Dropbox or GIT mobile app vaults

[mikeknight]

It would be very useful to host your vault on Dropbox or GIT and be able to access it from the mobile apps.

Not sure if this is possible or not, and I can’t tell if this is going to be an official feature in the future or not, but it doesn’t seem like it based on what I’ve read.

[rpcm]

I would gladly pay for Dropbox support as an add-on feature. Even $9.99 (USD) seems reasonable.

[argentum]

There is already a git plugin

[mikeknight]

My impression was that that plugin backed up your PC to GIT, not allowed two-way sync between PC and mobile devices.

I’m pretty inexperienced with GITHUB so I may have misunderstood what the plugin did.

[JonathanBuchh]

Using git to sync your vault just means you’re pushing changes to a remote repository (GitHub is one option). Then, you can use an app like Working Copy (iOS) to pull those changes to your mobile app. When you’re done editing on mobile, you can push your changes to your Git client of choice and pull them once you’re back on the computer. Here are two helpful guides if you are new to Git:

Using Gitdesktop + Github + ObsidianGit to backup vaults

Howdy! I just recently started using Obsidian after switching from ROAM research and one problem I wanted to solve immediately was backing up my files! With a lot of help from the community, particularly @foreveryone on the discord community, I managed to get Obsidian Git working. It took me probably 2 hours of troubleshooting and a lot of sadness, but hopefully having something like this on the forums will make it easier for other people who are swapping to Obsidian. What you’ll need upfront!: …

[Mobile] Setting up iOS git-based syncing with mobile app (using Working Copy)

Here’s how I got my iPhone to sync with my existing vault that is stored on GitHub. Your mileage may vary, posting here in case it’s useful to others. I presume existing knowledge of Obsidian, GitHub, the Working Copy app, basic iOS, etc. Comments and feedback welcome! (Optional) If you don’t have an existing repository, or if you just want to test it out, create a new repository on GitHub. You don’t have to sync this with desktop Obsidian first (or ever) in order to sync it with the mobile a…

[mikeknight]

Thank you, this was very clear. Appreciate that.

I also just saw your other reply

: Third-party sync options | Do any work fully cross-platform? (Windows + iOS + Android) - #4 by JonathanBuchh

I guess what I didn’t realize was that you could “sync” (by manually pushing, pulling, committing - I’m not really sure about the lingo ) your vault onto mobile Obsidian app. That is quite a relief to find out. I had just relinquished any hope of getting my Obsidian vault to sync between my Windows, Android, & iPad.

Everyone mentions version control in relation to GIT, does this help with resolving file conflicts if I accidently upload two differnt versions of the same md file?

[JonathanBuchh]

Yes, Git is great at merging conflicts because it lays out exactly what is different. A lot of people (including myself) like Git because it saves a version of your “repository” every time you “commit”. For a simple overview of Git, this video might be helpful:

Git Explained in 100 Seconds

Here’s a screenshot of my git repository for my vault. I can click each of these commits and download the version of my repository at that time. This means, if I were to need the version of my vault from a couple of months ago, I could just go to the commit and download exactly what my vault looked like at that time.

[kinduff]

I use Dropbox to sync across my devices using a free-tier Dropbox account.

On PC I use the official application, but since it has a 3 device limit, I use Maestral for the rest of my devices.

For mobile, I don’t use the official application, I use Dropsync since it allows to sync directly into the file system.

I have no idea if there’s something similar in iOS, but for Android devices it works like a charm. I have around 4 vaults synced this way.