Troubleshooting

Find the symptom, check what it suggests, then use the tools at the bottom of the page — the vault check, settings snapshots, and the log — if that does not settle it.

A note is not on the calendar

The calendar shows a note when its properties name the journal and a date the journal recognizes.

1. Open the note's properties. It needs journal naming the journal exactly, and the date property (journal-date unless renamed). No properties? The note was never connected — use Connect note to a journal, or Bulk add for many.
2. Check the date is the period's first day. A monthly note dated the 15th, or a weekly note dated mid-week, is not recognized. After changing Week configuration, a weekly note whose date could not be moved stays on the old grid. The vault check finds and fixes both.
3. Check the shelf. A calendar scoped to a shelf shows only that shelf's journals. Pick All journals in the shelf selector to rule it out.
4. Check the timeline. A date outside the journal's Start writing on / End writing cannot be clicked in a calendar.

A note you made yourself was not picked up

Auto-attach reacts to notes created or renamed while Obsidian runs, and only when exactly one journal's folder and name template match the note's whole path. When two journals match, the vault check lists the note and Connect to journal settles it. Notes that were already there when you installed the plugin are not adopted. See Auto-attach for the full list, and look for a warning under the journal's Folder or Note name template, whichever is at fault — it says when paths cannot be read back. A date format the plugin cannot read back is one cause, and it is easy to miss because the notes themselves look right: a format that also carries a time zone — Z or ZZ — is written correctly and matches nothing on the way back. Build the format from date symbols such as YYYY-MM-DD.

A note was created in the wrong place

• Look at Resolved note path: at the top of the journal's Note creation section; it shows exactly where the next note goes.
• A / in Note name template or Default date format creates folders — the settings page offers to move that part into Folder.
• The period's note may already exist elsewhere: a note you moved or renamed keeps its connection, and opening that period opens it where it is.

Two journals fight over the same notes

Colliding journal settings on the main settings page names journals that write the same note path for some period: "Journals … have colliding configurations, so their notes will overwrite each other." It compares the paths the journals actually produce, so it also catches journals whose settings look different — a day journal and a week journal both named {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} and {{start_date:YYYY-MM-DD}} share every Monday's note. Change the folder or name template of one. A freshly cloned journal collides until you do, unless its name or folder uses {{journal_name}} — that is part of the path, so a copy whose name renders differently writes its own notes.

Notes that arrived while the journals collided are connected to neither. Run the vault check before changing the settings — it lists those notes only while more than one journal matches them. Afterwards, Bulk add adopts them into the journal that kept the path.

When a note path already belongs to another journal, nothing is written and a notice says which.

Opening a period says its note belongs to another period

A name that tells neighboring periods apart can still repeat over a longer stretch: a monthly journal named {{date:MMMM}} calls every March March, and a daily one named {{date:MM-DD}} gives every 17 September the same name. Opening next March would find this March's note at that path, so the plugin leaves it alone and shows a notice naming the period the note already belongs to. The journal's settings warn about such a name under Note name template. Add the year to the name or the folder — {{date:YYYY}} as the folder keeps the short names.

Clicking a date asks which journal

Two journals of the same period length are in scope and both cover the date. Pick a shelf in the view's shelf selector so only one of them is in scope — see Work and home on one calendar. Commands and links that target a period length ask the same way.

Today's note was created on two devices

When sync is slow, your phone and your computer can each create today's note before the other's copy arrives. Set Automatic note creation on the main settings page to Desktop only or Mobile only — see Auto-create today's note. If two notes now claim the same day, the vault check lists them, and Keep this one removes the claim from the others.

A command is missing from the palette, or does nothing

The palette lists a command only where it can do something — Open next note only while a journal note is open, and a command whose Context is Open note's date only likewise. A hotkey or ribbon button runs it anyway and shows a notice saying why nothing happened. See Commands.

A navigation segment cannot link to another journal

A segment's Journal link offers only journals on the same shelf, so a journal on no shelf has none to offer. Put the journals on one shelf — see Navigation blocks and zoom.

