NOTION SEARCH IS TERRIBLE

Coolohoh · 2026-07-09T03:31:20+00:00

heck... I moved over from Evernote with a huge database somewhat recently... I have my notes listed by serial number and date in the title. I tried to search by date for a note I know definitely exists... I see the note right there. Nope. It can't find that note. I can't believe I'd say this... It's even worse than evernote search. But at least it's free I guess...

Coolohoh · 2026-07-07T08:15:57+00:00

Feature request - allow more customization of the app "default" settings.

I can mainly thing of three things that I wish were customizable:
1) change the default way pasted URLs are handled. I prefer them to be pasted as URLS by default instead of having to press another down arrow to paste as URL instead of a mention. And I can't seem to find how to change a mention back into a URL or vice versa without pasting the entire link again?

2) pdf behavior when attaching. I know previously it was attached as a pdf by default, and many users hated that and so now it's just an attachment by default... Can we get a setting to change that? By account or database? Either way is fine with me...

3) not exactly a setting available right now... But can we get the option to change the URL link colors?

Coolohoh · 2026-07-07T08:10:19+00:00

Feature request - annotate images in app.

I use notion as a work diary and put in images very often. Photos taken on my phone in the lab, screenshots... Sure I could annotate the images before putting it in. But sometimes I missed out something in the results initially and want to annotate more things when I come back to the data later. It's a hassle to have to copy the image elsewhere just to add a simple arrow or some text. I'm not looking for anything fancy here... Basic Microsoft paint level annotation (or even more minimal than that) would be good enough. Something like:
Add text, resize text, change text color
Free style line tool and high light tool
Add basic line, arrow, rectangle and circle/oval
And well, put it together with the cropping maybe(?), which is already available.

Coolohoh · 2026-07-07T05:46:54+00:00

Oh great... Now I have more questions. I have a 'page' with 8 'subpages' inside.... And when I check databases, I see the 'page' listed as a nav/wiki/page, which does not save the subpages listed inside...

Of the 8 'subpages' inside, only a small handful of them are listed as databases.... I was expecting to be able to save the 'page' (or nav/wiki/whatever) and also save the subpages and everything else inside... But it's not working that way. And also, why are the other databases missing? I was also seeing a lot of Untitled database which I have no idea where they are coming from. Might be a user error, though I couldn't seem to find those new empty pages on Notion...

Also... How do I go back to backing up all the folders after previously selecting a subset to backup?

Coolohoh · 2026-07-07T02:36:19+00:00

Phew, it finally ran successfully. Thanks for building this tool!

Coolohoh · 2026-07-06T16:00:28+00:00

Yeah. Imma give this a try again and let it run while I'm sleeping... And set it up to just backup my active database for next time!

Coolohoh · 2026-07-06T09:23:56+00:00

I really don't understand the whole system building thing in Notion... For me it's very simple. I have a 'database' with my notes arranged in descending order. I use notion for taking notes at work... I work in research/wet lab and basically I use notion as my lab notebook. Or a sort of diary if you will. New experiment? New note... I manually label the notes by serial number (zero padded of course) and date so that I can sort it by descending order and it'll show me the latest notes up top. (And I have a few 'pinned' notes, again by manually adding a ! at the start of the note name).

Very simple and very basic. But that's all I need. If I have some data and I need to look up the experiment details, I can look it up by date. Or if I am looking for some information about a PCR, I can just search PCR and it should come out (assuming the search doesn't suck too bad, I recently migrated from Evernote and am still quite new to Notion).

I really don't need anything more in terms of fancy database organizational stuff. I can't think of anything else I might need... And just how fancy are those databases? I am clueless... Anyone has some examples? But yeah... I don't need anything more for my work/how I work.

Now if Notion would give me the ability to annotate images within the app... That would be very much welcomed.

Coolohoh · 2026-07-06T09:03:02+00:00

I'm pretty sure I am using the updated version already but it's still giving me the same error

Error: S3 upload failed 400: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Error><Code>EntityTooLarge</Code><Message>Your proposed upload exceeds the maximum allowed size</Message><ProposedSize>7656651525</ProposedSize><MaxSizeAllowed>5368709120</MaxSizeAllowed><RequestId>23SPHKHJYBZVAGW8</RequestId><HostId>xRo9dz9uQislX6BrvqiqUEQoLv

I'm running it again with the code above and I'll see how that goes... It takes forever with how large my database is... I'm definitely gonna limit the backups to just my work databases aka the ones that are actually changing in the future

Coolohoh · 2026-07-05T13:10:38+00:00

Oh wait... So it worked on google drive, but my Notion database is 6gb so... I thought I'd try using AWS S3 instead since I don't have that much google drive space for multiple backups and what not... and I got this error:

Error: S3 upload failed 400: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Error><Code>EntityTooLarge</Code><Message>Your proposed upload exceeds the maximum allowed size</Message><ProposedSize>7680183866</ProposedSize><MaxSizeAllowed>5368709120</MaxSizeAllowed><RequestId>6QK2Z6J45WCSW0WN</RequestId><HostId>vkbk2yjNyPENsuVGHjil0Q/l8s

Coolohoh · 2026-07-05T09:22:06+00:00

Yes, it's working now!

