Finding missing vault

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1

Finding missing vault

I’ve been using Obsidian for 6 months or so, but when I opened the app today all my notes are disappeared. Is there a default vault save location?
When I made a new vault it saved to:
C:\Users\username\Documents\Obsidian Vault
But my previous set of notes were not there.

2

Do you remember anything at all about where you might have saved it?

You could try searching your computer for Markdown (.md) files. If Windows search can’t find it, a really good search tool for Windows is “Void Tools Search Everything”.

  • Do you use a cloud sync tool like Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, or anything else? Did that cloud data perhaps get offloaded from your computer?
  • Are you running any auto clean tools that automatically delete cache files? If you do, does it maybe have a log you can check to see if it deleted your files?
  • Have you checked your recycle bin, in case it was accidentally deleted?

I hope you can find your files.

4

This “Void Tools Search Everything” app is pretty cool!

Somehow it looks like the notes have been deleted, one of the .md files I expected to find come up being in the directory:

C:$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-XXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXX-9107$RHSXB0D.11\Notes\project\filename.md

It seems to have happened when I opened and closed the Obsidian application quick succession (I accidentally opened up the app twice and closed the first instance).
It could possibly be that I fat fingered a delete command, but it seems somewhat unlikely.

Thanks for the help!

1 Like
5

I hope that means you found everything in that location?

I do recommend keeping good backups. Copies of your vault at periodic intervals, preferably stored in another location(s). Things like this happen from time to time. Occasionally from things out of your control, like power surges, or hard drive failures. (I’m not saying that is what caused your issue, just that backups are vital!)