#1

Hi,

I’m using a Mac and an Android phone. I would like to sync my Obsidian Vault. I thought Google Drive was the simple option but I can’t manage to get a folder on my Android device with a copy of the content of a folder on my Mac (I can have just a single file “available offline” but I need a folder).

Is there an easy way I just don’t know of using Goggle Drive or any other software?

Kind regards,
Tchak

1 Like
#2

I sync my two vaults with Dropbox no problem. I use them on my Macbook, iPad and Google Pixel.

#3

On dropbox you can’t use emoji in filename / folder name ;(

#4

Use Syncthing: open source, free, encrypted & secure, and decentralised (i.e. direct peer-to-peer synchronisation without a central cloud server).

And quite easy, at that. You just select which vault folder you want to share, add a trusted device (the other device that should also keep a copy of the vault), set up the new device, and let it sync. After it’s done, point your Obsidian mobile to the newly-created vault folder locally. Voila!

#5

Hi @AND,
I found the syncthing.dmg for my Mac but cannot find a corresponding app for my iPad/iPhone. If there is none, how to sync a Mac with aniPad/iPhone than?

Thanks in advance
Helmut

#6

On iPad I use Möbius Sync, works great. Probably works for iPhone, cannot say.

It’s not free, though, but if you really need to use Syncthing the one-time payment is fine in my opinion. Besides syncing your vault you will be able to sync any other folders as well.

The real problem with iOS/iPadOS is its sandboxing. What I mean by this is that you cannot open the Möbius Sync folder with Obsidian directly and have it work that way. You’ll need to first sync with Möbius Sync, and then copy/paste the files from Mobius folder to Obsidian vault folder. If that’s not too big of an issue for you, go for it. I still haven’t found a way to rectify this i.e. there’s no way to make symbolic links on iPadOS without jailbreaking. :confused:

Oh, and BE CAREFUL!! You need to only copy/paste from Möbius folder to Obsidian vault folder. Don’t cut, delete or modify files in Möbius folder because these changes will reflect in your other synced devices!!!

#7

@AND : Thanks for this Tip and taking the time for this detailed answer.

1 Like
#8

Thank you but I tried and couldn’t do it :upside_down_face:
Are you using a free Dropbox?
On Android I can have a file availaible offline but I would need a directory, how did you manage this?
Could you store your files on the SD card of your Android phone?
By the way I have Android 8.0 on my phone, do you think this could be an issue?

#9

I use Dropbox on Android and Mac to sync. It does require another free app to create a local directory. I wrote up a small tutorial here: Setting up Obsidian on Android with Dropbox sync.

In general, you can find information on synching in this great meta post: Meta Post - Syncing between Devices

Some emojis actually work!

#10

@gregxvx Interesting, with Obsidian on my iPad I can only work with the native Obsidian sync or with iCloud. Can you explain how you access a vault in Dropbox with the Obsidian iPad app?

#11

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