Disappearning Canvas!?! - Help

Help
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Has anyone had a problem with a canvas disappearing?

I created a canvas on my Mac, closed Obsidian, then opened that canvas on my IPad, only to see that it was empty (it still existed, but it was blank). I then closed Obsidian on my iPad and reopened it on my Mac and iPhone and found it empty there too.

None of my other Canvases have disappeared. Only that one.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way to recover that Canvas?

What I’m trying to do

Things I have tried

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  1. So you’re syncing your notes. How?

This has nothing to do with Canvas, and (probably) everything to do with how you’re syncing.

  1. To recover the file, you can try to use the File Recovery plugin. Go to File Recovery → Snapshots → View, and from there search the name of your Canvas note. You should see some snapshots versions you can restore.

Unfortunately for Canvas notes, you’ll only see the code, not the graphical representation of the cards. But it should be obvious if the snapshot is empty vs. something.

  1. While you’re in File Recovery settings, consider setting the interval lower, and the history length longer. I use 3 minutes and 600 days, personally. (Default is 5 and 7, which is way too short of a history in my opinion.)
1 Like
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This is SO helpful! Thank you so much.

Following your instructions, I can see the file that I want to recover, but I’m having one problem: I can copy the file’s code, but I can’t see how to paste it as a canvas. That is, when I do paste it, I just see lines and lines of code. Can you help there?

Thanks so much!

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Also, I meant to mention that I use Obsidian Sync

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WAIT! Problem solved. Thank you so much. I just had to open the (empty) file, view the sync history, and then restore from there. Thank you!

1 Like
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Glad to hear!

Ok, then the other thing is to make sure you aren’t also using iCloud syncing on top of that. That might be a reason you had a glitch like this. When sync tools race each other. Make sure your vault isn’t stored in a folder that is automatically synced via iCloud.

It might have been an Obsidian Sync glitch too. There might be a clue somewhere in the Sync logs.

Another PSA: Make sure you keep incremental backups too. Syncing is not really sufficient as a full backup. Backups will help protect you if you ever don’t notice a glitch like this in time.

1 Like
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I’m still a little confused on how exactly you’re supposed to restore it. I have the data of my canvas before my computer crashed but i don’t know what to do with that
You said you:
“open the (empty) file, view the sync history, and then restore from there.”
I work on a windows so viewing the history from the corrupted file isnt an option, if thats what you’re doing?

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Just checking, do you have Obsidian Sync?

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not the paid service no

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Ok, then you don’t have a Sync history, and that’s why it’s not available to you. You would have to use File Recovery, or your own personal backups.

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Unfortunately, last I checked, there is no easy way to paste the File Recovery results for a Canvas. I think you have to use an external text editor and paste the code there.

I made this feature request: Support Canvas snapshots in File Recovery

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