diff --git a/src/main/frontend/components/settings.cljs b/src/main/frontend/components/settings.cljs
index 9984a9f0dd..de1e25c07d 100644
--- a/src/main/frontend/components/settings.cljs
+++ b/src/main/frontend/components/settings.cljs
@@ -304,7 +304,12 @@
   [:div.it.sm:grid.sm:grid-cols-3.sm:gap-4.sm:items-:div.it.sm:grid.sm:grid-cols-3.sm:gap-4.sm:items-start
    [:label.block.text-sm.font-medium.leading-5.opacity-70
     {:for "custom_date_format"}
-    (t :settings-page/custom-date-format)]
+    (t :settings-page/custom-date-format)
+    (ui/tippy {:html        (t :settings-page/custom-date-format-warning)     
+               :class       "tippy-hover ml-2"
+               :interactive true
+               :disabled    false}
+              (svg/info))]
    [:div.mt-1.sm:mt-0.sm:col-span-2
     [:div.max-w-lg.rounded-md
      [:select.form-select.is-small
diff --git a/src/main/frontend/date.cljs b/src/main/frontend/date.cljs
index 148bc4f9a2..07d6dfc5b9 100644
--- a/src/main/frontend/date.cljs
+++ b/src/main/frontend/date.cljs
@@ -43,7 +43,8 @@
      "EEEE, MM/dd/yyyy"
      "EEEE, yyyy/MM/dd"
      "dd-MM-yyyy"
-     "dd.MM.yyyy"
+     ;; This tyle will mess up other date formats like "2022-08" "2022Q4" "2022/10"
+     ;;  "dd.MM.yyyy"
      "MM/dd/yyyy"
      "MM-dd-yyyy"
      "MM_dd_yyyy"
@@ -170,7 +171,8 @@
                  :minute "2-digit"
                  :hourCycle "h23"}))))
 
-(defn valid?
+(defn normalize-date
+  "Given raw date string, return a normalized date string at best effort."
   [s]
   (some
    (fn [formatter]
@@ -180,10 +182,15 @@
          false)))
    (journal-title-formatters)))
 
-(defn valid-journal-title?
+(defn normalize-journal-title
+  "Normalize journal title at best effort. Return nil if title is not a valid date"
   [title]
   (and title
-       (valid? (gp-util/capitalize-all title))))
+       (normalize-date (gp-util/capitalize-all title))))
+
+(defn valid-journal-title?
+  [title]
+  (boolean (normalize-journal-title title)))
 
 (defn journal-title->
   ([journal-title then-fn]
diff --git a/src/main/frontend/dicts.cljc b/src/main/frontend/dicts.cljc
index 0155c6cec2..2484f8c3a9 100644
--- a/src/main/frontend/dicts.cljc
+++ b/src/main/frontend/dicts.cljc
@@ -211,6 +211,7 @@
         :settings-page/disable-sentry "Send usage data and diagnostics to Logseq"
         :settings-page/preferred-outdenting "Logical outdenting"
         :settings-page/custom-date-format "Preferred date format"
+        :settings-page/custom-date-format-warning "Re-index required! Existing journal references would be broken!"
         :settings-page/preferred-file-format "Preferred file format"
         :settings-page/preferred-workflow "Preferred workflow"
         :settings-page/preferred-pasting-file "Preferred pasting file"
diff --git a/src/main/frontend/format/block.cljs b/src/main/frontend/format/block.cljs
index f3bfb07674..6b42d74bd7 100644
--- a/src/main/frontend/format/block.cljs
+++ b/src/main/frontend/format/block.cljs
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ and handles unexpected failure."
   ([block]
    (some->> block
             str
-            date/valid?
+            date/normalize-date
             (tf/unparse date/custom-formatter))))
 
 (defn normalize-block
diff --git a/src/main/frontend/handler/external.cljs b/src/main/frontend/handler/external.cljs
index d4bd91c502..c4dbcd51d9 100644
--- a/src/main/frontend/handler/external.cljs
+++ b/src/main/frontend/handler/external.cljs
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
                                             :update-db? false
                                             :update-status? false
                                             :finish-handler finish-handler}))
-    (let [journal-pages-tx (let [titles (filter date/valid-journal-title? titles)]
+    (let [journal-pages-tx (let [titles (filter date/normalize-journal-title titles)]
                              (map
                                (fn [title]
                                  (let [day (date/journal-title->int title)
diff --git a/src/test/frontend/db/name_sanity_test.cljs b/src/test/frontend/db/name_sanity_test.cljs
index 3c97bce923..86465a111d 100644
--- a/src/test/frontend/db/name_sanity_test.cljs
+++ b/src/test/frontend/db/name_sanity_test.cljs
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@
                         :old-title "aa?#.bbb.ccc",
                         :changed-title "aa?#/bbb/ccc"}))
 
-(deftest rename-tests
+(deftest rename-tests-l2t
   ;; z: new title structure; x: old ver title; y: title property (if available)
   (are [x y z] (= z (#'conversion-handler/calc-rename-target-impl :legacy :triple-lowbar x y))
     "aaBBcc"      "aabbcc"        nil
@@ -137,6 +137,10 @@
                                        :target "adbcde___aks___sdf",
                                        :old-title "adbcde/aks/sdf",
                                        :changed-title "adbcde/aks/sdf"}
+    "aaa%2Fbbb%2Fccc" "aaa/bbb/ccc"  {:status :informal,
+                                      :target "aaa___bbb___ccc",
+                                      :old-title "aaa/bbb/ccc",
+                                      :changed-title "aaa/bbb/ccc"}
     "CON" "CON" {:status :informal,
                  :target "CON___",
                  :old-title "CON",
diff --git a/src/test/frontend/format/block_test.cljs b/src/test/frontend/format/block_test.cljs
index 2958a7775b..8ce414eecd 100644
--- a/src/test/frontend/format/block_test.cljs
+++ b/src/test/frontend/format/block_test.cljs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 (ns frontend.format.block-test 
   (:require [cljs.test :refer [deftest testing are]]
-            [frontend.format.block :as block]))
+            [frontend.format.block :as block]
+            [frontend.date :as date]))
 
 (deftest test-normalize-date
   (testing "normalize date values"
@@ -49,3 +50,23 @@
 
          "-%"
          "-%")))
+
+(deftest test-normalize-journal-title
+  (testing "normalize journal titles"
+    (are [x y] (let [f #(-> % date/normalize-journal-title str)]
+                 (= (f x) y))
+      "Aug 12th, 2022"
+      "20220812T000000"
+
+      "2022-08-12"
+      "20220812T000000"
+
+      "2022-10"
+      ""
+
+      "2022Q4"
+      ""
+
+      "2022-08"
+      "")))
+