diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.test.ts b/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.test.ts
index fceb78b0b49..df2972c4483 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.test.ts
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ describe('createSpanLinkFactory', () => {
             datasource: 'loki1_uid',
             queries: [
               {
-                expr: '{cluster="cluster1", hostname="hostname1", service_namespace="namespace1"} | label_format log_line_contains_trace_id=`{{ contains "7946b05c2e2e4e5a" __line__  }}` | log_line_contains_trace_id="true" or trace_id="7946b05c2e2e4e5a" | label_format log_line_contains_span_id=`{{ contains "6605c7b08e715d6c" __line__  }}` | log_line_contains_span_id="true" or span_id="6605c7b08e715d6c"',
+                expr: '{cluster="cluster1", hostname="hostname1", service_namespace="namespace1"} | logfmt | json | drop __error__, __error_details__ | trace_id="7946b05c2e2e4e5a" | span_id="6605c7b08e715d6c"',
                 refId: '',
                 datasource: { uid: 'loki1_uid' },
               },
diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.tsx b/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.tsx
index 4feed49e07d..1b7cbc83054 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/createSpanLink.tsx
@@ -446,12 +446,12 @@ function getQueryForLoki(
 
   let expr = '{${__tags}}';
   if (filterByTraceID && span.traceID) {
-    expr +=
-      ' | label_format log_line_contains_trace_id=`{{ contains "${__span.traceId}" __line__  }}` | log_line_contains_trace_id="true" or trace_id="${__span.traceId}"';
-  }
-  if (filterBySpanID && span.spanID) {
-    expr +=
-      ' | label_format log_line_contains_span_id=`{{ contains "${__span.spanId}" __line__  }}` | log_line_contains_span_id="true" or span_id="${__span.spanId}"';
+    expr += ' | logfmt | json | drop __error__, __error_details__ | trace_id="${__span.traceId}"';
+    if (filterBySpanID && span.spanID) {
+      expr += ' | span_id="${__span.spanId}"';
+    }
+  } else if (filterBySpanID && span.spanID) {
+    expr += ' | logfmt | json | drop __error__, __error_details__ | span_id="${__span.spanId}"';
   }
 
   return {