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Troubleshooting

Use this checklist to diagnose common issues. If your problem isn't listed here, please open a GitHub issue.

⚡ Performance​

Calendar feels slow in a large vault

Prisma Calendar is designed to handle large vaults without issues. If you're experiencing lag, try the tips below. For very large vaults, if you experience severe issues, please also open a GitHub issue — I want Prisma to work smoothly for vaults of any size.

  • Disable Enable name series tracking (Settings → Configuration → Performance) to stop tracking events by title
  • Disable Show color dots (Settings → Calendar) to skip per-day event scanning in monthly view
  • Disable Highlight upcoming event (Settings → Calendar) to remove the 1-minute interval timer
  • Disable Enable event preview (Settings → Calendar) to skip loading note content on hover
  • Disable Enable notifications (Settings → Notifications) to remove the 1-minute interval check
  • Disable Enable holidays (Settings → Integrations) to skip external library loading

📅 Events​

Events not appearing
  • Plugin enabled and vault reloaded
  • Calendar Directory points to the correct folder (subfolders included)
  • Note has a valid Start property (ISO format recommended, e.g., 2025-02-10T14:00)
  • Filters aren't excluding your note (Rules → Event Filtering)
  • Frontmatter keys match your Properties Settings (e.g., Start vs start)
  • Try refreshing: Open command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P) and run "Refresh calendar" to force a full resync
Wrong colors or no color applied
  • The first matching color rule wins — check rule order
  • Expressions use property names directly (e.g., Priority === 'High')
  • Color value is valid CSS (hex/name/HSL)
Recurring events missing
  • RRule is set (e.g., weekly) and valid RRuleSpec for week-based schedules
  • "Future instances count" is high enough to cover the date you expect
  • Virtual events show beyond the generation horizon (read-only)
Events appearing as all-day when they should be timed (or vice versa)

Problem: You duplicate a timed event, but the duplicate appears as an all-day event. Or you have events that show start/end times in frontmatter but display as all-day on the calendar.

Root Cause: The All Day property is the source of truth for determining event type. Prisma ignores Start/End properties when All Day: true is set, and ignores the Date property when All Day: false (or unset).

📆 Multiple Planning Systems​

Events not showing after creating a new planning system

Problem: After creating a new planning system, the calendar view shows no events or the wrong events.

Solution: Make sure you configured both the directory and the property mappings. Open Settings, select the new planning system, and use Configure current to set the directory and properties. Each planning system is fully independent — it only sees events matching its own configured property names.

Two planning systems on the same directory showing overlapping events

Problem: Two planning systems point at the same directory and both show the same events even though you want each to show different ones.

Solution: Configure different property mappings for each planning system. For example, one system uses meetingStart / meetingEnd while the other uses dueDate / deadline. Each planning system only sees notes whose frontmatter contains its configured start property. If both systems use the same property names, they will both see all matching events — that's the expected behavior.

📊 Bases Integration​

"Show current interval in Bases" shows no events

This command requires Sorting normalization to be enabled. See Bases — Sort date property required for interval views for the fix.

Events not sorting correctly by Sort Date in Bases

If events appear out of order when sorting by Sort Date in Bases views, the property type is likely set to "Text" instead of "Date & time". Obsidian's Bases sorts text properties alphabetically, which produces incorrect results for datetime values.

To fix this:

  1. Open Obsidian Settings → Properties
  2. Find the Sort Date property (or whatever name you configured in Prisma Calendar's "Sort date property" setting)
  3. Change its type to Date & time

Alternatively, you can edit .obsidian/types.json directly and add the property with the datetime type:

{
  "types": {
    "Sort Date": "datetime"
  }
}

After changing the property type, Bases will sort events chronologically. See the Configuration — Sorting Normalization documentation for full details on how sort date normalization works.

🔌 Templater Integration​

Templater not working
  • Templater plugin is installed and enabled
  • Template path in General Settings is correct
  • Your template renders outside Prisma Calendar (sanity check)
Templates not applying to Prisma-created events

Problem: Templater folder templates work for manually created notes, but not for events created through Prisma Calendar.

Root Cause: Prisma creates files programmatically, which can bypass Templater's folder trigger or cause race conditions.

Solution: Configure templates in BOTH places:

  1. Templater Settings: Set up your folder template as usual
  2. Prisma Calendar Settings: Go to General → Template path and set the same template file

This ensures the template is applied atomically when Prisma creates the event file.

Events created are saved to root folder instead of configured directory

Problem: When creating events, files are saved to the vault root instead of the configured directory (e.g., "Tasks" folder). This only happens when Templater is enabled and templatePath is set.

Root Cause: Older versions of Templater (pre-2.15) use an outdated API that doesn't properly handle the folder parameter when creating notes from templates programmatically.

Solution: Update Templater to version 2.15 or higher:

  1. Go to Settings → Community Plugins
  2. Find "Templater" in your installed plugins
  3. Check the version number
  4. If below 2.15, click "Update" or reinstall the plugin
  5. Restart Obsidian

Verified Working: Templater version 2.15+ correctly respects the templatePath setting and creates files in the configured directory.

Inconsistent date properties for sorting

Problem: Events have different property names (Start Date for timed events, Date for all-day events) and formats (2025-02-10T14:00:00.000Z vs 2025-02-10T14:00:00), making it impossible to sort chronologically in other tools like Bases or Dataview.

Root Cause: Prisma uses different properties based on event type, and ISO format includes .000Z suffix.

Solution: Create a "watcher" script that normalizes dates into a dedicated sort property.

Result: Consistent sort_date property across all events for reliable chronological sorting in Bases, Dataview, or other tools.