A code block shows nothing, or an error

• Nothing at all, or plain code. The fence name is wrong — journal-nav, calendar-timeline, journals-home, journal-notelets — or the note is open in Obsidian's Source mode, which shows code blocks as plain text. Switch to Live Preview or Reading view.
• "Note is not connected to a journal". Navigation and notelet blocks read their journal from the note they sit in. Connect the note, or use them only in journal notes.
• A message about options. An option name the block does not know is listed above the block, and a value it does not understand falls back to the default. Check spelling against Code blocks.
• An empty journals-home — "No journals to show. Check the block's show and shelf options." A shelf naming a renamed or deleted shelf shows nothing.

Variables show up as {{…}} in notes

A {{…}} the plugin cannot read is left as written: check the braces are doubled and closed, and the name is spelled as in Variables. {{note_name}} does not work in the note name template itself.

A decoration does not show

• Its match badge in settings says whether it matched recently. "Matched nothing" means the conditions never hold — check whether When to decorate should be Decorate when any condition is fulfilled rather than Decorate when all conditions are fulfilled.
• Right-click the cell → Explain decorations shows which decoration painted each part of the cell and which it overrode.
• A property condition offers comparisons for the property's type as Obsidian knows it. Set the type in Obsidian first.

See Decorations.

Settings fields do not respond

Another plugin may be interfering — this has happened. See When another plugin gets in the way.

Settings changes are not saved

If the settings page shows "These settings were saved by a newer version of Journals on another device", a device running a newer Journals has saved settings this copy cannot read. It keeps working with the settings it already had, but it stops saving: anything you change here is discarded, and restoring a snapshot and importing from other plugins are both unavailable until this is resolved. Without that, this copy would write its older settings back over the newer ones and lose whatever only the newer version can express.

Restart Obsidian — this device has most likely already received the newer Journals and only needs to load it. If it has not, the restart is louder than the banner rather than bringing it back: the newer settings are on disk before Journals loads, so Journals does not start at all and shows a notice asking you to update it on this device. There is no Journals settings page to open then — update Journals from Obsidian's Community plugins page. The banner itself can only come back when this copy started against settings it could read and newer ones arrived while it was running.

An older version replaced your settings

The opposite case: a device still running an older Journals saved its settings over yours, and a notice says so. A copy of your settings from just before that is kept under Settings snapshots as "Taken when an older version replaced these settings" — Restore puts them back. Update Journals on the other device first, or it will happen again.

Templater breaks notes or removes properties

See Templater for the setup that keeps the two from processing the same note.

Maintenance

Maintenance, at the bottom of the main settings page, has three tools — Settings snapshots, Import from other plugins (see Importing your settings) and Vault check. It does nothing unless you use it.

Vault check

Scans every note that claims a journal, and every note that claims none but whose path more than one journal would adopt, and groups what it finds:

Group	What it means
journal — the calendar cannot see these notes	the stored date is not a period of the journal; the check proposes the right one
journal — these notes cover the wrong period	the start or end date does not match the note's own period
journal — two notes for date	two notes claim one period; Keep this one removes the claim from the others
journal — this journal no longer exists	notes of a deleted journal; Remove journal keys, or reconnect them
journal — unknown notelet type	notelets of a deleted type; Remove journal keys, or reconnect them
journals — more than one journal matches these notes	auto-attach could not tell whose note it is; Connect to journal picks one

Each row is marked Will be fixed or Needs your decision. Fix count repairs a group and Fix everything safe repairs every safe finding. Where the file name and the note disagree on the date, nothing is changed for you: open the note and decide which is right.

Findings reflect your journals as they are configured right now, so if your settings are wrong, restore a snapshot first. The page checks again after every repair.

Settings snapshots

A copy of your settings is saved before the plugin migrates them to a new version ("Taken before upgrading from settings version 4"), before a snapshot is restored ("Taken before restoring a snapshot"), before an import from other plugins ("Taken before importing settings from other plugins"), and when a device running an older Journals has overwritten them ("Taken when an older version replaced these settings" — see An older version replaced your settings). Restore puts one back.

Reporting a bug

1. Under Logging on the main settings page, set Log level to Debug — only messages at or above the chosen level are printed to the console and kept for export, so Debug captures everything.
2. Make the problem happen again.
3. Export logs → Dump logs to note writes a note named journal-log- followed by the date and time.
4. Open a bug report. It asks what happened, steps to reproduce, plugin and Obsidian versions, platform, console output, the journal's configuration, and other plugins involved — Templater, Calendar, Periodic Notes, Daily notes. Attach the log note.

Set the log level back afterwards.