Disappearing folders?

Help
1

What I’m trying to do

So, I did search through the forum and others have had this issue but it seems mine is a little different than the others. So, starting yesterday, one of my folders disappeared from the Obsidian UI. Now, it isn’t gone from the file system at all. It is still there. But it keeps disappearing from the Obsidian UI as if it were completely missing. I have never experienced something like this. The folder is still there in Files. How can I get Obsidian to stop hiding it from the program?

Now, on Obsidian mobile app, it is there no problem. This is only a symptom of the Desktop Obsidian program. What can do this?

Any help would be GREATLY appriciated!

Things I have tried

I tried copying the folder and pasting it in same location, then deleting the original folder and renaming the copied folder as the original was, but the same thing happens within 30 minutes.

2

Have you tried the troubleshooting steps in the Obsidian debugging guide? https://forum.obsidian.md/t/24/11

What if you rename the folder?

3

What OS?

Are you storing your vault in a cloud tool, like iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneNote, etc. etc. Or on a NAS or external drive or something?

What is the name of the folder? (If you can share it. Does it have any special characters in it or anything? Maybe it’s some reserved OS name.)

4

I’ll answer your questions but I seem to have found a work around that worked… still don’t know why though. I changed the name from “04 Vault” to “04 Vaults” and since then have had no issues.

Now to answer your questions. @rigmarole I am storing it on Onedrive (which is what you most likely meant), the name of the folder has no special characters. Until I changed it, It was named “04 Vault”.

5

OneDrive, yes pardon. :slight_smile:

Make sure to go to your OneDrive folder, right-click and “Always keep on this device”, if you hadn’t tried that already. (Do that for the entire vault.)

If any files have a cloud icon, they are on the cloud, and Obsidian can’t see them.

6

Yes it is already done. I thought of it late though, it is a step I had thought after the fact, after I changed the name of the vault, so it could have been that, but not 100% sure either way. Thanks.

7

Okay, now I am getting aggravated. So the new folder I had created (changing the name from 04 Vault to 04 Vaults) is gone (not showing up in Obsidian). It is there in OneDrive and in my local folder in my computer for OneDrive… but it isn’t showing in Obsidian just like the original folder. What the hell is going on? I cannot figure out how or why this keeps happening with this one folder but I will tell you what, it is seriously starting to p*** me off.

Anyone have any other ideas? Changing the folder name worked for a few days but now, once again, I am right back at square one.

8

A long shot, but you’ve not added this folder to the Settings > Files and links > Excluded files by accident?

9

Right now I will take any suggestions. I did pull it up and no it is not added to Excluded files. Good suggestion though thank you.

10
  • Show your “Show debug info” in case it’s something else.
  • Can you show a screenshot of the OneDrive folder in your OS?
  • Consider not using OneDrive. I had it delete some code in a programming exam once, and it was luck that VSCode had a snapshot. I would never trust it for important work. Just my biased opinion.
11

How to get debug info? And, okay I am good with switching cloud providers. What do you recommend?

12

Ctrl-P for the command palette, and “Show debug info”

13

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.8.9
Installer version: v1.8.9
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26100
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: dark
Community theme: Minimal v7.7.18
Snippets enabled: 13
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 79
Plugins enabled: 73
1: Dataview v0.5.68
2: Templater v2.11.1
3: QuickAdd v1.13.2
4: Paste URL into selection v1.7.0
5: Natural Language Dates v0.6.2
6: Style Settings v1.0.9
7: Plugin Update Tracker v1.6.2
8: Minimal Theme Settings v8.1.1
9: Periodic Notes v0.0.17
10: Calendar v1.5.10
11: Commander v0.5.2
12: Folder notes v1.7.35
13: File Explorer Note Count v1.2.3
14: Meta Bind v1.4.1
15: Modal forms v1.60.1
16: Recent Files v1.7.4
17: Full Calendar v0.10.7
18: Google Calendar v1.10.16
19: Google Tasks v1.5.2
20: Khoj v1.37.0
21: Google Photos v1.6.8
22: Copilot v2.8.7
23: Daily Note Navbar v0.2.0
24: Highlightr v1.2.2
25: Checklist v2.2.14
26: Sticky Note v1.0.0
27: Tracker v1.15.1
28: Auto Note Mover v1.2.0
29: Banners v1.3.3
30: Table of Contents v0.2.0
31: Daily Random Note v1.0.5
32: Buttons v0.5.1
33: Rapid AI v1.0.4
34: URI Commands v1.0.1
35: Metadata Menu v0.8.7
36: Charts v3.9.0
37: Importer v1.6.19
38: Advanced Tables v0.22.1
39: Book Search v0.7.5
40: Projects v1.17.4
41: Data Cards v1.0.0-beta.2
42: AI Assistant v1.6.1
43: Smart Second Brain v1.3.0
44: Custom Frames v2.5.0
45: Webpage HTML Export v1.8.01
46: Sync Google Calendar v1.1.6
47: Ink v0.3.4
48: Excel v1.3.24
49: Force note view mode v1.2.2
50: Digital Garden v2.58.1
51: Readwise Mirror v1.4.11
52: Homepage v4.1
53: Content Cards v1.1.2
54: Widgets v0.0.10
55: Editing Toolbar v3.1.8
56: Journal Review v2.5.0
57: Tasks v7.18.4
58: Kanban v2.0.51
59: Outliner v4.9.0
60: Hider v1.5.1
61: Iconic v1.1.1
62: Multi-Column Markdown v0.9.1
63: Callout Manager v1.1.0
64: Voicenotes Sync v0.0.28
65: Collapse All v2.1.0
66: Custom Icons v0.6.2
67: DB Folder v3.5.1
68: Mind Map v1.1.0
69: Readwise Community v0.0.9
70: Ultimate Todoist Sync v1.0.43
71: Todoist Sync v2.0.1
72: Toggl Track v0.11.0
73: Open Link With v0.1.10

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Custom theme and snippets: for cosmetic issues, please first try updating your theme and disabling your snippets. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community theme and snippets.
Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.

14

I have had enough of this crap. I’ve been going back and forth with two directories… One named 04 Vault and the other 04 Vaults. One disappears I have the backup, but now both of them are not allowing in Obsidian. This is friggin rediculous. I’m spending more time trying to stop missing files which affects other areas of my vault then I am saving productivity-wise. Had enough!

15

Did you take your vault off of OneDrive?

You also have an enormous number of plugins. Many of which have “auto”, “smart”, and “ai” in the name. With so many fancy plugins, I’m guessing that could be a source of some of these quirks.

If you haven’t given up yet, if I were you, I’d delete 90% of all the plugins and get back to something simpler.

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