How to disable journal suggestions on iPhone

I like to constantly write down my thoughts and feelings, and I do that in the Notes app on my iPhone. Apple introduced the Journal app a while ago to give you a space to reflect on your day. Initially, I thought I would use Journal every day, but it turns out I don’t use it at all.

There’s nothing wrong with Journal, and it’s a perfectly fine app. I have friends and family who use it every day. I personally have no interest in writing a diary on my phone. You think you can just ignore the app, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

I tried Journal once to see what all the hype was about, and then never used it again. Having used Journal once, I accidentally subscribed to Journaling Suggestions.

Now, almost every day, I receive a suggestion in the form of a notification from the Journal app, asking me to reflect on something I’ve just done, whether it’s a doctor’s appointment, a long bike ride, or a trip to the grocery store. It knows what I’m doing because I’ve given it access to my location, photos, contacts, etc. (without really thinking).

Journal knows what I’m doing, where I’m going, and who I’m going with. I don’t want to journal anything, so I don’t want Journal to have access to this personal information, but I definitely don’t want to receive any additional notifications.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to prevent Journal from bothering you again. We’ll show you how to disable journaling suggestions and how to stop journal notifications. Here’s what you need to know:

While you’re here, check out how to fix all of iOS 17’s most annoying features and settings, and the best iPhone options coming in 2024.

How to stop journaling suggestions from accessing your data

Journal sends you suggestions based on your activity, media usage, contacts, photos, and important locations. Whether you go to work, take a photo at a restaurant, or spend some time at the park, Journal is tracking what you’re doing and can send you suggestions.

Journal also sends suggestions based on who’s around you, so if you’re spending time with friends or family, Journal uses Bluetooth to figure it out and send you a notification to include them in your journal. You must to do something before you go on.

Look at this: What I learned using Apple’s Journal app

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Besides annoying notifications, people who don’t keep diaries may not like that diary apps have access to all this data. Not only that, this personal information may be shared with other journaling apps that use Apple’s journaling suggestions feature.

Apple says all information collected will be treated as described in Apple’s Privacy Policy, which includes end-to-end encryption and other privacy features, but that Journal will not have full access to your information. Sometimes you don’t want to.

To stop Journal from accessing your information (and stop notifications), follow these steps: setting > journal > Journaling suggestions > Privacy settings suggestions and hit turn everything off It’s at the top of the page. A pop-up will appear asking if you want to turn off all journaling suggestions.

This will prevent Journal from accessing your data and will also stop the app from sending you notifications.

How to stop receiving journaling suggestion notifications

If you want to use a journal but don’t mind apps accessing your data, you can leave the journaling suggestions on but still have notifications turned off and reminders to write down your thoughts and feelings. You can avoid sending them in bulk.

go to setting > journal > Journaling suggestions > Suggestion notification settings and simply switch off Allow notifications.

Note: This only disables notifications, but Journal will still have access to your data and will continue to show you suggestions when you navigate within the Journal app.

For more information, read All New Features in iOS 17.4 and 17, Hidden Features and Settings in iOS 17.