Constant data loss between mobile and desktop

Help
,
1

I constantly lose entire daily notes to iCloud overwriting files. Obsidian Snapshot only occasionally saves the previous note contents.

Steps to reproduce

  • Type some text on mobile note
  • Open the same note on desktop
  • Type some text on desktop
  • Open the note on mobile a few minutes later

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? Y

Expected result

  • Instead of overwriting to a Github-like diff check on files to reconcile them. If not at least save a snapshot before overwriting a file.

Actual result

  • Lost all my previous file contents!

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.4.6
Installer version: v1.3.5
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 22.3.0: Mon Jan 30 20:39:35 PST 2023; root:xnu-8792.81.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 22.3.0
Login status: logged in
Catalyst license: insider
Insider build toggle: on
Live preview: on
Legacy editor: off
Base theme: dark
Community theme: Border v1.2.16
Snippets enabled: 6
Restricted mode: on

SYSTEM INFO:
Operating system: ios 16.3 (Apple iPhone)
Obsidian version: 1.4.8 (107)
API version: v1.3.7
Login status: not logged in
Live preview: on
Legacy editor: off
Base theme: dark
Community theme: Border v1.2.16
Snippets enabled: 6
Restricted mode: on

2

This is managed by iclould, I am not sure I can help you.

I can tell you that if Obsidian is running and we detect that the file is being modified externally (for instance by iclould), we attempt to do a merge not overwrite.

Moved to the help section.

3

First: I’m sorry for your loss.

Not a solution, but just a :warning:warning: GIVE UP ON ICLOUD. It is the worst piece of garbage you will ever encounter when it comes to sync. You will end up with duplicate files, mangled files, spinning wheels of death, stuck files that won’t sync, files that are just missing all of their data… I spent months trying to get it right and lost countless hours of time both on troubleshooting and painfully re-entering lost data. Just, don’t.

Use something—anything—else: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Syncthing, rsync, git…

I settled on a scheduled 1-way sync (using rsync) from my “real” vault to a folder on iCloud just so I can carry a copy of my notes with my on my phone, but there is no way I would trust iCloud enough to give it write access to my important data again. Yes I am using all the latest versions of Obsidian (1.4.6), iOS (16.6) and macOS (13.5.1)

3 Likes
4

I have exactly the same experience as @luckman212
I one way sync only, and on my phone I have a very small separate vault for stuff (luckily not very often) I need to capture on my phone. Other than that the phone is read only.

iCloud is pretty awful at syncing things, don’t even try. (it can mess up even small 300byte .md files.)

5

sigh… I’ve had enormous problems with almost all of the cloud services—Google Drive exploded my hard drive’s memory, Dropbox just didn’t sync, OneDrive has a known file corruption bug. I’m not sure how none of these companies can get cloud right even after years…

I’ll probably switch to Obsidian Sync.

6

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