Databases

Notion databases are one of the most useful things to sync, and N2O leans on Obsidian Bases - Obsidian’s own built-in database feature - to display them. Each Notion database becomes a folder of Markdown notes plus a native .base view, so you get real table, card, and board layouts inside Obsidian with no third-party plugin. Every item also gets Dataview-ready frontmatter.

N2O uses Obsidian Bases

Bases is Obsidian’s native database feature (a core plugin, Obsidian 1.9+). N2O generates a .base file for each synced Notion database, so your data shows up as proper table / card / board views - it’s built into Obsidian, nothing extra to install. Just make sure Bases is enabled in Settings > Core plugins.

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Database = folder

Each Notion database becomes a folder in your vault:

Notion/
├── Projects/
│   ├── Project Alpha.md
│   ├── Project Beta.md
│   └── _files/           ← media from database items
└── Projects.base         ← Bases view (sibling of the folder)

Database items become .md files. A .base file is generated next to each database folder (see Bases views below).

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Property mapping

Every database property is mapped to YAML frontmatter in each item file:

---
icon: "🚀"
status: "In Progress"
due-date: 2026-01-15
tags:
  - frontend
  - feature
priority: "High"
notion_id: "page-uuid"
notion_url: "https://notion.so/..."
created: 2026-01-10T09:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-01-15T14:30:00.000Z
n2o_type: "database-item"
n2o_database: "db-uuid"
---

Property names are sanitized to YAML-safe keys: "Due Date" → due-date, "Priority #" → priority. See Supported Properties for the full mapping table.

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Database filters

Sync only the rows you want from a database:

1. Open Settings > Sync > What to sync.
2. Select the database in the Choose items picker.
3. Click the Filters button next to the selected database.
4. Add conditions (e.g. Status = “In Progress”).
5. Choose All (AND) or Any (OR) match mode.

Only matching items are fetched from Notion. Filtered-out items don’t appear in your vault.

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Property mappings (rename, exclude, format)

Customize how properties appear in frontmatter - per database:

• Rename: due-date → deadline
• Exclude: Hide a property from frontmatter entirely
• Format: Change date format per property (ISO, human-readable, tags)

Configure in Settings > Sync > What to sync: select a database in the picker, then click its Properties button.

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Inline databases

Inline databases nested inside Notion pages are discovered automatically. When you sync a parent page, any inline databases inside it are included. This is controlled by Settings > Sync > What to sync > Include inline databases.

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Bases views (.base files)

N2O generates native Obsidian Bases .base files for every synced database - on by default.

Enable or disable in Settings > Sync > Databases > Bases for Databases.

Folder placement

The .base file sits next to (not inside) the database folder:

Notion/
├── Projects/          ← database folder
│   └── ...
└── Projects.base      ← Bases view

7 default views

N2O generates 7 views for each database:

View	Type	Description
Table	Table	All properties, smart column order
Gallery	Cards	Visual card layout with cover images
List	List	Compact single-line entries
Board	Table	Grouped by status or select property
Timeline	Table	Sorted by date property
Compact	Table	Name + top 3 key properties
Books	Cards	Reading-optimized with banner images

The default view matches what’s set in Notion - requires Enhanced Metadata to be enabled. Without it, N2O uses the global default from Settings > Sync > Databases > Default View Type (table, cards, or list).

Preserving custom views

If you create additional views in Obsidian’s Bases UI, N2O preserves them across syncs. Only the 7 default views are regenerated - your custom views are untouched.

Note

Bases is a core Obsidian plugin available in Obsidian 1.9+. If your .base files don’t render, enable it in Settings > Core plugins > Bases.

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Linked database views

Requires Enhanced Metadata

Automatic linked view resolution and filter detection require Enhanced Metadata to be enabled. Without it, a modal asks you to manually identify the source database for each linked view, and the resulting .base files won’t carry the view’s filters.

When a Notion page contains a linked database view (a filtered gallery, table, or list view embedded inside a page), N2O generates a filtered .base file for each one - scoped to only the items that view shows.

Linked view .base files are placed in a _views/ subfolder inside the database folder:

Notion/
├── Projects/
│   ├── _views/
│   │   ├── Active Projects.base      ← filtered linked view
│   │   └── My Tasks.base             ← another linked view
│   ├── Project Alpha.md
│   └── ...
└── Projects.base                     ← full database view

This mirrors what Notion shows - instead of seeing every database item, you see exactly the filtered subset from each linked view.

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Canvas views (.canvas files)

N2O can generate Obsidian Canvas files that visualize database items as an interactive graph.

Enable in Settings > Sync > Databases > Canvas for Databases (off by default).

Placement

The .canvas file is placed inside the database folder:

Notion/
└── Projects/
    ├── Projects.canvas    ← Canvas file (inside folder)
    ├── Project Alpha.md
    └── ...

Layout

• Items arranged in a 4-column grid (260×60px nodes, 80px horizontal / 40px vertical gap)
• Each node links to its .md file in the vault
• Relations become edges between nodes, labeled with the relation property name

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Dataview compatibility

N2O frontmatter works with Dataview out of the box:

TABLE status, due-date, tags
FROM "Notion/Projects"
SORT due-date ASC

Useful fields:

• created / updated - ISO timestamps for sorting
• tags - native Obsidian tags (the Tags multi-select property maps to the tags: key automatically)
• All other properties are available as frontmatter keys

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Relations as wikilinks

Notion relation properties map to wikilinks in frontmatter:

related-projects:
  - "[[Project Alpha]]"
  - "[[Project Beta]]"

On push, N2O resolves wikilinks back to Notion page IDs using the notion_id stored in each linked file’s frontmatter.