Automatic ordered list reordering does not account for "broken" lists

Bug graveyard
1

Steps to reproduce

Take the following list:

1. First step

Some content

2. Second step
3. Third step

Trigger automatic reordering by making any change to item #2 (e.g. add and delete a space.)

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

Yes, replicated in an empty vault with default settings.

Expected result

I expect the original order to be kept.

Actual result

Item #2 is reordered to #1, and item #3 is reordered to #2.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.8.7
Installer version: v1.8.7
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 24.3.0: Thu Jan 2 20:24:22 PST 2025; root:xnu-11215.81.4~3/RELEASE_ARM64_T6041 24.3.0
Login status: logged in
Language: en
Catalyst license: vip
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

I have many such “broken” lists in my vault and find the new renumbering behavior very frustrating. Ideally, I’d like ordered lists to only be reordered if the order actually changes, but barring that, I think there should be an option to turn off this behavior entirely.

I believe that this reordering is technically consistent with the Markdown specification, but it conflicts with Obsidian’s own rendering, which maintains the defined ordering of such “broken” lists in reading mode. It’s also a known pain point, as evidenced by the existence of extensions such as Sane Lists for Python-Markdown.

As for workarounds: I found a Stack Overflow post that suggests adding a space before content that “breaks” the list:

1. First step

 Some content (note the leading space!)
 
2. Second step
3. Third step

This does indeed seem to work in Obsidian but is pretty unintuitive (and inconvenient, especially when the content spans multiple lines).

2

It’s known and will be fixed in a future version. Here’s the link:

3

Thanks for the link. That thread seems to indicate that the issue was fixed in 1.8.5, but I am using 1.8.7 and still see the issue I described in my post. Is there something I’m missing?

1 Like
4

Oh ok, pardon. I’ve moved it back to Bugs for now, for WhiteNoise to check it out.

I missed your note about the leading space.

It happens if I have nothing but line breaks. And it happens if I have a leading space, like your test. It doesn’t happen if I don’t have the leading space.

5

There are no broken lists in markdown .

You are asking for this

6

Thank you, yes, I think this and the other FR linked in that thread cover the issue I described here. Another +1 on either supporting these or at least adding an option to disable auto-renumbering.

7

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