Transcription
How to migrate from Notion to Obsidian. Hey everyone and welcome back to the channel. If you're watching this video, chances are you've been using Notion for a while. Maybe you started with just a few notes and then slowly built a whole system around it. Your school work, your projects, your goals and ideas, everything in one place.
But now over time it feels slower. Sometimes it doesn't load and you have to rely on the internet for most of these notes and to get access to it. And sometimes it just feels heavy. So, you've probably heard about Obsidian and you've seen people talk about it being faster and all your notes are just stored in one place. It doesn't depend on the internet. It's offline and more private. But one big problem stops people from switching between apps is how do I move all of these notes without losing everything? That is exactly what we are going to solve today. In this video, I will show you how to properly migrate from Notion to Obsidian step by step in a way that is simple, safe, and beginner-friendly. It's not too complicated and it's just going to take you a few minutes.
Before we even touch the migration process, let's talk about why so many people are leaving Notion and moving to Obsidian. Notion is an amazing platform and application. It's beautiful, flexible, and easy to start with. But as your workspace grows, problems just keep growing as well. Pages take longer to load. Large databases feel slow. Your forms that you write sometimes they don't load because if your internet is weak, you're not going to get access to these notes and it is going to be slow. Basically, everything depends on the internet. If your connection is weak, your whole system becomes unusable. On top of that, your notes are stored on someone else's server, so you don't really own them. And if something happens to your account, your access can be limited.
Obsidian works entirely differently because all your notes are stored as simple files on your own device. You can get access to them without relying on the internet and it provides you with backlinks where all your notes are stored together. You can see a graph and see what notes are linked together. You can open them anytime and you don't need any internet access to it. They load instantly and you stay in full control. That is why people who care about long-term learning, studying, and knowledge management usually end up moving to Obsidian.
Now, before we start exporting anything, the most important setup is preparation. You can go onto your Notion account, you can delete some folders or just some drafts. You can clean it up, clean up your space. So once you're exporting and in that ring, you will know exactly what you need to export. Instead of just exporting the draft files as well, have finished projects or just pages that you haven't touched in months, duplicate notes, random lists that you forgot about, you can go ahead and delete those and just clean everything. If you skip this step, you will bring unnecessary mess into Obsidian and your new system will feel overwhelming from day one. So spend some time here. It's going to be worth it.
Once your workspace is clean, it's time to export. You're going to go onto your main dashboard, click on settings, go onto general. Once you scroll down, you are going to see the option that you can export your entire workspace. You're going to click on this. This is going to provide you with your exporting format. We're going to click on HTML because we're going to export this in a zip file. And you have options to create folders for your subpages. If you want to do that, you can go ahead and create folders for your subpages and just simply click on export.
In the meantime that this is being exported, you're going to see a notification in your Notion inbox or even with the email that your Notion account is attached with. We're going to go to Obsidian in the meantime and create a new vault. So, we have everything in a new vault. We're just going to simply create a new vault. You can give it the name "my vault". We're going to create. And this is just going to we're just going to keep it in downloads. And now this gives us an entire new vault. You can see the welcome folder and just new instructions.
Here we are going to set up our account and download an importer. You're simply going to go onto your settings. In here you're going to click on community plugins. Turn on community plugins and you're going to browse one. You're going to search up for "importer". You're going to click on this and install this. After installing, you're basically going to enable this. So once you download the zip file that is extracted into your computer, you can simply just paste it here and everything is just going to be imported in a few seconds. You're going to click on enable. So this is going to stay and be added into your main dashboard. We're going to exit this. And you see here that you can see an option to open the importer.
You go onto your Notion account and in the inbox you see the notification that it is ready to export. You're going to download this. This is just going to download in your web browser automatically. You can start seeing it in your files as well. Now you go onto Obsidian. You click on the importer. You're going to see the option of the file format. We're going to click on "Notion zip file". Now we have to choose a file that has already been downloaded. You're going to click on that and simply just click on import. This is going to import all of your data into Obsidian creating backlinks, graphs, and almost everything is just going to be stored in here with just a few seconds. So you see that there is an entire graph view here and all the linked files together. So you can see that and you click on Notion, you get the files, you get the folders and right here you can start organizing them. Everything is provided and almost everything is just exported here with the exact format and your priorities.
Now next step is to set up Obsidian. Now after importing you might notice that some links don't work perfectly. Some pages and connections may look strange, especially if you used many internal links in Notion. Obsidian doesn't work exactly like Notion. They're built on different philosophies, but this is normal. So, to fix this, you're just going to go to your Obsidian settings. You can also see that some links here don't work. And to fix this, you can simply just go on and add in more plugins. You're going to go to your community plugins once again. You're going to click on browse. And here, you're just going to search "Notion link converter". You're just going to download this, install it, and this is just going to keep your links working. You can enable this and then later on just work with it.
So your focus is going to be on the organization and you're going to organize all of these notes, folders, and give them titles. You can see that there is no title for this. You can go ahead, add names. Don't rush the setup because organizing is going to be slow and it is going to help you understand your own system better. One thing you'll notice is that Notion databases don't transfer perfectly. You can see that there are folders for every single one of the tasks with a background analysis and just the name with its priority and deadline. In Obsidian, you can rebuild these systems using plugins like DataView, Tasks, and Projects. So for example, if you had a task manager in Notion, you can now use task plugins. You just need to keep adding more plugins and it is just going to be easier so you can create DataViews and recreate it automatically. These tools take time to learn, but once you understand them, they're actually more powerful than Notion and fully offline, so you don't have to depend on your internet connection or just worry that your notes aren't being saved into your own server.
Now, to make Obsidian feel like a full productivity system, you can rely on the plugins, install them, and use them practically so you get used to the system and see what suits best for you and what tools work for you, creating a better working environment. Together, these plugins replace most of the Notion features, but don't install everything at once. It is going to overcomplicate your system. Just start simple and add tools only when you actually need them.
First, they try to migrate everything in one day. This usually leads to frustration. Instead, move in stages. Test small sections first. So if you have an entire build system with many, many notes and like multiple folders, forms, just start exporting it in sections first so you see what you're working with. And second, they install too many plugins. This makes Obsidian slow and confusing. And third, they try to copy someone else's system exactly. Your workflow should fit you, not YouTube trends. So build your own system gradually.
And that's how you can migrate from Notion to Obsidian the right way, without stress, without data loss, and without destroying your workflow. Switching tools is not about chasing trends. It's about finding what helps you think better, learn faster, and stay organized long-term. If you found this video helpful, make sure to like it and subscribe for more content on productivity, note-taking, and digital organization. And let me know in the comments, are you moving from Notion to Obsidian? Or are you still deciding? If this video helped you, like it. Leave a comment below if this guide has helped you or if you need any more tutorial guides. Subscribe and hit the bell icon. And thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next.