How to leave Notion without losing your data: exports, databases and a migration checklist
How to export a Notion workspace as Markdown, HTML or PDF, what each format keeps and drops, how to save databases and backlinks, and a migration checklist.
On this page
To export a Notion workspace, open Settings, go to the General tab and choose "Export all workspace content". Notion builds a ZIP of HTML, Markdown and CSV files plus your uploaded files, and emails you a download link that expires after 7 days. Export twice, once as HTML and once as Markdown & CSV, because each format keeps things the other drops.
A Notion export is a copy of your content, not of your workspace. Database views, relations, comments, permissions and page history do not travel the way most people expect, and finding that out after the subscription is cancelled is painful. We moved our own handbook, specs and a few hundred meeting notes out of Notion in 2025; this is the process we wish we had followed.
Everything about Notion below was checked against Notion's help centre article "Export your content" in October 2026. Where the article is silent, we say so rather than guess.
What Notion lets you export
Notion offers three export formats for a page or database, and a fourth path for the whole workspace.
| Format | What you get | Where it works | Notes from Notion's help centre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Markdown & CSV | One .md file per page, one .csv per full-page database, with a Markdown file for each database row that has content | Any page or database | Callout blocks are exported as HTML inside the Markdown. "Include subpages" toggle creates separate files |
| HTML | A ZIP of .html files with assets in folders | Any page or database | The only format that can include comments, at page and block level, including resolved ones |
| A PDF of one page, or a ZIP of PDFs with subpages | Any page or database | "Include subpages" for PDF is only available on the Business or Enterprise plan. If a PDF export fails, Notion exports HTML instead | |
| Entire workspace | HTML, Markdown or CSV for databases, plus uploaded files | Settings, General, "Export all workspace content" | Desktop or web only. Delivered as an emailed link that expires after 7 days. Can take up to 30 hours |
The help centre states no plan requirement for Markdown or HTML exports, nor for the in-app workspace export. Notion's pricing page lists "Export entire workspace as HTML, Markdown, & CSV" and "Export entire workspace as PDF" among its admin features, but we could not confirm from the page which plans include each, so check your own workspace settings. Scheduled workspace exports through the admin API are Enterprise-only, in beta as of October 2026.
Two points from the help centre that matter for a migration:
- Pages you cannot access are left out, including other people's private pages. The person running the export should be a workspace owner, and even then each member should export their own private pages.
- Workspace or teamspace owners can disable exporting, and guests need full access to a page to export it. If the export button is missing, that is why.
HTML vs Markdown: what each keeps and drops
The two formats are not interchangeable, so run both.
Markdown & CSV is the one you migrate from. Almost every docs tool can import Markdown, and CSV opens in any spreadsheet. Headings, lists, links, code blocks and inline images come through as plain text you can grep, bulk-edit and version. Anything Markdown cannot represent is flattened: callouts arrive as HTML snippets, toggles become plain lists, columns collapse into one, and coloured text loses its colour.
HTML is the one you archive. It preserves more of the look, keeps assets next to the page, and is the only format that includes comments. Notion's help centre is explicit that HTML export can include page and block comments, resolved and unresolved, with the files, pages and users mentioned in them. It does not mention comments for Markdown, and in our exports they were not there. Nobody imports HTML cleanly, but a folder of HTML files opens in any browser for the next decade.
PDF is for the record, not the move. Right for a signed policy you want frozen, wrong for anything you will edit again, and PDF export with subpages is gated to Business and Enterprise.
A practical pairing: Markdown & CSV becomes the content of the new workspace; the HTML ZIP goes into cold storage with the date in the folder name.
Databases: what survives in CSV and what does not
Databases are where Notion exports lose the most. The help centre states one limit outright: you can only export the current view and the default view, exporting all views at once is not supported, and form views cannot be exported. Everything else below is what we observed in our own exports; the help centre does not address it.
| Database feature | In the CSV | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Properties (text, number, select, date, checkbox) | Yes, one column each, as text | Nothing; maps cleanly |
| Relations | The related page's title as text, not a link or an id | Add an ID column before you export (see step 2 below) |
| Rollups and formulas | Computed value at export time, not the formula | Copy the formula definitions into a notes page first |
| Filters, sorts, groups | No; only the rows the current and default views show | Switch the current view to an unfiltered table before exporting |
| Board, timeline, calendar, gallery layouts | No; a CSV has no layout | Screenshot the views you will rebuild |
| Page content inside a row | A separate Markdown file per row, if the row has content | Keep the folder structure when you move |
| Linked databases | They point at the source; export the source | Note which pages had linked views |
The relation problem is the one that bites: two pages called "Onboarding" in different databases are indistinguishable once relations are text. The fix is cheap before you export: add a formula property that outputs the row's id, so every CSV carries a unique key and relations can be resolved by title plus key afterwards.
Backlinks, mentions and page links
Notion's help centre does not describe how links, backlinks or mentions are treated in exports. What we found: internal links in Markdown exports become relative links to the exported file names, which carry a long id suffix, so a link to "Hiring process" points at a file like Hiring process 1a2b3c....md. Mentions of people become plain names. Backlinks, the "linked from" list at the top of a page, appear nowhere; they exist only because Notion indexes the forward links.
