale side, but as with Syncthing I don't believe this is a real privacy concern). The private Syncthing network would probably be a good solution and wouldn't require VPN/Tailscale since as long as you've synced before you leave home, then there shouldn't be any changes made at home since you're not there. The biggest thing you lose here is Bitwarden's sharing functionality (IMO; there are probably other features that I don't use/are aware of)
@Chandler: Thanks, I'll put that on the list. Currently trying to get Duplicati working with Wasabi… after I have my backups sorted I'll revisit my password system.
It sounds like you need a journal app.