diff --git a/scripts/vim/ftdetect/task.vim b/scripts/vim/ftdetect/task.vim
index 0146224e5..f1cf3ec89 100644
--- a/scripts/vim/ftdetect/task.vim
+++ b/scripts/vim/ftdetect/task.vim
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 " Taskwarrior data files
 au BufRead,BufNewFile {pending,completed,undo}.data	set filetype=taskdata
+au BufRead,BufNewFile backlog.data	set filetype=javascript
 
 " Taskwarrior configuration file
 au BufRead,BufNewFile .taskrc				set filetype=taskrc
diff --git a/scripts/vim/syntax/taskdata.vim b/scripts/vim/syntax/taskdata.vim
index 73fdb131e..b0cfb69f3 100644
--- a/scripts/vim/syntax/taskdata.vim
+++ b/scripts/vim/syntax/taskdata.vim
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ endif
 " Key Names for values.
 syn keyword taskdataKey		description due end entry imask mask parent
 syn keyword taskdataKey		priority project recur start status tags uuid
+syn keyword taskdataKey		modified scheduled until wait
 syn match taskdataKey		"annotation_\d\+"
 syn match taskdataUndo		"^time.*$"
 syn match taskdataUndo		"^\(old \|new \|---\)"
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ syn match taskdataUndo		"^\(old \|new \|---\)"
 " Values associated with key names.
 "
 " Strings
-syn region taskdataString	matchgroup=Normal start=+"+ end=+"+
+syn region taskdataString	matchgroup=Normal start=+"+ skip=+\\"+ end=+"+
 			\	contains=taskdataEncoded,taskdataUUID,@Spell
 "
 " Special Embedded Characters (e.g., ",")