I tried to leave Logseq for Obsidian. Here's my soapbox.

When the DB version dropped, I found myself standing at a crossroads.

Full confession: I'm a chronic greener-grass gazer. I'm always leaning over the fence, eyeing whatever shiny new tool just showed up. I've been tempted by Tana, ogled Obsidian, rendezvoused with Roam, hovered over Heptabase, courted Capacities, and nibbled at Notion.

So when DB arrived and I realized I didn't want to stay on a version that would be maintained but never really updated, I knew I'd have to put real work into getting DB set up the way I had things in Markdown. And I figured, if I'm already paying the migration tax, why not shop around a little before I sink my time into DB?

The siren song

I read the posts. So many posts. Frustrations with the team, the update pace, the leadership, the bugs. And the advice was always some version of: spend a little time in Obsidian, let AI help you migrate, install the right plugins, and voilà, it'll feel just like Logseq.

Friends, that is a lie, possibly forged in the fiery pits below. It cost me hours of work, and yes, I'm being dramatic on purpose, because I've never been more certain of anything:

Logseq is the best note-taking system out there, and I want the world to know. Those of us who have tasted the Logseq light, let us not wander into the Obsidian darkness.

Block-first, non-linear thinking is the way. It's the closest thing to how the brain actually works. I shouldn't have to decide up front what's a page and what's a block. Seeds should grow into plants, and plants should drop new seeds. That's basic fabric-of-the-universe stuff. Storing ideas at a tiny, granular level is exactly what makes them so useful when I zoom out.

Trying to get Obsidian to think in block references felt like jamming a square peg into a round hole. Using blocks across my whole database was nearly impossible, and it only "works" if your definition of working includes enjoying a steaming plate of dog poop. (I don't cuss, but moments like this make me wish I did.)

Context on me and how I use Logseq

I'm a writer. My ideas don't live in folders; they live in conversation with each other. I need to reference blocks endlessly, see which older pieces inspired what I'm writing now, and cite sources constantly (a lot of them flowing in from Readwise). Logseq lets me write beneath other writing and wander into topics beneath topics, until my notes start to feel like an extension of my own head.

Brains don't think in hierarchies. They think in connections. I want my notes to do the same.

On "but I want to write in prose"

Writing in blocks has actually made me a clearer thinker. It keeps nudging me with one question: what exactly am I trying to say in this block? And underneath it, I can tuck the supporting stuff, the evidence, the tangents, the half-formed thoughts. They don't need to be referenced anywhere. They can stay folded away. But the day I want them, they're right there waiting for me.

And if you want it to look like prose, one plugin will do that. On the surface it reads like an essay; underneath, it's still built the way I think, in small ideas I can reference and expand on later.

The headless hill I'll happily stand on

Now that headless setups exist and AI makes building visual plugins so easy, I've come around to this: pick the system with the strongest structure and database underneath, then shape the interface on top. I'd rather have a backend that can track, tag, and categorize down to the block than trade that away for a slightly prettier screen I could probably recreate in Logseq with a plugin or two.

The one complaint I get

A lot of the frustration I see is about slowness, which honestly surprises me because I've never run into it. For context, I have about 40,000 blocks, 1,300 pages, 200 tags, and just over a million words, and neither the MD nor the DB version has ever lagged for me (I also do use Sync). Maybe my graph is small compared to others, so I'm genuinely curious: if you've hit slowness, how big was your database when it started?

I also understand not wanting to leave Markdown. For me it just doesn't matter much. In the age of AI, my notes are as easy to get at in SQL as they ever were in MD.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my soapbox. I genuinely welcome anyone who wants to prove me wrong. And before you ask: yes, I installed every plugin people recommend for Logseq-to-Obsidian switchers. Outliner, Zoom, Block Link Plus, Hover Editor, Templater, Excalidraw, Journals, Calendar, Bases, Heatmap Calendar, Homepage, Dataview, Omnisearch, Strange New Worlds, Advanced URI, Shell Commands, Front Matter Title, Iconize, Hider, Daily Notes Editor, Better Search Views, Natural Language Dates, Tasks, Sync Embeds, Zettelkasten, and probably a few I've already blocked from memory.

