I’m using Arq (https://www.arqbackup.com/) to back up all my computer to my unused dropbox cloud storage (you get 2TB storage and I only use 100GB, hence 1,9TB free backup storage 
). Arq works with pretty much any cloud storage (except iCloud) and backs up hourly any folders you specify. So next to versioning i have a full hourly backup of my vault.
Edit: Mac & Windows. I’m not affiliated There’s also free alternatives, but less end-user friendly: Duplicacy (https://duplicacy.com/)
2 Likes
interested as well!
I somehow lost all the content of a file last week and was able to retrieve it using Time Machine without any problems.
3 Likes
The Obsidian Git plugin has been awesome. It backs everything up, even the .obsidian folder, so all of my themes and installed plugins are safe, too. And Git inherently has versioning. I don’t even have to do anything. I just set it up and it does its thing all without my intervention.
3 Likes
the dropbox plugin seems to work really well, including backing up an iCloud vault.
(you don’t want to backup your attachments because it creates a new backup copy every 20 minutes and could fill up your dropbox account quickly)
I also looked into the dropbox app backup options (with their free basic plan) but they only give you a few folder options (documents, downloads, photos, videos). If you vault is outside those directories they can’t be backed up.
I was thinking about scheduling a robocopy on my windows machine to copy my iCloud vault to one of those folders to get it backed up. That’s plan B in case the dropbox plugin doesn’t work long term.
Github would be plan C, the version history is a nice option
I’m now using robocopy to directly copy my vault from the iCloud drive to the dropbox drive. This is my robocopy.bat script:
@ECHO ON
SETLOCAL
SET _source=C:\Users\uwe\iCloudDrive\iCloud~md~obsidian\Obsidian\
:: Change C:\example_source to the directory you want to copy from
SET _dest=C:\Users\uwe\Dropbox\Apps\obsidian
:: Change X:\example_dest to the directory you want to copy to
SET _what=/COPY:DT /E
:: Sets specific copy instructions
:: See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy
SET _options=/LOG:C:\Users\uwe\robocopy\log.txt
:: Log file specifications
:: See readme for more details
ROBOCOPY %_source% %_dest% %_what% %_options%
:: Starts ROBOCOPY
::attrib -s -h %_dest%
:: Removes System and Hidden Attributes from copied files
I have it scheduled with the windows task scheduler.
Detailed instructions from this site
This should also work with other cloud services like Google Drive, etc that can we accessed using the windows file explorer.
1 Like
In order to backup up my Vault on my Mac, i’ve been using Apple’s Automater app to create a Zip Backup of my Vault each day.
Instructions here
The steps are essentially:
- open apple automater
- Choose “Calendar Alarm” as your document type.
- I believe it’ll ask you to choose a date and time here (I don’t remember off the top of my head). Set the calendar event to a daily recurrence for daily backups.
- Chain these actions together:
- “Get Specified Finder Items”
- here you put the path to your vault
- “Create Archive”
- this tells the script to create a zip file. I usually put the location in my google drive folder, so that the zip gets backed up to the cloud
- “Rename Finder Items: Add Date or Time”
- I use this to timestamp my backups, so that there are no conflicts.
- save your workflow
- “Get Specified Finder Items”
Now you should have daily automatic backups of you vault on your Mac!
3 Likes
I was working with Visual Studio Code on my iMac when it closed prematurely. When it did it also wiped out a number of Obsidian notes in several folders. But what saved me is that I use BackBlaze as my cloud backup and was able to retrieve all my files.
But I am give the Obsidian Git plugin a try as well.
I’m interested in the script.
@anon5807177 @paoloap @EllenMad @welstand – I just uploaded a simplified version of my Obsidian backup script to GitHub.
see: GitHub - luckman212/obsidian-backup: Simple script to periodically back up your Obsidian vault
Let me know if you have any questions or need help with the setup. (n.b. this script is written for macOS)
Git doesn’t work on mobile 
If your vault syncs with a computer that’s always on, the computer can serve as the driver of the backup. But if you don’t use a computer regularly for Obsidian, then yeah, the mobile limitation is real.
In that case, the paid sync service (which includes backups with a year of versioning) might be your best option.
1 Like
FWIW Obsidian’s core File recovery plugin has been a life-saver for me whenever I wanted to go back to a note’s previous version but couldn’t undo the changes I’ve recently made. It’s not a full-fledged backup solution, but I’d say it’s enough for the initial problem OP addressed about losing work by mistake
3 Likes
I’d look into the Time Machine problem if I were you — if it’s not backing up your vault, that’s a big problem. Or did you just start and lose the work after the last snapshot and before the next one?
As mentioned above, Obsidian’s core File Recovery plugin should be able to help.
Like another user upthread, I’m using Arq (in my case with Backblaze B2 storage).
It does actually. I use WorkingCopy on iOS and I cannot recommend it enough. Not only for Obsidian (I switched to Sync), but for many work related projects it’s great to have a Git Client to quickly do some PRs from the iPad.
For the Backup topic itself, I would recommend to either rely on your OS’ built-in backup (Windows Backup or Time Machine) or if you are traveling a lot use a paid Cloud storage service or a Git hoster like Github to store your data.
1 Like
Off-topic question: do you still use Git with Sync (like to version specific projects)? I want to do that but wonder if it might cause trouble.
Im using simple megasync free account, its enough for txt files mostly
1 Like
For the less tech-minded, I recommend similar backups with FreeFileSync. You can quickly compare two folders for changes, and mirror them, etc.
Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial! Excited to try this out.