I do not know which category this falls in, but I’m posting it here.
Use case or problem
In my case, many times it so happens that the file I’m trying to create already exists. So obsidian just creates an “untitled” named file and saves it.
Such a file should not get saved unless the title has been manually set or some content is added in the file.
This is important to me as I like to keep my directory clean, with no unnecessary files.
Proposed solution
Don’t save such file.
Or provide an option in setting regarding what should happen in such case.
Current workaround (optional)
Search and then delete the file. (irritating when there are too many files and folders and one has to search the file).
I started using obsidian recently and many files have only titles and some/no content. So I sometimes forget that such files exist and instead of searching whether they do, I just default to creating new note.
So I right click folder, create new note, add title and obsidian says such a file exist. So I cmd+o to open the file. However, a untitled file gets created in that folder.
Not that I mention it, it is partially my fault, but still obsidian should be smart enough not to save such file or ask user what to do.
Got you, okay so what I’d recommend is to create files in a slightly different way.
If you do cmd+o you can start typing the name of your file.
That way you can see if that file already exists.
If it already exists you can access it with enter.
If it doesnt exists you can click shift+enter that will create a new file and ignore the suggestions.
For folders
I can see you work with folders, so if you want to create a note inside an specific folder you can do that after clicking cmd+o bt writing the folder name and the slash symbol /
example
After doing cmd+o you would write: folder1/new note
That puts you inside that folder, where you can both search, or create new notes in there.
Now that new note is created in that folder, or if the file already exists then you can simply access it with enter
After doing cmd+o you would write: folder1/new note
This trick works.
But is regressive if I may say. Because for this, first I have to remember the exact hierarchy of folders with their exact spellings and after doing that, I have to type the entire path (note: there’s no autocomplete functionality for folders which should be a feature in itself. Somethings similar to Alfred can be done – type to search file, add space or " ’ " in the beginning to search folder).
So, I am forced to go back to my previous method of creating file.
I’m every now and then creating these empty files and they’re cluttering up the list. This would be a welcome addition!
JetBrains IDE’s have handy feature to create scratch files in a dedicated directory. These scratch files had a similar tendency to get piled up with generic file names scratch_1.txt, scratch_2.txt etc.
Recently JetBrains made a change that fixed the issue at least for me. The logic is simple:
When closing a tab with a scratch file, delete it the scratch file if it’s empty. I wish Obsidian worked the same way with untitled files.
Seconding this - I accrue Untitled files like crazy because I ctrl+n and decide I don’t actually need a new note semi-frequently, and it’s annoying to have to delete them all now and then.
Also I find it really frustrating that for every thread like this where someone brings up a legitimate issue there’s some “expert” coming in and insisting that there’s no issue at all and we just need to change our workflow, usually suggesting some horribly inefficient workaround, forcing users to warp their habits to the design flaws.
Untitled files piling up? Just never ctrl+n, only create notes from links or ctrl-o!
Can’t easily create file in specific folder? Easy, create the file first and move the file with ctrl-p! Or manually type out the path in ctrl-o! Or don’t use folders, use tags instead!
Autofill and auto link updates not working well with capitalization? “Your notes are just for you - do you really need them to be capitalized correctly?”
Default h1 font size obnoxiously large and there’s no setting to change it? Just press # a few more times, or go into the files and write your own css!
I get that there’s limited resources and not every issue can be fixed/feature request realized, but there’s a difference between saying this is likely not high priority and being defensive and dismissive.