Can you check to see if a new Installer exists from within Obsidian?

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1

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When I check for new updates for obsidian, I assumed that it was also keeping the installer up to date.

It doesn’t appear to be the case.

Is there an easy way to know if I am behind in installer updates ?

Obsidian doesn’t seem to tell me “You are up to date”.
I just get this spinning graphic.
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and then the
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comes back.

Is this normal >?

What’s the big advantage of keeping Obsidian.exe and Obsidian Installer as separate downloads ?

2

Could be wrong, but this is my understanding.

Obsidian has many different components making up the whole. Let’s just broadly categorise them into parts a & b.

  • part a : Shared stuff not unique to obsidian
  • part b : Stuff that makes obsdian what it is

Obsidian’s self update only downloads part a, and doesn’t update part b. This is usually fine because that’s the only part changed in the update. So just keep the auto update on and stop worrying about it.

However, sometimes the devs make it so some changes in part b depends on / benefits from changes needed in part a. In this case you’ll get a clear label instructing you to download a new installer (from obsidian.md)

tldr;

  • Keep auto update on
  • If you see a clear label telling you to get a new installler, download from obsidian.md
  • If you are feeling fancy, download a new installer every time a major version changes regardless
3

I should be allowed to be aware about installer updates WITHOUT Auto Update on. I can’t have downtime, so I can’t trust autoupdate to be on.

I usually come in a on a Saturday and update things on a test install of my Obsidian vault. And if things seem OK, then I update the actual vault.

Thanks for replying !

I’ll try the autoupdate for a week to see what it adds. :slight_smile:

4

When there are no new updates. There should be a message saying that much.

It feels like the query fails. And there could be updates, but the [Check for Updates] button isn’t working.

Something like this would be useful.

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5

That would be the installer right ?

and this one
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checks for b.

6

It will be possible in 1.14.3+

7

Correct.

The 2 specific examples of its components I know of are mermaid.js and mathjax. Even when they release a new version, Obsidian may not get it immediately. When they do update those components it requires an update to the installer.

If the new update doesn’t help your workflow, maybe you could set up a package manager that automatically updates your installer for every update perhaps?

For windows something like UnigetUI, if set to auto update, will always update your installer regardless if it’s needed (can be an issue of data usage is limited).