Note content replaced by Excalidraw JSON when switching notes

[questamor]

Description

Sometimes, quickly switching between a text note and a canvas note causes the text note’s content to be overwritten with JSON. This is really frustrating, since I often need to switch between diagrams and other notes. This issue is most noticeable and reproducible when editing is very fast — for example, when copying a group of elements inside the canvas, drawing quickly, and similar actions.

Recording.2025-08-26.191833.mp4

TriliumNext Version

0.98.0

What operating system are you using?

Windows

What is your setup?

Local + server sync

Operating System Version

Windows 11 24H2 26100.4946

Error logs

No response

[dosubot]

Hi @questamor! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Trilium team.

This is a known issue in TriliumNext: rapidly switching between text and canvas notes can trigger a race condition where the text note's content is overwritten by Excalidraw JSON or disappears. This happens because the app sometimes tries to update the text editor (CKEditor) after it has been destroyed or before it's fully initialized, especially during fast or repeated state changes from embedded content like canvas notes. The problem is not limited to Windows or your setup—similar reports exist across platforms and setups. There isn't a permanent fix yet, but workarounds include navigating away and back to the note, resizing the note pane, toggling between layouts, or restarting the app to force a proper re-render. These actions can help recover the correct content or prevent the overwrite in many cases. For more technical details and ongoing discussion, see this issue.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[eliandoran]

@questamor , how often is this issue reproducible? I tried to reproduce it 20 times, and only 2 times I got it to reproduce.

[questamor]

@eliandoran
In my case, I was editing a text note with a draft of the feature requirements for a software product while also switching to the canvas to draw a low-fidelity UI concept. The text note contained 500+ words, and the canvas mockup consisted of maybe around 100 different elements. I was actively copying multiple selected elements on the canvas and switching between other notes, and the issue reproduced roughly every 8-10 switches, which was quite inconvenient.

I also noticed that sometimes the canvas would even roll back my changes if I moved or copied elements too quickly.

So I think fixing this issue would really help to get rid of the fear of pressing buttons too quickly.

[eliandoran]

@questamor , can you share your CPU model? I wonder if the CPU performance can be a factor.

[questamor]

@eliandoran AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Also had light background activity, not full usage.

I think since this case reproduces rather inconsistently and only under a specific usage scenario, this issue can be marked as low priority

[eliandoran]

@questamor , I'm planning anyway to rewrite part of the client to React (in the upcoming month or so), so I'll take special care around the process of saving, to ensure it's on the same note. Perhaps we can retest it afterwards.

[perfectra1n]

I'm wondering if it has to do with the local view state not saving prior to the user switching Notes...

[saitatter]

Hello! I encountered this bug as well. It's my third time I encounter this and it's very annoying. Also I've been encountering a similar bug maybe, still regarding canvas notes. When I parent canvas notes under the same parent, and I write in one of the canvas notes when I switch to the other sibling canvas notes the content gets overwritten. It's very annoying especially for my use case as a teaching tool (my workflow usually involves having a parent text note, creating multiple canvas notes where I sketch things and I embed their result in the text note and at the end exporting the text note as pdf) and I encountered both of these bugs. P.S. Eliandoran, I'm waiting for a patch release with the fix you did for pdf exporting to not trigger twice :))

[saitatter]

Oh and one more thing, it seems that sharing that note breaks some image links and the shared page looks very weird compared to what you see in the editor and pdf export.

[perfectra1n]

@eliandoran do you know if Excalidraw JSON also uses XML tags? If so, it might be resolved by #6867

[eliandoran]

It's my third time I encounter this and it's very annoying

@saitatter , what CPU model does your device have?

I'm waiting for a patch release with the fix you did for pdf exporting to not trigger twice :)

It's planned for this weekend.

When I parent canvas notes under the same parent, and I write in one of the canvas notes when I switch to the other sibling canvas notes the content gets overwritten.

Yes, I suppose it's theoretically the same bug since the content of the previous canvas is written onto the next one (parent in this case). I can't reproduce it consistently enough in order to have a fix for it.

do you know if Excalidraw JSON also uses XML tags?

@perfectra1n , unfortunately it doesn't. It's only JSON. The issue is not the rendering of the content, it's actually writing onto the wrong note.