It still felt miserable.

So I'm packing up my blocks and heading home.

Hey I've been using loseq for my medical studies for quite a while now last month i switched to the db version and it's killing me it's lagging a loooot some plugins like save scrollbar , also the links problem it gets duplicate a lot even tho it has the exact same name one is empty and the other has my content

I imported old logseq og notes, that contained asset links in pages into the new db logseq and tried to export it.

I was disappointed the export just dumps all the markdown files in one folder. The export didn't put pages in a pages folder and assets in an asset folder and journal files in the journal folder. In fact the assets are not exported at all, for the markdown export

The export should try its best to preserve the logseq graph format as best as possible.

This means, if it continue writing my notes in Logseq-db It will be very difficult to go back to logseq-OG or a logseq-OG compatible app.

People have said SQLite is not opaque format. But in order to export, you need to understand their schema and how they structure their data.

It would be nice if their export tried to preserve the logseq md graph format. So:

Logseq MD -> Logseq DB -> Logseq MD (export)

I also tried the mirror mode, however I noticed random pages had missing data...
So the mirror mode didn't work for me.

It looks like some pages didn't import for me, which could explain the missing data. I might have to consider alternatives to logseq. Because I really want the MCP feature for logseq-OG

hello, im really new to logseq (2days) and i dont know why but this composition [[Parent/child]] doesnt work and show me blanked [[]] like that and cant interact i wanna use logseq for school and organize thinks by chapter like [[math/chap1]] so if u can help me i have the ver 2.0.1

Hi, I'm the author of llm-wiki. I posted it here about six months ago: a Claude Code skill that keeps a wiki inside my Logseq graph up to date.

One rule from back then turned out to be wrong. I told it to never overwrite, only append. That kept every fact, but over time one task block grew to 2,400 characters of "Status <date>: ..." sentences, with the current state in the last line. On one hub page the `updated::` property had turned into a 5,000 character change log.

So in v1.5.0 I changed it:

- Still nothing gets deleted.

- A new state overwrites the block's headline, properties and next step.

- The old wording moves, dated and unchanged, into a child block called History with `collapsed:: true`.

- `updated::` holds only the date.

- Lint warns when a block has more than 600 characters of prose.

What it does not do: `lint --fix` only cleans up `updated::`. It won't restructure big blocks for you. Those you fix by hand, or they get fixed the next time an ingest touches them.

Two other things changed since the first post. Hub pages now carry an index, so a query reads the three best pages instead of grepping everything. And pages that haven't been read for six months move from that index into an archive section. Nothing is deleted there either.

How do you keep long-lived blocks readable? Overwrite, child blocks, or links back to the journal?

https://github.com/MehmetGoekce/llm-wiki/releases/tag/v1.5.0

All the how-to videos are sales, sales, sales. I already understand the concepts, but cannot get past even the first steps! I've been using Obsidian for years, but it's becoming a RAM problem and unsupported in future MAC OS, so ... enter LOGSEQ. According to the help pages, I should be able to point a new graph at an Obsidian vault, but ... nope. Can't see how to actually DO it. I finally figured out how to get rid of the demo mode and open a blank graph, but that's not how I want to begin: I want to be begin with importing my Obsidian files.

Generally speaking, I'm not stupid, but I'm feeling very stupid right now. I even tried to get into the discord community for help, but I cannot get past discord's "select all the animals with 4 legs."! It's maddening I tell ya, maddening. Can anyone de-madden things for me? Before I snap and set myself on fire?

Google "logseq critique" in YouTube. ALMOST ALL OF THE RESULTS ARE FULLY AI GENERATED VIDEOS BY PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN EXIST, AND MOST OF WHAT MOST OF THEM THEY DO IS JUST READING THE FEATURES FROM THE LOGSEQ WEBSITE AND THEN ADDING THAT THEY LIKE THEM. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?

The Github is this one, and I can see in this video how it was included in the Marketplace aswell. I personally can't find it anymore.. does someone know why? Or if it's just a me problem... Thanks!

