Products · Product
Org mode
Raised as a usability problem by 87 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2014–2026), in 67 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Agenda is too slow with many filesUnreviewed
20142026- Overdue tasks pile up in agenda view, discouraging the user from using it2023-06-10
- Agenda is too slow and practically unusable with many files2021-09-30
- Agenda is too slow and practically unusable with more than a few tens of files2021-09-30
Clients cling to Emacs-style concepts instead of normal app UXUnreviewed
20142026- Org-mode looks terrible as plain text and is nearly unusable outside Emacs2022-10-28
- Org mode clients lack a normally usable UX and cling to Emacs-style concepts2022-05-27
- Only Emacs fully supports Org Mode; other editors support it partially2021-11-18
Keyboard shortcuts are more complicated than alternativesUnreviewed
20142026- Org Mode is painful to use; its shortcuts are more complicated than alternatives2020-05-25
- Org-mode is hard to learn and awkward to use2016-04-09
- Tutorial shortcuts don't match the shortcuts Org Mode actually uses on the user's system2016-03-30
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Building the whole blog is slow, making the author wait for Emacs2026-10-03
- Converting bold, italics and headings between Org and Markdown costs time and causes friction2026-08-28
- Org files aren't native Markdown, causing friction when collaborating with others2026-08-27
- Couldn't figure out how to set a custom export template from the docs2026-01-04
- Forced into a rigid structure for org files, which became annoying2025-10-02
- Org-export is super slow, requiring user to patch the slow function2025-09-12
- Todo systems keep being recommended as Emacs-only tools, requiring a full editor switch2025-08-11
- Hard to run from the command line; needs Emacs open and brittle port setup2025-05-28
- Connecting to remote sessions is possible but clunky2025-01-03
- Attachments are hard to find and open on mobile, and harder to add2024-11-07
- Finds the syntax inconvenient to type and use2024-11-01
- Couldn't figure out how to link to a bullet point in a list2024-11-01
- Too many plugins and settings to set up; hard to learn and get proficient2024-01-04
- Plugins hard-code Unix-style link syntax, breaking on Windows2023-12-21
- Only really usable inside Emacs; other tools lack features the commenter needs2023-06-10
- Overdue tasks pile up in agenda view, discouraging the user from using it2023-06-10
- Harder to use than VSCode; requires learning a second language2023-02-28
- Editing Org files on a phone is unpleasant compared with Markdown editors2023-02-28
- Keybinds and modes are cumbersome on mobile, and folding large files and syncing are hard to maintain.2023-01-30
- Commenter finds Org very hard to learn as a non-user2023-01-09
- Some of its behaviours are confusing to the user2023-01-05
- Takes over 30 seconds to load on Windows, making it impractical to use2023-01-05
- Org-mode looks terrible as plain text and is nearly unusable outside Emacs2022-10-28
- Calendar sync solutions for org-mode don't work reliably and need too much finagling2022-09-10
- Org files break between releases and behaviors get removed, forcing manual updates2022-05-27
- Org mode clients lack a normally usable UX and cling to Emacs-style concepts2022-05-27
- Can't map error line numbers in tangled code back to source blocks2022-05-22
- Finding the right place for new entries requires constant expanding and collapsing2022-04-07
- Must remember to manually run sync code blocks, and debugging distracts from the simple goal2022-03-27
- Property data structures clutter the text, making it hard to read without special tooling2022-03-02
- Long URLs inside inline links make unrendered lines unreadable without horizontal scrolling2021-12-03
- Only Emacs fully supports Org Mode; other editors support it partially2021-11-18
- Steep learning curve, and hard to use outside Emacs2021-11-11
- Docs don't explain the workflow opinions, so the user can't tell what the tool expects2021-10-14
- Feels so slow on Windows that the user stopped using it2021-10-01
- Each version update forces users to manually tweak all their org documents2021-09-30
- Agenda output is a custom text format, hard to export or parse for dashboards2021-09-30
- Agenda is too slow and practically unusable with many files2021-09-30
- Agenda is too slow and practically unusable with more than a few tens of files2021-09-30
- Agenda becomes very slow and unusable with hundreds of files2021-08-30
- No truly great way to use Orgmode from mobile devices2021-07-28
- Org files take up to 30 seconds to load2021-07-16
- Documentation for Org HTML export is so bad it is effectively unusable2021-06-30
- Can't edit an embedded SQL block in place; must open a separate buffer via a keybind2021-03-05
- Combined notes and tasks became increasingly unwieldy to use over time2020-12-28
- Wrong key press runs code or reformats text unexpectedly, needs lots of knowledge2020-10-27
- Bug entries are read through a hard-to-read mailing list, and users cannot find the code or reply on the site2020-09-14
- Sometimes hard to figure out even simple use cases without docs2020-09-11
- Table reformatting becomes ridiculously slow after about 200 rows2020-09-07
- Commenter still hasn't figured out how to use org-agenda properly2020-08-24