AFFiNE 0.27: New Importers, Calendar View, and a Sync Warning
If you have ever tried to move years of notes out of Notion or Obsidian, you know the feeling. Your knowledge is right there, but it is locked inside someone else's app, and getting it out cleanly feels like defusing a bomb. AFFiNE has always pitched itself as the escape hatch: an open-source, local-first workspace that folds docs, whiteboards, and databases into one tool you can actually self-host. The new 0.27 release, shipped in July 2026, leans hard into that promise.
If you are new here: AFFiNE is a single app that behaves like Notion and a Miro-style infinite canvas at the same time, with your data living on your own server instead of someone else's cloud. Let's walk through what 0.27 changes, and the one thing you need to know before you upgrade.
New importers: OneNote, Obsidian, Bear, and Notion
This is the headline for most people. AFFiNE 0.27 adds native importers for OneNote, Obsidian, Bear, and Notion. If you have been waiting for a clean migration path off a proprietary notes app, this is it. Instead of exporting to Markdown and praying your links survive, you point AFFiNE at your existing workspace and pull it in directly.
Migration is usually the single biggest reason people stay locked into a tool they have outgrown. Making it a first-class feature is exactly the right move for a project whose whole reason to exist is data ownership.
Calendar view for databases
AFFiNE's Database blocks already gave you table and kanban views. Now there is a proper Calendar view. Anything with a date property (deadlines, content schedules, tasks) can be laid out on a real calendar without exporting to a separate app.
Alongside it, 0.27 fixes a batch of Database annoyances: display glitches, sorting behavior, and keyboard shortcuts for table cells that did not always cooperate.
Bring your own AI key (experimental)
0.27 adds an experimental AI BYOK (bring your own key) feature. Instead of being tied to AFFiNE's hosted AI, you can plug in your own provider key. For a self-hoster this matters: it means the AI features can run through an account you control, which is far more comfortable than routing your private notes through a default cloud endpoint. It is flagged experimental, so treat it as a preview, not a production guarantee.
Technical writers get some love too: Code Block, LaTeX, Mermaid, and Typst rendering all behave better in this release.
Faster canvas and steadier mobile
The Edgeless (whiteboard) mode got a performance pass: better rendering, lower memory use, and improved touch responsiveness. On iOS, the whiteboard now shows a zoom percentage, switches faster, and a nagging image-insertion bug is fixed. Mobile input stability and recording were tightened up as well.
On the backend, AFFiNE now automatically cleans up blobs you delete from clients, and the CalDAV sync queue and task queue got compatibility and stability fixes.
The one thing to know before you upgrade
Here is the part you cannot skip. AFFiNE 0.27 ships a breaking change:
Starting from server version 0.27, only clients at version 0.26 or higher can connect and sync.
In plain terms: if you update your self-hosted AFFiNE server to 0.27 while your desktop or mobile apps are still on 0.25 or older, those clients will stop syncing. Update your clients to 0.26 or later first, then upgrade the server. If you manage a team, send that note around before you touch the server.
Running AFFiNE 0.27 on Elestio
You can self-host AFFiNE on Elestio starting around $11/month for the managed VM, with TLS, backups, and updates handled for you. That "no license fees, just infrastructure" model is the whole appeal of self-hosting a Notion alternative: you pay for a server, not per seat.
A few things worth doing right after you deploy or upgrade:
| Step | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Update every client to 0.26+ first | Older clients cannot sync with a 0.27 server |
| Take a backup before upgrading | Elestio snapshots let you roll back if a migration goes sideways |
| Test one importer at a time | Confirm your OneNote or Notion structure comes across as expected |
Troubleshooting
- Clients stopped syncing after the upgrade: almost always the breaking change. The affected client is below 0.26. Update it and sync resumes.
- An importer brought content in but the structure looks off: re-run it on a smaller subset first, and check that nested pages and attachments exist in the source export.
- AI BYOK is not responding: confirm the key is valid and has quota with your provider, and remember the feature is experimental in this release.
- CalDAV events are not appearing: the sync queue changed in 0.27, so give it a full sync cycle and verify your CalDAV credentials after the upgrade.
Should you upgrade?
If you self-host AFFiNE, 0.27 is an easy yes, as long as you handle the client-version order. The importers alone make it worth it if you still have notes trapped somewhere else, and the Calendar view plus the Edgeless performance work make the daily experience noticeably smoother.
Want to try it without the setup overhead? Spin up AFFiNE on Elestio and you can have your own private workspace running in a few minutes.
Thanks for reading ❤️. See you in the next one 👋