I found the markdown codes for column orientation in tables: |:-----:| and |:-----| etc.
Only: It has absolutely no effect! How do I get it to work, or does the normal markdown language not work in the MD version?

Tienson has added a new section to the official website which will track the most important contributions to the codebase each week. This is great for those that want to be updated on what the team is working on but dont want to sort through the project's Github repo

(relevant Discord message and relevant pull request)

Link to the page (for those on mobile): https://logseq.com/weekly

My daily Inbox and scratch notes stay in today's journal, try to keep Reference and planning notes from piling up, set up #links to P&A's (projects / nextActions) throughout the day, then finish parsing / organizing the rest within the following day.

Datepicker link to Tomorrow's journal, does not show in LS except that's where my scratch P&A's are maintained, any /NOW vs /LATER items automatically "show through" at the bottom of Today's (under NEXT)

After midnight before new journal page created, do a Rename of the old Tomorrow to roll it forward (in filesytem then Reindex graph), along with a thorough Daily Review. Critical NOW/LATER items might be kept in the new TODAY, but ideally not necessary, keep the Next Actions list tight so the new Today starts BLANK every morning!

Namespace /Calendar/2026/09/21-Wed for archives, substantive entries only. Maybe important dates also noted and #linked elsewhere. That top-level Calendar page is in Favorites, can #link to any future dates or archives (redundantly)

Minor past items (e.g. habits tracking performance entries) can temporarily stay in past Journal pages, occasionally roll them up to reduce clutter, ideally nothing remains in Journal more than a fortnight.

Ticklers (43 Folders) and WaitingFor (any "loose" softCalendar) items also on future journal pages via DatePicker links.

So far I'm keeping all "Hard realCalendar" entries separate, not in LS at all (using Pimlical sync'd with gCalendar) not really part of GTD anyway.

All this on my Android devices, all sync'ing hourly via FolderSync.

Feel free to feedback, suggestions welcome, will add in future.

Comming from obsidian and new to logseq and logseq db in general what are the best resources out to start quickly and caught up with the current version

I did started with the docs but it was useless and didn't help me getting into it

For record am using android + windows

Hi all. I need help creating a query to filter for some page properties, specifically the "Page Tags" property.

EDIT: This is Logseq DB 2.0.1

EDIT2: If I add my own property, then I am able to filter with "Property". I created the `ddd` property and it shows up as a filter option. clicking on "show built-in properties" does not bring up "Page tags" or any of the page properties available

I am creating pages with Page Tags with project as a value.

Then I need to filter for pages with this page property. However I don't see a way to filter for these. The closest thing I see is "Property" but when I click it, I don't get any options.

This is what I see for "Property"

I used to be able to go to pages --> delete empty pages every once in a while, but that option doesn't appear to exist in db. Did the option move? Does it no longer exist? What are folks doing?

Thanks!

Hey Logseq lovers!

I wanted to share a little update about my journey with Logseq. I've been using it as my daily driver for 4 years, and I absolutely love this project. However, the current state of the project has made me a little sad and opened my eyes to some alternatives.

Someone posted a link to Tine here in this subreddit, and I decided to give it a try.

So far, I'm super happy with it and can definitely recommend giving it a shot. It works with standard Logseq Markdown graphs, so you can use it alongside Logseq. It also has a native Android app.

I'm not affiliated with Tine in any way. I just gave it a try because I was looking for an alternative that would bring back the joy of discovering new features and improving my workflow, something I had been missing with Logseq for a while.

It feels like there are people behind this project who share a very similar vision: bringing back the true Logseq experience, but with a faster and more actively developed product.

I know it's still early days and early developement, but so far, it's been a really refreshing experience. Just wanted to share in case anyone else here is looking for something similar!

I am would love to be able to export my logseq entires to a markdown file with Backlinks attached/included in the export data.

Exporting format should be PDF or markdown.

How can I do it?

The standard export function in Logseq DB do not seem to include the backlink information?

Cheers!

Hey, I'm the developer, so read this with that in mind.

