I’m having this same issue in my Samsung tab s6 lite, running Android 11 & Obsidian 1.0.5
Has anyone gotten this resolved or did everyone just kinda give up and avoid doing it?
Hello,
I am unable to put obsidian on my SD Card. It’s giving the following error:
“Failed to create vault. Unable to create directory, unknown reason”.
Is there someone working on this bug?
Platform
[ ] iOS
[x] Android
Obsidian Mobile version: v1.0.5
I have an obsidian vault in an external SSD. I use it on my computer. I can connect the SSD to my tab and view the attachments and pdfs in the vault.
I recently tried to use the “open folder as vault” feature on the mobile app. I was trying to open the vault in my external SSD. But the mobile app only accepts the documents folder in internal storage. But when I chose the vault from the external drive to open with obsidian app, the app shows an error massage.
Are you “hiding” the file/folder names on the view of the SSD, or are you actually using emojis as folder and volume names?
If you are using emojis as names, then odds are good that’s your problem; Its likely that Obsidian Mobile is expecting a more “standard” file/directory structure, with regular text names for volumes and folders. Perhaps try that and see if the issue resolves?
I am using emojis as my vault name. 
I tried to change the vault names to words. But the same error message is still showing. Still can’t open the vault.
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For anyone who still has problem with saving external storage. I need you to tell me these things.
- Obsidian version
- Android version
- Type of external storage: microsd card? external usb drive?
- what error do you get?
- A screenshot of the error. If there is a path in the error, make you the screenshot includes the path.
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- Obsidian 1.0.5 (7 nov 2021)
- Android 8.0
- micro sdcard
- Message indicate unable to create directory, unknown reason
When I select the folder on the sdcard :
When I tap on “create” :
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- Obsidian version: 1.1.0
- Android version: 10
- Type of external storage: microsd card? external usb drive?: micro SD card
- what error do you get?: “Failed to create vault. Unable to create directory, unknown reason.”
- A screenshot of the error. If there is a path in the error, make you the screenshot includes the path.:
Extremely annoying. The very reason I wanted to switch to Obsidian was to use it offline on mobile, but I can’t even create the basic vault for “unknown reasons”.
- Obsidian version: 1.1.0
- Android version: 9 (core version: 3.18.120)
- Type of external storage: microsd card
- What error do you get?:
Failed to create vault. Unable to create directory, unknown reson
- A screenshot of the error.
Obsidian Version: v1.1.0
Android Version: 7.1.1
External Storage: MicrosSD card
Error: “Failed to create vault. Unable to create directory, unknown reason”
Screenshots:
Same problem still here (even with all permissions granted to the app):
Obsidian Version: v1.1.0
Android Version: 10 QKQ1.190910.002 (with MIUI 12.0.1)
External Storage: MicroSD card
Error: “Failed to create vault. Unable to create directory, unknown reason”
This works - put this answer at the top 
Obsidian version
Android version
Type of external storage
- External ssd. I can access the files in the ssd with my s-tab/android. But can’t access my vault in the ssd with the obsidian app.
- Error with error message and path
Hi @WhiteNoise is this still being looked at? Here’s my version.
- Obsidian 1.1.0
- Android 10
- Type of external storage: microsd card formatted as external storage
- Error messages:
- If I try to edit an existing note (in a vault synced through Dropbox from desktop) I get ‘Failed to save the file “XXXXX.md”. FILE_NOTCREATED.’
- If I try to create a new file or folder in that vault, the button I pressed goes purple, stays purple, and there’s no error message.
- If I try to create a new empty vault on the SD card I get “Failed to create vault. Unable to create directory, unknown reason”
This works for me! Anything on the SD card under that path is writable by Obsidian.
If that works for you it means Obsidian doesn’t have write access to the sd card as a whole.
Is there a recommended workaround to get full sd card access on android?
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As I understand it, you shouldn’t need a “workaround”. On Android you go to settings & look for “Apps”, find Obsidian, look for “Permissions” and make sure “Storage” is allowed.
Depending on what version of Android you’re running it may be in a slightly different place, but that is the gist of it.
Essentially you just grant Obsidian permission to access your SD card in Android’s settings.
I believe when you first open Obsidian on an Android device it will ask you if you want to grant it permission, but if it was somehow missed you would need to manually grant it permission as I described above.
Hello! I’m not sure if this helps, but here is some info. The neuracache app can read my obsidian vault. But the obsidian app can’t. Maybe this will help come up with some kind of solution.
I did that. Obsidian has all permissions, but I’m still having this problem.