diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 08d3eb73..8004943c 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -917,6 +917,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "crossbeam-channel"
+version = "0.5.13"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "33480d6946193aa8033910124896ca395333cae7e2d1113d1fef6c3272217df2"
+dependencies = [
+ "crossbeam-utils",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "crossbeam-deque"
 version = "0.8.5"
@@ -2568,6 +2577,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "tempfile",
  "tokio",
  "tracing",
+ "tracing-appender",
  "tracing-subscriber",
  "tracing-wasm",
  "uuid",
@@ -4427,6 +4437,18 @@ dependencies = [
  "tracing-core",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "tracing-appender"
+version = "0.2.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "3566e8ce28cc0a3fe42519fc80e6b4c943cc4c8cef275620eb8dac2d3d4e06cf"
+dependencies = [
+ "crossbeam-channel",
+ "thiserror",
+ "time",
+ "tracing-subscriber",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "tracing-attributes"
 version = "0.1.27"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 8213a36c..18f107f7 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ bitflags = "2.5.0"
 uuid = { version = "1.10.0", features = ["v4"] }
 indexmap = "2.6.0"
 dirs = "5.0.1"
+tracing-appender = "0.2.3"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 tempfile = "3.13.0"
diff --git a/src/bin/notedeck.rs b/src/bin/notedeck.rs
index 199272b4..ec77bd6d 100644
--- a/src/bin/notedeck.rs
+++ b/src/bin/notedeck.rs
@@ -11,8 +11,57 @@ use notedeck::Damus;
 #[cfg(not(target_arch = "wasm32"))]
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() {
+    #[allow(unused_variables)] // need guard to live for lifetime of program
+    let (maybe_non_blocking, maybe_guard) =
+        if let Ok(log_path) = notedeck::DataPaths::Log.get_path() {
+            // Setup logging to file
+            use std::panic;
+
+            use tracing::error;
+            use tracing_appender::{
+                non_blocking,
+                rolling::{RollingFileAppender, Rotation},
+            };
+
+            let file_appender = RollingFileAppender::new(
+                Rotation::DAILY,
+                log_path,
+                format!("notedeck-{}.log", env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION")),
+            );
+            panic::set_hook(Box::new(|panic_info| {
+                error!("Notedeck panicked: {:?}", panic_info);
+            }));
+
+            let (non_blocking, _guard) = non_blocking(file_appender);
+
+            (Some(non_blocking), Some(_guard))
+        } else {
+            (None, None)
+        };
+
     // Log to stdout (if you run with `RUST_LOG=debug`).
-    tracing_subscriber::fmt::init();
+    if let Some(non_blocking_writer) = maybe_non_blocking {
+        use tracing::Level;
+        use tracing_subscriber::{fmt, layer::SubscriberExt, util::SubscriberInitExt};
+
+        let console_layer = fmt::layer().with_target(true).with_writer(std::io::stdout);
+
+        // Create the file layer (writes to the file)
+        let file_layer = fmt::layer()
+            .with_ansi(false)
+            .with_writer(non_blocking_writer);
+
+        // Set up the subscriber to combine both layers
+        tracing_subscriber::registry()
+            .with(console_layer)
+            .with(file_layer)
+            .with(tracing_subscriber::filter::LevelFilter::from_level(
+                Level::INFO,
+            )) // Set log level
+            .init();
+    } else {
+        tracing_subscriber::fmt::init();
+    }
 
     let _res = eframe::run_native(
         "Damus NoteDeck",
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 6d35e2a3..a887d1e7 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ mod abbrev;
 pub mod account_manager;
 mod actionbar;
 pub mod app_creation;
+mod app_size_handler;
 mod app_style;
 mod args;
 mod colors;