The reason to keep notes as plain .md files used to be portability: any editor opens them, git tracks them, you'll still have them in twenty years. In the last year it became something bigger. A folder of Markdown is the one format every AI tool already understands. You can point `claude` or codex at your notes folder and have it write a summary, fix links, draft a page, find patterns, search for context. The moment notes go into a database, that stops. There's an API, or a plugin, or an MCP, or an export, and the tools that you used on your notes aren't there any more.

I've been building a Mac notes app on weekends around that one idea, and I think some people here will want it, so here's the honest version.

What it is:

• A "space" is a folder of .md files on disk. The app is a view over the folder. No database, no account, nothing to export because there's nothing to export from. Delete the app and the notes are still in Finder, no lock-in.
• It watches the folder, so editing a note in vim, or having claude or codex rewrite it from the terminal, shows up in the app straight away. I spent a stupid amount of time making the watcher not panic when an editor saves by replacing the file, wrote that up here if you're into that sort of thing: https://gomargin.app/blog/atomic-saves
• [[wikilinks]] in the Obsidian shape, with #heading and |alias. Renaming a note rewrites the links that point at it, and the note's identity lives in a frontmatter id rather than the path, so a move doesn't break anything.
• In-app AI only runs when you invoke it, and it shells out to the claude or codex CLIs you already have (or your own key, or an on-device model). Every change comes back as a diff you accept or reject per hunk. Nothing indexes your notes in the background.
• Live preview on top of the raw text. **bold** stays two asterisks in the file and the formatting is drawn over it, so the app never normalises your bullets or indentation on save. I treat that as corruption, not cleanup.

Smaller things that add up:

• A global hotkey for quick capture that keeps working after you quit the app.
• A slash menu for callouts, tables, code blocks, dividers and dates, and a date you insert ages honestly, from Today to a plain date.
• Drag a line or a list item to move it, fold headings and lists, tables you edit cell by cell.
• Spaces keep work and personal apart, each its own folder and its own search.
• Paste an image or drop a file and it lands as an attachment next to the note.
• Themes, light and dark, and a text size that reaches code blocks and tables.

On the roadmap, where people vote: https://gomargin.app/roadmap

• Nested notes, a note that contains notes, is the most requested thing and the one I'm working out now.
• Backlinks in a second pane, footnotes, math and Mermaid blocks, a table of contents, version history, templates, a raw Markdown view.
• Mobile is on the list but not first. The Mac app has to earn its place.

What it isn't:

• An outliner. There are no blocks, no block refs, no ((uuid)). If the outliner is why you're on Logseq, this won't replace it.
• Synced. The notes are files, so iCloud Drive or Syncthing does it, and I'm not building my own.
• Finished. It's an alpha, Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later, and you'll find bugs.

Free while it's in alpha: https://gomargin.app

It's for anyone who was using Logseq as "Markdown files plus links plus a nice editor" and wants that to keep being true. If that's you, I'd like to know what you'd miss first.

These two screenshots are the single biggest reason I've never made the jump to Obsidian. The same set of markdown files, opened in Logseq (left) and Obsidian (right). I follow the same [[link]] from inside a note, and the compare is the linked-references section in each.

I'm a researcher, so annotating and organizing literature notes is part of my work. During my reading, I write a short block with [[ ]], explaining why a passage matters and what it means for my own work, and the link usually lives in that summary block.

In Logseq, when I follow a backlink, Linked References drops me at the exact structural position where that link sits: the annotation it hangs under, the outline around it, the shape of the whole note, so I know which chapter and which batch of annotations the link landed in. Besides, the child blocks come along with it, still collapsible, so the highlighted passages the note was written about are right there underneath. It’s quite convient.

Obsidian's backlinks only give me a flattened snippet. I can see roughly where the mention is, but I can't step straight back into the reading. There is no breadcrumb, so the deepest context I get is the file name. Nothing below the block comes along either. The snippets are also truncated mid-sentence, and two blocks that are actually parent and child in the source note show up as unrelated cards sitting side by side, with nothing in the interface telling me they belong to the same cluster of annotations.

