Steps to reproduce
Create a text front matter field with any key name and a value containing “foo:bar” or “B8:27:EB:17:76:01” and it is automatically formatted as a hyperlink.
Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]
Y
Expected result
It should be rendered as plain text.
Actual result
It is rendered as a link.
Environment
SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.7
Installer version: 1.12.7
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Tue Apr 21 20:18:11 PDT 2026; root:xnu-11417.140.69.710.16~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020 24.6.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: Things 2.2.4
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 1
Plugins enabled: 1
1: Git v2.38.5
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Custom theme and snippets: for cosmetic issues, please first try updating your theme and disabling your snippets. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community theme and snippets.
Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.
Additional information
I’d like to have a field indicating a MAC address, but it is automatically rendered as a link when it starts with a letter. ie “B8:27:EB:17:76:01”. This behaviour is inconsistent with similarly formatted text in the document body. Quoting or backticking does not solve the problem because those special characters are rendered literally as well. I also tried “escaping” the colons to no avail.