Support
The three things people ask about most are just below. For anything else, write to me — every email reaches Tarak, who makes Virtual Diary.
Restore your iPad unlock
The unlock belongs to the Apple ID you bought it with, so sign in with that one.
Activate your Mac license
A link that contains the key works too.
Keep iPad and Mac in step
Both are on to begin with. Sync Now sends your pages straight away.
Dear reader,
If something isn’t working, write to me. Every email reaches me, and I usually reply within one or two working days.
It helps to say which you’re on, iPad or Mac, its iPadOS or macOS version, and what happened. Please don’t send diary pages unless they’re needed to show the problem.
Yours,
Tarak
Refunds: iPad purchases are refunded by Apple, and Mac purchases are final. The refund policy has the steps.
No. You can type on any page with the on-screen keyboard or a keyboard case. Apple Pencil adds real ink in black, blue or sepia, an eraser, and the option to turn handwriting into text.
Yes. Download Virtual Diary for iPad or Mac and write your first page free, with no account and no card. When you want to keep going, unlock it once: $49 for one device, or $69 for both. Pages you have written can always be read, even if you never buy.
Because a page is a finite, forgiving thing to fill. Three lines count. When the lines are full, the page is full, which keeps the habit small enough to keep for years.
Yes. Writing, reading, search and the lock all work without a connection. Your iCloud copy and Mac sync catch up the next time you are online.
Your pages aren’t lost: they come back through your own iCloud, or from an export you kept. On iPad the unlock restores with your Apple ID. A Mac license covers one Mac, so a new Mac needs a new license.
Any iPad running iPadOS 18 or later, in portrait or landscape, and any Mac, Apple silicon or Intel, running macOS 26 or later.
A private diary app for iPad and Mac that looks and feels like a paper diary. You get one ruled page a day inside a leather cover. On iPad you write by hand with Apple Pencil or type; on Mac you type. There is no account, no feed, no streaks and no AI, and your pages stay on your devices and in your own iCloud.
People who keep a diary, or want to: writers, readers, people who journal every night before bed, and anyone who misses paper but wants their pages searchable and safe. If you want photo albums, mood charts or AI prompts, other apps do that well. Virtual Diary is for writing.
Yes. $49 once, or $69 for iPad and Mac together, unlocks the whole diary for life, including future updates. There is no subscription, and there never will be.
No. There are no AI prompts, summaries or chatbots, and nothing you write is sent anywhere to be analysed. Handwriting search is done by your iPad itself, on the device, so your pages never leave it for that.
No. There is no account and no server of ours; your pages live on your iPad or Mac, and the automatic copy goes to your own iCloud Drive, never to us. Turn on the lock and the diary opens only with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. We couldn’t read it if we tried.
Yes. Handwriting is recognised on the iPad itself and added to search, so you can find that one scribbled line from months ago.
Yes. Virtual Diary for Mac is the same paper page, made for typing. Turn on iCloud on both and your pages stay in step through your own iCloud; ink from the iPad shows on the Mac exactly as you wrote it.
Get both for $69 instead of $98. Straight after checkout you get your Mac license key and a one-time App Store code; redeem the code in the App Store and the iPad diary unlocks. Already bought one? The other is $49 on its own.
Yes, until you lock it. Pages stay open for as long as you like. A locked page stays exactly as written, for good; on iPad you get ten seconds to change your mind first.
Any time. On iPad, export the whole diary, handwriting included, as an ordinary folder you can keep anywhere, and import it on another iPad. On the Mac, export saves every typed page in one file. With sync on, your iPad and Mac already hold the same pages.