Fresh installation, remote vault with Obsidian sync, nested directories

smileart · July 9, 2023, 7:06pm

Checked the troubleshooting and searched the Graveyard and current open Bug Reports, didn’t fins a similar issue.

Steps to reproduce

Installed Obsidian app on iPhone, created a Vault and named it ‘Brain’
Created a new remote vault with paid Obsidian Sync
Started writing some notes from my phone
Installed a fresh Obsidian release on my MacOS (Version 1.3.5, Installer 1.3.5)
Followed instructions from Set up Obsidian Sync - Obsidian Help to set up the Synced Vault on my laptop
After the last step, after clicking ‘Start Syncing’, I’m getting a connected vault shown in the Settings, but in the sidebar the vault appeared as a nested directory, in the directory, in the directory, etc.
When I check the directory structure on the disc it shows 161 nested Brain dirs with the last one being empty

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Here’s my Sync log:

2023-07-09 21:55 - Paused
2023-07-09 21:55 - Connecting to server
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:55 - Server pushed (folder) [MacBook-Pro.local] Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
----------------------------------- [ CUT ] -----------------------------------
2023-07-09 21:56 - Accepted Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:56 - Creating local folder Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:56 - Accepted Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain/Brain
2023-07-09 21:56 - Fully synced

Yes, I’ve tried everything, multiple times, including clean installation (with prior removal of /Library/Application Support/obsidian, etc.) It’s reproduced every single time.

Expected result

I expect my remote Vault to be synced from the Obsidian Sync cloud and to show the same contents and structure I have on my iPhone.

Actual result

The data is not synced and the structure is nested many times without any files in the deepest directory.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: v1.3.5
	Installer version: v1.3.5
	Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 22.3.0: Mon Jan 30 20:38:37 PST 2023; root:xnu-8792.81.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 22.3.0
	Login status: logged in
	Catalyst license: none
	Insider build toggle: off
	Live preview: on
	Legacy editor: off
	Base theme: dark
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none

Additional information

WhiteNoise · July 9, 2023, 7:43pm

Are you using other sync services beyond Obsidian Sync?
Did you put the vault in iClould on the iphone or on the mac?

smileart · July 9, 2023, 7:52pm

No, did not use iCloud neither on iPhone, nor on Mac. It’s a first-time installation and I used only the Obsidian Sync.

WhiteNoise · July 9, 2023, 8:08pm

What you describe also happens when the base directory of yuor vault is /path1/dir1 in one device1 and /path2/dir2/subdir2 in another device.

Also your order of operation is a bit odd.

At step 5 your should follow the instructions here, since you already created a remote vault in step 2.

smileart · July 9, 2023, 9:08pm

Yes, I’ve created it in iOS app and Connected it on Mac after loging in with my Obsidian credentials. Also, it asked for my encryption password, which I entered. Was it wrong?

WhiteNoise · July 9, 2023, 9:18pm

Do you have access to the sync logs in your iphone?

How many devices do you have?

smileart · July 9, 2023, 9:27pm

Two devices: iPhone and Mac.

Anyway, just now I’ve paused synchronization on my iPhone, turned it on again back and forth a couple of times, and it synced all the hundreds of nested ‘Brain’ directories to my iPhone as well along with the original data I had on my phone (BTW, didn’t have such a dir at all on any device, that’s the name of the Vault not of the directory in the Vault). I deleted those hundreds of nested dirs both on my phone and on my laptop and now everything seems to be working well. Although, I’m pretty sure none of the actions or their order should generate such an amount of nested empty dirs with the vault’s name, it’s certainly a bug.

Thank you for your help. Hope this thread going to help somebody in the future.

SNMelb · July 16, 2023, 5:33am

Hi,
I have the same issue, so started looking for a solution and found this thread.

Just paid for 1 year subscription for sync and enabled it on my two vaults between 4 devices:

Desktop Windows 10
Laptop Windows 11
iPhone 12 an d
iPad Pro

My Vault is named (default) “Notes”, and after opening the vault on the iPhone I have a sync running forever re-creating full folder structure Notes/Notes/Notes … ad infinitum.

By the looks of it, the issue is not resolved in this thread, so I will e-mail the Obsidian
support to recort a bug.