I have been using Obsidian with the same folder structure for my Topics and notes. Some may get deeper which should be fine since I didn’t increase anything or have any additional things done to my files/original location/or obsidian itself. I exited out of Obsidian and then later was going to enter the application again by opening - which I was greeted with this message/window not letting me open my vault that was fine when I closed and opened it with the same amount of items in it previously earlier in the day.
What does it mean by the error it is showing? It won’t let me open up my Vault and I’ve tried restarting, shutting down, and even the Apple finder folder won’t let me move it…
I really can’t open Obsidian and it is making me reload, choose another vault, or turn on in restricted mode which none have even worked. It doesn’t even budge.
Is this a bug, error in the software for Obsidian? Since it doesn’t make since that there is a limit for how many folders you can have in each folder. I’ve had many hundreds of layers and nothing was effected in my vault with Obsidian or my computer. Can someone please help since this is literally like my life
I understand you can’t open your vault. I’d really like to see your “Show debug info”. I wonder if you could copy the vault in Finder (if you can), and delete a bunch of folders until the duplicated vault can open. (Or alternatively, make a new vault or folder, and just copy the .obsidian folder to grab all your settings and plugins.) Just so you can open the vault to be able to run the “Show debug info” command.
Or can you show a screenshot with more context? Where is this error happening? Is it a popup in Obsidian?
Where do you store your vault? Is it on a local file system? I tried googling the error and the first results I saw are related to Docker. I agree with @geoffb that more context would be welcome.
Just FYI, Obsidian is bound to your Operating System’s maximum path length. On Windows the limit is 260 characters and on Mac it’s 1016.
File names itself also have a limit of ~255 characters. Someone correct me if I’m wrong with some of these numbers.
Regarding the Obsidian error, as @geoffb said, more information is needed.
Thank you so much for your feedback as it is greatly appreciated and needed.
I haven’t moved my vault anywhere from the location that it was created on (hard drive)
The Universe is what my vault is named
I currently have no (default or third party) plugins or scripts (don’t have scripts even added) that do anything upon opening.
I wanted to make a copy of the vault folder in the hard drive on my computer to see if I could shorten the folder paths but without effecting the original when playing around with the folder structure, but it gave me the error message (refer to the white attachment I had on my original post)
The names of each title for my folders are a not long - it would have around 10-20 characters average. Nothing super crazy.
I was able to move the contents of the folder inside the folder on my drive, but it still shows the same error.
I store local file on attached SSD.
What is this docker item mentioned from? Don’t see this on my computer… rigmarole
I wanted to make sure I can verify what Olondre said for max file path and title name. If I am able to have my computer specs be able to keep up with what I have that may or may not expand past 1000 + folder structures for different layers and title…
I really need to be able to have Obsidian and the finder app (apple) not be limited to the current numbers stated for file path length / title name total. Is there any way to bypass this if my computer components can support more? Any kind of settings or steps that I can take to make this be bypassed?
The good news is I have now been able to open my Obsidian and be able to go back in without the same issues. But the incident of this kind of scenario is super scary as I really was not able to do anything. All I did aside from the usual use of Obsidian was just close it down before I finished doing the usual for making notes and navigating around. I debug info is
I wanted to also ask anyone who would know - for any third party plugins, is there a way to prevent access to the internet internally in the settings in Obsidian? Or any other solution for this? Since this would make any malicious or potential risks be eliminated correct?
Thank you so much to everyone who commented to try and help me out. It is greatly appreciated and you all rock!
No. It’s an operating system / file system limitation. Not a computer resources limitation. It’s not the limitation of any app.
You are linking to people’s profiles. If you need to mention someone put an @ before their name. But you do not have to tag/mention people for no reason, or to solicit people’s help. If they are following this thread, they will get a notification of replies. Just reply. People who are interested in replying will reply.
But you said “many hundreds” of folders deep. With all due respect, I don’t sense any “usual use” here. Plus you are not hitting the limits of Obsidian. This is the limit of your file system.
I have no idea exactly what you’re trying to do, but it sounds beyond the scope of what Obsidian is designed for. Even the game “20 Questions” would sort of imply that anything at all can fit within a taxonomy hierarchy of roughly 20 levels deep.
Yes. Refactor your structure completely. Or code whatever thing you are doing in some database format that is designed for this level of depth. Or research alternative file systems.
You can likely find a way to block internet access. But as for eliminating any potential risk? The short answer is no. The longer answer is a nuanced no.
!