Graph View (Why doesn't graph display when clicking the Ribbon's Graph button?)

[JBF]

Problem

Why is the Graph View blank?

I expected to see nodes for each note present in the Vault.

My Vault

I have three notes.

Take a look at the following screenshot (#1).

Note the yellow highlights.

---

---

The Start Note is opened in a tab.

Please note that it links three other notes: “A”, “B”, and “C”.

The referenced notes (“A”, “B”, and “C”) are listed in the Links pane on the right.

What I do

I click Open Graph View (in the left ribbon), and the center panel displays an empty Graph view. No nodes appear.

Take a look at the screenshot (#2).

Note the yellow highlights.

---

---

The graph view is blank, simply displaying “Graph View”.

The Outoing Links button displays no links in the right pane.

Here’s a screenshot of what I see when I click the Graph View’s option button.

---

---

Using

1. Obsidian
   Version 1.12.7 (Installer 1.12.7)
2. macOS 26.4.1

Questions

1. Why is the Graph View blank?
2. How do I get the Graph View to display the nodes?
3. Is there a problem with the Graph View’s options, as shown in screenshot #3?
4. What am I missing?

[ariehen]

It looks like there may be a tiny little cluster here (center-bottom):

Try zooming in with the mouse wheel or two fingers on the trackpad.

[JBF]

@ariehen

Thanks for responding so quickly.

Several questions.

1. What is a cluster?
2. What does it look like?
3. In which image do you see the “tiny little cluster”?
4. Are you asking me to choose View -> Zoom In?

I choose Zoom In and icons and text get bigger. But nothing seems to be revealed in the Graph View.

[ariehen]

In my post, there’s a crop of your second screenshot. In the crop you can see a tiny speck center-bottom. I’m wondering if that’s the cluster of notes and you are just zoomed out really far.

No, not View -> Zoom In, just scroll with your mouse wheel or pinch-out with two fingers on the trackpad.

^here I’m using the mouse center wheel to zoom in-out in the Graph.

[JBF]

@ariehen

OK, I maximized the Obsidian window, and I now see a speck.

But I’m using a trackpad, not a mouse.

I’ve noticed that pressing on the trackpad reveals a hand icon. I can move the hand icon, and the speck moves in the same direction.

More questions:

1. Is the speck the graph image?
2. What might I have done to make such an alteration, sizing the image to a speck?
3. Is there a menu item that can restore the image to its initial size?
4. If I upload my test vault, would that provide you with more insight into what happened?

[JBF]

@ariehen

I appreciate your help, which got me thinking.

Here’s what I’ve done to get the graph in the defective obsidian vault to display.

Step #1

I created a new vault and copied the notes from the defective vault (ie, the one that shows a spec in the Graph View).

So I have two vaults with the names:

1. Obsidian Vault (which displays a spec that I have not successfully enlarged).
2. Obsidian Vault Test (which contains a copy of the four note files: Start Note, A, B, C).

Step #2

I examined the hidden .obsidian folder at the top level of each vault and found the .obsidian.graph.json file.

Step #3

I compared the two .obsidian.graph.json files to discover any differences.

Two JSON properties caught my attention in the .obsidian.graph.json files.

1. scale
2. close

The tiny spec had a very small scale. It was "scale": 0.007824539369268026.

Step #4

I increased the scale value to "scale": 1.007824539369268026 and reopened the vault. The graph is now displayed.

Two more questions.

1. Is there an option, when the scale reaches an incredibly small scale, to set the zero before the decimal point to 1? That’s what made the graph become visible for me. The option name might be Reset Graph Scale to 1. Other users might appreciate this option when the scale becomes too small. I didn’t see the spec until you pointed it out to me.

2. Also, what is the purpose of the JSON close property?