So backlinks are recoverable, but only if the forward links survive. Keep the exported file names intact until the import is done, then find-and-replace the id suffixes once the new tool has assigned its own URLs. Rename files first and every internal link breaks with no map to repair it.
What a Notion export never includes
From the help centre and our own exports, assume these stay behind:
- Page permissions and sharing settings. Write down the permission model for anything sensitive before you leave.
- Page history. You get the current version of each page only.
- Comments, unless you export HTML, and then only in the archive copy, not the Markdown you import.
- Database views, filters, sorts and forms. Only the current and default views' rows; no layouts.
- Synced blocks and embeds. A synced block exports as its content wherever it appeared; an embed becomes a link at best.
- Automations and buttons. Features of the app, not content.
- Other people's private pages, and anything a teamspace setting excludes.
Migration checklist: nine steps
- Freeze edits. Announce the export time and stop editing after it. An export that takes up to 30 hours is a snapshot of whenever Notion processed it, not when you clicked.
- Add an ID property to every database. A formula property with the row id gives every CSV a unique key for rebuilding relations.
- Reset every database's current view to an unfiltered, unsorted table so the CSV contains every row.
- Record what the files will not carry. One page with each database's views and filters, the formulas, the permission model for sensitive pages and the list of integrations that write into Notion.
- Export twice. Workspace export as Markdown & CSV with subpages included, then the same as HTML with comments. Have each member export their private pages the same way.
- Verify the ZIPs before you cancel anything. Count pages against the sidebar, open the largest databases, check images are in the asset folders. On Windows, paths over 260 characters can stop a ZIP extracting; Notion's workaround is to untick "Create folders for subpages" or extract with 7-Zip.
- Import Markdown and CSV into the new tool, keeping the folder tree so parent and child pages land in the right place.
- Repair links and relations. Find-and-replace the id suffixes in links, then rebuild relations from the ID column.
- Archive the HTML export with the date, move the integrations, and only then downgrade or delete the Notion workspace. Notion's help centre is clear that you cannot recreate a workspace by re-uploading an export, so there is no undo.
Where Atrix fits, and where it does not
The honest answer is narrower than "one-click migration". There is no Notion importer in Atrix. What exists is file import into pages: drop a Markdown file, a Word document or an Excel workbook into a page and it becomes editable blocks, parsed in the browser rather than stored as an attachment. Spreadsheet imports are capped at 200 rows and 30 columns per table. For a Notion move, that means Markdown pages import one at a time, CSVs come in as tables or go into page databases by hand, and relations are rebuilt rather than restored. Thirty pages and three databases is an afternoon; three hundred pages is a few days, done in order of what the team opens most.
What Atrix does better on the way out is the export. Any workspace can be exported as one ZIP by anyone with the settings permission: Markdown for every page in a folder tree that mirrors the hierarchy, and CSV or JSON for members, products, issues, comments, CRM companies, contacts, deals, calendar events, ideas, goals and feed posts, with a manifest and a README saying exactly what is and is not inside. Pay, bank details, identity documents, signed agreements and secrets are never included. The file is deleted from our servers 24 hours after it is made. The next move, whenever it comes, should cost less than this one. The docs and whiteboards feature page covers pages, databases and the export in detail.
If Atrix is a candidate destination, the Notion comparison is the feature-by-feature view and the Notion alternatives page puts it beside the other options. Atrix has no free plan; the 7-day trial is where to test an import with your real files.
FAQ
Does Notion let you export an entire workspace?
Yes. In Settings, under General, "Export all workspace content" produces HTML, Markdown or CSV for databases, plus uploaded files. Desktop and web only; it arrives as an emailed link that expires after 7 days and can take up to 30 hours. Other members' private pages are excluded.
Is Notion export HTML or Markdown better?
Markdown & CSV for migrating, HTML for archiving. Markdown imports into almost any tool but flattens callouts, toggles and columns and does not carry comments. HTML keeps more of the layout and is the only format that can include page and block comments, but no workspace tool imports it cleanly.
What is lost when you export a Notion database?
Only the current view and the default view are exported, so filtered rows in other views are missing, and form views cannot be exported. In our exports, relations became the related page's title as text, rollups and formulas became their computed values, and board, timeline and gallery layouts did not carry over.
Do Notion exports include comments?
Only HTML exports. Notion's help centre states that HTML export can include comments at page and block level, including resolved ones and the files, pages and people mentioned in them. The article does not mention comments for Markdown or PDF exports.
Can you re-import a Notion export to restore a workspace?
No. Notion's help centre says you cannot instantly recreate a workspace by re-uploading your exported content. Treat the export as a one-way copy and verify it before you delete anything.
Can Atrix import a Notion export?
Not as a whole. Atrix has no Notion importer. It imports Markdown, Word and Excel files into individual pages, so Notion's Markdown export comes in page by page and CSVs become tables. Relations and views are rebuilt by hand.
Next step
Run both exports this week, before you need them, and check the ZIPs open. If Atrix is on your shortlist, start with the Notion comparison and try an import of your real Markdown files during the trial, described on the docs and whiteboards page.