I’m having an issue with Graph View where it’s constantly trying to redraw the graph if I have a subtractive filter enabled (for instance, “-tag:#work”). I’ve disabled all community plugins and changed the theme to Default and the problem still occurs.
It seems to be some interaction with Sync or indexing – the Sync icon is constantly changing between “fully synced” and “syncing”, even though the activity log does not show any changes.
If I hover over the Sync icon, the tooltext changes rapidly between “Indexing”, “Uploading .obsidian/graph.json”, and “Fully synced”. If I disable the Sync plugin, the problem still occurs.
If I remove the filter, the graph view stops redrawing and functions as normal. An additive filter, like “tag:#work”, seems to function as expected.
This does render Graph View pretty unusable, so any assistance to fix this issue would be appreciated.
In a vault with many notes, open Graph View. Type an exclusionary filter into the “filters” text area (such as “-tag:#work”).
Did you follow the troubleshooting guide?
Yes.
Obsidian is up to date.
My files are stored locally and I am using Obsidian Sync.
The problem occurs with Theme set to Default and all Community Plugins disabled.
I copied my notes into the Sandbox Vault and the problem is not reproduced. I’m not sure if this actually means anything since the Sandbox Vault does not have the Sync plugin enabled.
Expected result
Graph View loading, then displaying an interactive graph.
Actual result
Graph View redrawing continuously.
Environment
SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.6.3
Installer version: v1.4.16
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro 10.0.22631
Login status: logged in
Catalyst license: none
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: dark
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 10
Plugins enabled: 0
Yes, it happens both with Sync paused and with Sync disabled.
It seems like every time the graph display is redrawn it gets reindexed, and every time it’s reindexed the graph display is redrawn. When changing settings it will sometimes reset them – for instance, I can change a setting toggle (like turning Orphans off) and when it’s redrawn that setting will turn back on.
I copied all of my existing notes into the Sandbox vault and the problem does not occur there. However, I can copy my notes into a new vault and reproduce the problem with all default settings.
Both my main vault and the test vault I created were on removable media, Windows 11. No third-party syncing software in use (because Obsidian Sync is amazing).
I closed my test vault, moved the folder to my local drive, and opened it back up as a new vault – graph view functioned normally. Now that I have this information, I suspect that’s what makes the Sandbox vault function normally as well.
So this is related to the vault being stored on a different drive letter than the Obsidian installation? Both my internal drive and external drive are SSDs.
Edit: Graph View functioning as expected on my synced Android device.
