Are my files safe with Obsidian Sync? (Best practices when resuming sync)

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I have some devices that have been offline 8-10 months. They have Obsidian + Obsidian Sync on them. How do I go about resuming using Obsidian/Sync while keeping my content safe?

I’m concerned because, if a device is not connected to Obsidian Sync even if only a few days to a few weeks, there would be many conflicts and content deletion. While it’s great there is version history, it’s not realistic to check thousands of files to determine which ones were improperly overwritten, and inevitably some slip through. (In my experience, it happened even when file “A” was worked on in only one place, not only when worked on in two separate places between syncs. It seems to be an issue for multiple users, especially on mobile devices, see multiple discussions e.g. [Mobile] Make Sync icon always visible - Feature requests - Obsidian Forum)

The general advice is to “make sure you sync.” What are best practices when resuming sync on desktop and mobile? How can I make sure my new content is not erased or merged into empty files?

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I would avoid conflicts altogether by making a fresh vault in its place that will pull all of its content from the remote vault.

  • Make a fresh backup of the current version of the vault (of course I would be backing it up regularly anyway)
  • Remove the existing old version of the vault from the vault switcher and move it somewhere else.
  • Make a new vault in its place.
  • Setup Sync in the new vault.
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Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it!

Is there any rule of thumb about how long between syncs that you run into this risk? 1 month? 3 months? A week? A day?

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I think the only rule is that the risk increases with time. A day should be fine, a week may be iffy, a month I would guess will have problems.

There is some discussion happening in Obsidian Sync incorrectly duplicates sections of files - #85 by serious about possible false sync conflicts, which might be raising the risk.

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And another important rule of thumb is that syncing ≠ backup. They are not the same thing.

Make sure to keep good backups. (Cawlin said it too, but it’s worth repeating explicitly.)

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And to further expand on that, here is Obsidian’s useful Help page about backing up: Back up your Obsidian files - Obsidian Help.

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Ok, thanks for the tips! And the reminder about backing up is always welcome.

I also want to reaffirm, as a customer (who really likes Obsidian and who likes the idea of Obsidian Sync!), that syncing has many times been anywhere from awkward to buggy compared to other syncing solutions (as discussed above and elsewhere); and that while backup is a good best-practice, it’s a fall-back that doesn’t address “the point” of syncing.

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