Android external link fails to format properly

Bug reports
,
1

Steps to reproduce

Anywhere in a regular md document,

  1. type any word or words
  2. start creating an external link by pressing the ‘[’ character. This also creates the matching ‘]’ brace.
  3. Start type the title for the link and make sure the title has at least one space in it.
  4. Now move the cursor to the end of the right brace and press ‘(’ to start adding the external link element.

The last word of the title text will turn white and the matching ‘)’ brace will not be created.
When you type in the link and add the closing ‘)’ yourself, the format remains as though in source code mode just for that link.
It displays normally in read mode and will display normally if you stop and restart Obsidian.

The key factors to reproduce are

  • the link must be mid-sentence otherwise the automatic right ‘]’ does not appear
  • that the title must have a space in it
  • instead of entering the closing ‘]’ manually, just move the cursor past the auto-generated one.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Yes - I’ve disabled all custom add-ons, disabled all custom css snippets and am running default theme (I tested with both light and dark)

Expected result

I expect the link to be formatted normally, hide the actual external link and produce a clickable hyperlink.

Actual result

The link does not format correctly and leaves what is effectively the source code for the link. Closing Obsidian and restarting corrects the display so seems to prove that the actual syntax of the link is correct.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Operating system: android 14 (samsung SM-S928B)
Obsidian version: 1.7.4 (167)
API version: v1.7.4
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Live preview: on
Base theme: light
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on
RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

2

I can’t reproduce this on 1.7.4 on Gboard. Maybe this is a specific problem of Samsung Keyboard suggestion features.

3

Hi WhiteNoise,

Sorry for the delayed response. I’ve been playing around with various keyboards and settings and think I’ve found the culprit.

Since you couldn’t reproduce it, I swapped to the Microsoft Swiftkey and with that keyboard, the problem did not happen.

I then switched back to the standard Samsung keyboard and investigated the settings and discovered the setting that causes this issue is:

General Management => Samsung Keyboard Settings => More typing options => Auto spacing

This is only supposed to add a space after a predictive text word has been selected but, since I don’t use that, it’s obviously doing something else that breaks the Obsidian link creation as I described.

Anyway, it’s an edge case I’m sure but at least I know the fix now. Hope that’s useful.

Cheers.