Keep a Private Journal on Your PC and Export It to Markdown
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The problem
Diary apps ask you to trust them with your most honest writing, and the good ones tend to sync it to a server so you can read it on a phone. The trade is awkward: the more private the entry, the less you want it on someone else's disk, yet a notebook on your desktop is hard to search and impossible to back up by accident. You want somewhere to write that is neither a stranger's database nor a file you will lose.
Burrow includes a Journal module in the free app. Entries are listed on one side with the open entry beside it, and everything is saved into the local database file in Burrow's folder. When you want your words out, a single export produces Markdown among other formats. What follows is how to start journaling, how to treat the privacy settings that touch journal text and how to get a Markdown copy. Burrow is built for Windows 10 and 11 at the moment, so the steps assume one of those.
Steps
Install Burrow and open the Journal
Download the installer that matches your PC (x64, or ARM64 for Windows on ARM), run it and open the Journal module from the app. If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click More info and then Run anyway; the installer is not code-signed yet.
Write an entry
Pick an entry from the list or click New entry (on an empty journal the button reads Add your first entry) and write in the open panel. There is no account to sign in to first, and the free app puts no limit on how many entries you can keep.
Decide what the helper may see
Javi, the built-in helper, is optional and runs through Ollama on your own computer. If you ever add a cloud key of your own, your stored journal, notes and health data are held back from it unless you choose otherwise. Leaving the cloud key unset keeps journal text entirely local.
Run an export
Open Settings > Data & storage and click Export all data (.zip). The desktop menu has the same thing under Help > Export my data. The ZIP holds JSON, CSV and Markdown together. Save it wherever you keep your own files, unzip it and open the
markdown/journal/folder, which has one Markdown file per entry, in any text editor.Check the activity log
Open Settings > Privacy & activity. Exports, imports, backups and restores are logged there, so you can confirm your export happened and when.
Keep the automatic backups on
Daily backups are on by default in a backups folder on your computer. Pair them with a Markdown export now and then, so a copy of your writing exists in a format that outlives any one app.
Why Markdown is the format to keep
Markdown is plain text with light formatting marks. It opens in Notepad, in any editor and in most note programs, which makes it about the safest container for words you want to read in twenty years. The ZIP Burrow produces also contains JSON and CSV, but the Markdown is the version a person can read without any tools.
Exporting is free at any time, and the app's product page says your data is never paywalled, so a Markdown copy of your journal does not sit behind an upgrade.
A note on how private is private
Burrow does not add its own password to the database file. That means anyone who can sign in to your Windows account can open your journal. If other people share your login, protect the account itself or keep sensitive writing elsewhere. The app's protection is that nothing is sent anywhere, not that the file is encrypted.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Entries live in one local database file, with no server holding them.
- The free app has no limit on entries and no time limit.
- Markdown export is free and readable in any editor.
- A log in Settings records each export, so you can verify what left the app.
Cons
- The data file has no password of its own, so a shared Windows login is a shared journal.
- Burrow has no phone app or sync, so you read your journal at your PC.
- It is Windows only, and the installer is unsigned for now.
- The export is a ZIP of the whole app, not a single journal file, so you unzip it and browse to the journal folder to read your entries.
Frequently asked questions
Does Burrow upload my journal anywhere?
Not by default. Nothing goes online until you switch a feature on in Settings > Network, and all of those switches start off.
Can the helper read my journal?
Javi runs on your own computer through Ollama when you set that up. Cloud use is a separate bring-your-own-key option that is off by default, and it withholds journal text unless you choose otherwise.
Is journaling part of the paid upgrade?
No. Journal is one of the modules that is free in every copy of Burrow.
What else is in the export ZIP?
JSON and CSV alongside the Markdown, and you can import the ZIP back into Burrow later.
Get Burrow free on Gumroad Free ($0 or pay what you want)