How to back up Notion databases

Databases are where Notion does its heaviest lifting — and where exports are most likely to quietly lose something. A wiki page is just text; a database is structure, and structure is easy to flatten. Here's how to get your databases out intact.

Exporting a single database

For a one-off copy of one database:

1. Open the database and click the ••• menu in the top-right.
2. Choose Export.
3. Pick Markdown & CSV. The database itself comes out as a CSV file; pages within it become Markdown.
4. Download the ZIP.

CSV opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or any data tool, which makes it a fine format for the raw rows.

What doesn't survive the export

This is the part to go in with eyes open. When a Notion database becomes a CSV, several things flatten:

• Views — board, calendar, and timeline layouts are gone; you get the underlying rows.
• Relations and rollups — links between databases export as plain text references, not live connections.
• Formulas — you get the computed value at export time, not the formula.
• Page content — the body of each database entry exports separately as Markdown, not inside the CSV.

None of this means the export is useless — the data is all there. It means a CSV is a copy of the data, not a perfect clone of the database.

Database to Excel, the quick way

If you just need one database as a spreadsheet right now, publish it to the web and run it through the free Notion database to Excel converter. Each property becomes a column, each item a row, and you get a clean .xlsx you can sort and filter — no sign-up.

Backing up databases automatically

The trouble with manual database exports is the same as everywhere else in Notion: they only happen when you remember. For databases that other pages and processes depend on, that's risky. An automatic workspace backup captures every database on a schedule, including the properties and the page content inside each entry, and delivers the lot to storage you own.

A note on getting data back in

A CSV backup isn't just insurance — it's also how you'd rebuild. Notion can import CSV files to recreate a database, so a clean export doubles as a restore path. Keep the column headers intact and the round-trip is straightforward. For the full picture of which formats survive best, see Notion export formats explained.