# Backlinks do not work for links created using bear note unique id
**URL:** https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226
**Category:** Bear Bug Report
**Created:** [November 12, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226 "2024-11-12T17:33:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crumbletop](https://community.bear.app/u/crumbletop)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/1 "2024-11-12T17:33:48Z")
- **Bear Version** : Bear 2.3.5 (mac), 2.3.3 (iOS)
- **OS Version** : MacOS 13.7.1, iOS 17.7.1
- **What were you doing** : I create links to other bear notes using the bear unique ID callback and format [link name](bear://x-callback-url/open-note?id=BEAR-UNIQUE-ID-TO-NOTE). I have thousands of notes, some with the same title, so in order to ensure a link within a note always goes to the correct (intended) referenced note I utilize the “copy link to note” and create links between notes using the x-callback-url. These linked notes do not show up in backlinks.
- **What feature did you use** : “copy link to note”, and then created a link within a note to the intended other note.
- **What happened** : Backlinks doesn’t show referenced notes.
- **What did you expect to happen** : I expect backlinks to work.
I searched in feature requests and bug reports and have not found this issue referenced or requested. Almost all of my links between bear notes are x-callback-url links for the reason outlined above. It would be nice if backlinks worked for notes linked by x-callback-url.
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### Author:  [@trix180](https://community.bear.app/u/trix180)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2024, 8:59am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/2 "2024-11-13T08:59:39Z")
I’m afraid this is by design as we don’t want hard links to be considered backlinks. I can understand why people might want backlinks for hard linking notes but we think having two ways to express a backlink can be confusing.
> [@crumbletop](#):
>
> **What feature did you use** : “copy link to note”, and then created a link within a note to the intended other note.
When you use copy link and paste directly into a note the expected result is a wiki link to that note.
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### Author:  [@crumbletop](https://community.bear.app/u/crumbletop)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2024, 3:21pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/3 "2024-11-13T15:21:43Z")
Just to make sure I understand. If I have 2 notes – Note A and Note B. I put a hard link in Note B to Note A. I go to Note A, and you don’t think my link to note A from B should be considered for listing in the Backlinks list (even though the note is linked to). That is because technically speaking you consider the x-callback-url as a wiki link instead of a note link. Is that correct?
If so, that’s a bummer as I never use [[ syntax for links because of naming conflicts. I have approx 9K notes and it is more overhead (for me) to name everything uniquely. However, seeing as this appears to never have been mentioned or requested I am probably the only user (or one of just a few) who link using the callback url to link between notes.
But I will also mention, that I consider backlinks as essentially exposing non-explicit links between 2 notes and it does not make sense to me that backlinks are literally not links between 2 notes, but only links of a certain type. The backlinks list in my mind is simply a list of notes that link to the one you are viewing, regardless of link syntax.
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### Author:  [@trix180](https://community.bear.app/u/trix180)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/4 "2024-11-13T15:53:52Z")
A wiki link and a note link are the same concept in Bear, but yes, we don’t consider x-callback-urls note links. I can see your argument for hard links, but I still prefer giving people one way to generate a backlink, and we can provide autocompletion for notes, headers, and in-note headers linking.
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### Author:  [@mlw](https://community.bear.app/u/mlw)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/5 "2024-11-28T20:29:17Z")
I posted this in another feature request. For me it would be VERY welcome if markdown links to notes would be considered backlinks. Here are my reasons for it
> [@Markdown links and links to header don't show as backlinks](https://community.bear.app/t/markdown-links-and-links-to-header-dont-show-as-backlinks/12166/7):
>
> I’d also love it if markdown links were counted as backlinks. I would be VERY useful for my workflow. I frequently draft documents in bear which I then copy as markdown and paste in other apps for the final output. However I also use a lot of wiki links with aliases/modified anchor texts. As this is not standard markdown I have to manually change each wiki link that has an alias to show only the anchor text in the output document. Using wiki links would change that as its standard markdown mea…
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### Author:  [@crumbletop](https://community.bear.app/u/crumbletop)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/6 "2024-12-03T17:09:36Z")
To clarify a little, the backlink itself (the items showing in the the backlinks section under “info”) doesn’t need to be a [alias](notelink\_to\_noteid) type of link. It can simply reference the “parent” note using [[ syntax. My interest is in being able to see and follow links to other referring notes.
In my ideal world all links would be simple to make explicit, including backlinks, but I would settle for “improved” instead of ideal. To be honest it doesn’t make any sense to me why any type of internal bear link between notes is not considered as “backlinkable” for the purposes of the backlinks section under info.
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### Author:  [@roar](https://community.bear.app/u/roar)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2024, 4:42am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/7 "2024-12-07T04:42:53Z")
A note of warning here!
Unfortunately, all Bear `bear://x-callback-url/open-note?id=BEAR-UNIQUE-ID-TO-NOTE` will become invalid, if you ever have to restore from backup!
So, the built in Bear backup/restore has a major flaw if you rely on Note-IDs and Bear x-callback-url links from other notes, external files or apps.
**All Bear notes will get NEW unique IDs after restoring from backup!**
- It’s safe to restore from iCloud sync, though, so good to have iColud sync active even if you use Bear only on one device.
- It should also be safe to restore from Time Machine Backups (Bear DB)
- But current Bear backup/restore really needs some redesign.
- Current backup file also does NOT work well with single file restore, because creation and modified dates are not preserved! _Please fix this_ 🙏
- Export of all Notes as `.bear` files works better for single file restores: preserves creation, modified when imported on Mac, **but on iPad and iPhone: the import option to `Keep original creation and modification date` is MISSING!** _Please fix_ 🙏
- But exporting all notes as .bear files does not support encrypted notes, so this approach does not replace Bear’s full backup (where encrypted notes keeps encryption)
🤓🤔
> [@Bug report: different note ids after restoring from backup](https://community.bear.app/t/bug-report-different-note-ids-after-restoring-from-backup/12362):
>
> Testing version: 2.1.8 What were you doing: I was restoring from a backup. What feature did you use: I have a lot of links to specific bear notes that I use in other apps, e.g., in Things 3. The links are of the following form: bear://x-callback-url/open-note?id=41C51FB9-CF18-4CC0-82FA-69D608A73BA4 What happened: Upon clicking the link, Bear opens, but the note cannot be found. After further investigation, it turns out that all note ids are not the same anymore. I.e., restoring from the b…
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### Author:  [@crumbletop](https://community.bear.app/u/crumbletop)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2024, 9:51am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/backlinks-do-not-work-for-links-created-using-bear-note-unique-id/14226/8 "2024-12-07T09:51:46Z")
@roar this is a big problem. I also utilize bear x-callback-url to link to notes from other applications. The feature works well, but not if the uuid’s change. I assume this means internal links between notes within bear using x-callback-url also would break. Lack of date preservation is also a concern. Thankfully I have not had to backup/restore. This definitely needs to be fixed.