Google Drive — back up, restore & sync

The journal can keep its backups in your Google Drive and come back from one on a new phone — free. With journal gold, it can also keep two phones in step through Drive (Gold). It all lives on settings › "files", under "google drive".

The journal sees only the files it makes, in a Drive folder called "Zenith Journal".

#Connect

1. In settings › "files", scroll to "google drive" and tap "connect google drive".
2. Google's own screen may ask you to choose an account or say yes. Backing out of it links nothing.
3. It says "google drive connected" and the account, or "drive didn't connect" and why.

It uses the Google account the Zenith suite links, asking for Drive only, and keeps whatever the account already gave other Zenith apps. Connected, the page shows "connected · " and the account.

Connecting is the suite's own, the same in every Zenith app. If Google wants you to say yes again later, backups and sync say "it didn't reach google drive" until you connect again.

#Back up to Drive (free)

• "⇓ back up to drive now" — says "backing up to drive…", then what it holds and its size. It is the same backup as "⇓ back up everything", put in the "Zenith Journal" folder. Or it says "no google drive is connected", "the journal couldn't be read" or "it didn't reach google drive".
• "back up to drive every day — while charging, on wi-fi, keeping the last 5" — about once a day, only while the phone is charging and on a network that isn't metered. It starts off.

Only the newest five backups the journal made are kept; older ones go to Drive's bin. Under the switch, a line says when the last backup was, or "no backup on drive yet". With "a backup finished" on in settings › "what it may say", a notice says so too.

The daily switch shows only once Drive is connected. It lives on this phone only and is never in a backup.

#Restore from Drive — a new phone (free)

1. Under "restore from drive", tap "see the backups on drive". It says "asking drive…", then lists them newest first, each with its name and size — or "no backups on drive yet.".
2. Tap one. It says "bringing it down from drive…". If it can't: "that backup didn't come down from drive".
3. Once it is down, you get the same question as any backup: "replace everything on this phone?", with "replace everything" or "never mind".

It replaces everything here, and can't be undone. See Files — back up & bring back.

#Drive sync between your devices (Gold)

Two phones kept in step through Drive, entry by entry. When both phones changed one entry, the two are combined, and the earlier wording is kept in its history.

• The switch — "keep this phone in step with drive — when the journal opens, a few minutes after writing, and daily". It syncs as the journal opens, three minutes after you stop writing, and in the daily run. Turning it on syncs at once. A line under it says when it last synced, or "not synced yet". It starts off.
• "⇅ sync now" — says "syncing with drive…", and what came in is on screen at once. Or it says "drive sync is part of journal gold", "no google drive is connected", "the journal is still opening" or "it didn't reach google drive".

Without journal gold the heading carries "✦ gold", and there is only "✦ what drive sync does", which opens the Gold sheet. Before Drive is connected, the section still shows, asking you to connect first.

A locked journal's entries, and their photos and files, travel still sealed. The passphrase never leaves the phone. Sync never puts an entry into a journal that is locked on this phone.

#Disconnect

"disconnect from this journal" stops the journal using any Drive account, and turns the daily backup and sync off. The account stays linked for the other Zenith apps. Nothing in Drive is deleted.

#Ask the sky

Once you have connected Drive, ask the sky can back up now, turn the daily backup or sync on or off, sync now (Gold), list the backups on Drive, and restore one — asked first, since it replaces everything. With Drive not connected it says "google drive isn't connected; the person connects it in settings › files". Connecting and disconnecting stay yours. See What the sky can do — design, screens, settings & more.

#See also.

Files — back up & bring back · Journal Gold · What it may say — notices