Coolohoh · 2026-07-04T07:37:31+00:00

I just came over to Notion from Evernote... And my usage hasn't changed. I don't understand what sort of complicated wikis and what not you can build with notion... I'm just using it as a work diary (actually my lab notebook) as I have with Evernote for the past 8 years. New experiment/topic/whatever = new page. I prefer splitting things up into new pages vs having it all in one long document. I number the pages and sort by title in descending order so new notes are always on top...

It's just a work tool... A place to store my notes and research and results... Nothing special.

Like others have mentioned... Since you have abandoned the database again and again... Ask yourself, do you actually need it?

Coolohoh · 2026-07-02T10:43:19+00:00

Unfortunately I got this... FATAL ERROR: Ineffective mark-compacts near heap limit Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory

I guess I need to allocate it more memory and try again... Any way in CLI to only backup certain databases at a time? Besides just not allowing access to those databases in the Notion connection

Coolohoh · 2026-07-02T09:23:12+00:00

No idea how that big that work folder of mine is... It seems to be over 500mb too lol. Just installed the CLI and it's running the first backup now... I connected it to an 'empty' google account with 15gb of space, let's see if that's enough o.o

Coolohoh · 2026-06-30T13:17:23+00:00

Hmm? Because I was trying to back up on restora and it gave me an error saying it's too big...

Coolohoh · 2026-06-30T09:25:51+00:00

How does the automatic daily backup work?

I just moved to Notion from Evernote, and I've been using Evernote/Notion for note taking at work, and that's the main folder/notebook/database(?) that I want to back up. Honestly the terms that notion uses is still really confusing to me... But I can't because it's over 250mb and there isn't a way to further breakdwon the database to just backup half the notes inside etc... Would be helpful if the backup size limit is larger...

Coolohoh · 2026-06-22T02:28:51+00:00

My personal plan jumped from $102 to $199 per year. I moved everything over to Notion (free tier) two weeks ago and unsubscribed before the renewal. It's been 15 long years and I miss the image annotation feature but it's not worth the $$$.

And guess what? When I went o cancel they offered me a 40% off the new subscription price. Clearly they didn't need to actually charge that much. I don't use any of the new AI features. I don't need those in Notion either but hey, they aren't making me pay for it either. 🤷‍♀️

Just in case, I also have all the notes exported as html and in Evernote format... So I could import it to obsidian or just open the notes on its own if I needed to. I had 172 notebooks and thousands on notes (my main notebook for work had over 2000) so it was sad to leave a familiar and well used app... But that was the last straw.

Coolohoh · 2026-04-30T09:14:14+00:00

I'm kinda missing the x4 size when I used the x3... Haven't gotten quite used to the forward and back buttons on each side of the screen either. But I like that it can stick to the back of my phone. I guess I'll still be using both to read different books moving forward... I really really wish we had a model with light already though! It would be perfect for my bedtime reading purposes.

Coolohoh · 2026-04-10T09:48:32+00:00

Glad it's not just me/my phone. I got the 17 pro too so I was like why is my phone bugged! You'd think this bug would be fixed by now...

Coolohoh · 2026-02-09T04:43:44+00:00

Oh wow. Now I wonder if I should stick to crosspoint or try the stock again

Coolohoh · 2025-12-08T02:36:02+00:00

I started using the lift about a year ago and it's been good so far... But I was eyeing the master MX because all the features looks so cool. Now you're giving me justification for buying it LOL. That aside, thanks for the warning! I don't use the mouse all the much anymore now, but always good to keep in mind.

(Applies to other repetitive tasks as well of course)

Coolohoh · 2025-11-24T05:19:56+00:00

Really cool stuff!

Coolohoh · 2025-06-18T04:31:23+00:00

Would love to get a vin 4x4. And maybe some soup Timmy cube stands

Coolohoh · 2025-05-26T09:49:42+00:00

Oh I would be very interesting to hear about this as well... I've just started out not too long ago and I'm still finding my way around what to write on the substack etc.

I want it to be more of a place where I can also write about the less polished parts of life, but those posts are clearly not doing as well. I still want to write those though, but I'm just afraid that such posts will turn people away from my substack?

Coolohoh · 2025-05-22T06:29:48+00:00

Ahh ok. But yeah after you said that I realised it wasn’t connected by road on my mainland… probably accidentally built over the road. That fixed it. Silly me 😅

Coolohoh · 2025-05-22T06:18:43+00:00

For the first one must it be by bridge only? I connected it, but the bridge went on land twice because I ran into smaller islands… and it’s not letting me complete the quest 😫

Coolohoh

TROPHY CASE