Copying images between vaults

Help
1

What I’m trying to do

Copy an image embedded in a note (using cmd-c) from one vault into another (using cmd-v)

Things I have tried

  1. Highlight image within a note in Vault 1, including the ![[imagename.jpg]] link.
  2. Copy (using menu-select copy or cmd-c)
  3. Switch to note in Vault 2, place cursor at appropriate location
  4. Paste (using menu-select paste or cmd-v)
  5. Result is embedded line saying, “imagename.jpg” is note created yet. Click to create.
  6. Click the line (as instructed)
  7. New empty note is created in Vault 2 with title imagename.jpg

Overall result is that the graphic is not copied, only an empty note is made.

Please can some lovely person explain how I can simply copy and paste an image from one Vault to another. Thanks.

2

Obsidian is a markdown app. In Word, the images are embedded, here they are referenced to a file that is not within the markdown file.
So what you did was copying the markdown reference only.
You need to go into your system file explorer and copy the image from one vault to another.
You can do this with Obsidian still running.

I’m not sure if there’s another way; never tried copying the image from Obsidian files pane, for instance.

When done one by one, one can do this. If there are hundreds of files, one needs to find a scripting solution.

3

Thanks. I absolutely get it’s a markdown app - that’s its power! It’s just sometimes there are ‘core’ scripts (so to speak) to allow things like copy-and-paste of images - which does work in other circumstances - hence my confusion.

What I am hearing is that this particular copy-and-paste is not core. So either you need to write a script, get a plugin (someone else writes the script), or manual it. So, basically, this is ‘feature not a bug’ moment.

As I understand, pasting from clipboard works, just not copying from Vault to clipboard. Would add a +1 to this as core if anyone is keeping track.

4

I seem to remember threads about this and maybe even a feature request…?

An alternative way is to copy the image in the vault attachment folder and paste it directly in the other vault’s editor. The markdown reference will be automatically created and the image copied to the other vault’s attachment folder.
The Paste Image Rename plugin comes in handy here as you can set rename rules. May be faster this way.

5

What you need is the “Copy Image and URL context menu” plugin, which creates a right click menu item to copy the image to clipboard in order to be able to paste it elsewhere :wink:

6

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