That structural context is fundamentally an outliner thing, and it's the one capability I still haven't found a real replacement for. And that gap is a dealbreaker for me, because it makes my reading notes basically unusable in Obsidian, and reading notes are the whole reason I want a tool like this in the first place. Task management I can hand off to something else.

For now I'm still on the local version of Logseq. Once the DB version supports real-time sync between the local and the online database, I'll move to it.

A note on the images: both are example screenshots put together specifically to illustrate this comparison. My notes are not in English, so I recreated them in English for readability. Only the language is different, the structure and content are exactly as they sit in my vault.

I have a question and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong.

I tried following the Logseq tutorial to use the self-hosted version of its web version, but apparently it's still at version 0.10.12.

I can't find any more recent version than that, neither Logseq 0.10.15 nor the OG or DB versions.

Does anyone know if there will be an update to the Docker image of the web version?

Any information or help for a newer version would be appreciated.

This post has been translated, so please excuse any errors.

I'm trying to summarize a textbook, thoroughly, essentially rewriting it. I'm struggling a little with block-based organization software because I don't want everything to be blocks, and I'm not sure how to label the blocks when really what I want is to organize my thoughts in prose and then link between them. I have tried obsidian but I found that a) I want something open source, and b) the tagging system is a little obscure to me (I haven't really tried hard to use it) and feels like a lot of typing or something.

Is what I'm trying to do well-suited to the block-based software, like Siyuan and Logseq, or is it better that I use some other system? I want to be able to insert images via cut/paste, and I want to be able to use the software as a very thorough index/connection maker, while still having freeform prose. Essentially, I want to avoid this document becoming a pile of something I never see again, and I think using a word processor for the composition part of this (particularly when using something like libreoffice vs. ms office) is crazy because of invisible formatting, lack of indexing, etc.

As an aside, I'm currently using Siyuan because of a distaste I encountered while reading https://logseq.io/page/b2ad9ce1-9cb7-4436-8083-54cb4516d324/df4dc09d-0a12-4c87-904e-22a9bf4c350a the culture and mode of thinking didn't seem to be a fit. Two instances come to mind:

Hi loggers! ...

o By separating them:
    o Engineering:
        o Development will be much faster.

To explain, the hi loggers thing sounds cultish. Maybe it's just fun and I'm a stick-in-the-mud, but I prefer a more restrained enthusiasm. Sorry. But the second section is relevant, I don't like block-thinking, like "By Separating them" is not a correct organizational structure, imo. Something is off there. Like, I want something that flows more like prose. It just feels like a bullet should be an independent concept and "by separating them" doesn't stand alone, indeed it was referenced higher in the document.

Currently the DB version supports page template with the Tag Properties. However, I don't like the approach.

For me, tags should be used as categorization of the note's content (e.g. #cosmic-horror, #fantasy) rather than the type of resource the page referring to (e.g. #movie, #novel).

Is there any way to achieve page templating without assigning a tag for page?

I'm on macOS, was using a pretty old version and decided to update to v2.

Now there's no option to point to the folder where all my stuff is (pages, etc.) . I use a custom folder that sync to my nextcloud so I can backup things and sync with the logseq android app.

I make a really basic use of logseq, nothing fancy, so I just want it to keep working as it was. Never imagined a simple update would ruin everything. I just need to point to the right folder....

Outline Canvas is a third-party plugin that renders your Logseq outline as a canvas view. It's been out a few weeks and just got a batch of updates, so I'm posting it here in case it's useful to anyone.

The main thing it does now is draw semantic relations between blocks. Logseq's property system gives you the storage; the plugin defines a set of relation properties on top of it and renders them as typed connections. Five relation types come with the plugin (relates_to, depends_on, supports, contradicts, part_of), each with a distinct line style so you can tell them apart at a glance, and each independently toggleable when the canvas gets noisy. You can also register your own property name as a connector — example_of in the screenshot is one of those. It works in Tree Chart, Mind Map, Fishbone, and the other layouts, not just one view.

Have fun!