"home" notes in the sidebar no longer work with Obsidian 0.15.0

Bug graveyard
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1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Make sure you’re using Obsidian 0.15.0.
  2. Create a note called “home” and enter the following text into this note:
# Home

[[Projects]]
[[Areas]]
[[Resources]]
[[Archive]]
  1. Drag the “home” note into the left sidebar.
  2. Click on one of the links in the “home” note within the left sidebar.

Expected result

With previous versions of Obsidian, the linked note would open in the centre pane. This is the expected behaviour, and is a key requirement for having a persistent “home” note such as in the example I gave above.

Actual result

As of Obsidian version 0.15.0, the linked note note appears in the sidebar itself, replacing the previous sidebar note.

This makes it impossible to have a persistent “home” note with frequently-used links which you keep in the sidebar.

Environment

  • Operating system: Mac OS X version 11.6.1
  • Debug info:

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v0.15.0
Installer version: v0.14.2
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 20.6.0: Tue Oct 12 18:33:42 PDT 2021; root:xnu-7195.141.8~1/RELEASE_X86_64 20.6.0
Login status: logged in
Catalyst license: supporter
Insider build toggle: on
Live preview: on
Legacy editor: off
Base theme: light
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Safe mode: off
Plugins installed: 16
Plugins enabled: 0

RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

Note that this change in behaviour completely breaks the way I use obsidian – I have a home note that I use constantly as the central “index” into my vault. I probably use this home note a hundred times a day to quickly get to specific parts of my vault. There are possible workarounds such as having an icon to open the home note in the centre pane, but that doubles the amount of work required to get to one of my notes, as I’d first have to open the home note and then drill down to the note I want, rather than having my home note persistently shown on the left.

2 Likes
3

I don’t think this is a bug. Now you can navigate in sidebar notes as well

If you need to open in a new pane, why don’t you use ctrl/cmd-click (or middle-click)?

4

I tried that, but it splits the centre pane and you have to manually close the previous note. You also have to remember to hold down the Command key every time you click.

Surely I’m not the only person using persistent notes in the sidebar as a way of navigating a vault?

5

You may not be, but your workflow was essentially relying on bug that was fixed along the other bugs in sidebar notes.

6

I’m happy to change to a different way of doing this – but I’m not sure how else to have an “index” that you can see all the time and click on to get to specific notes. Any suggestions?

7

Starred notes?

8

My home note is actually pretty complex, with section headings and link aliases to keep things nicely organised. Starred notes won’t support that.

In a sense, my home note is my personal way of organising my vault, and I need to have it accessible pretty much instantly.

Is there a way of setting up a keyboard shortcut that would open the home note in the centre pane with a single keystroke? That might be a workable alternative (still not as friendly as having it persistently visible, but it would work).

9

Given that the behaviour of Obsidian has been changed rather dramatically, breaking the way that some users (I assume I’m not the only one) use their sidebar notes, I do think it would make sense to have the current behaviour be optional – perhaps by adding a preference setting to choose the new behaviour or the old behaviour. That would mean Obsidian could still support persistent navigation notes in the sidebar, while also allowing the new behaviour for those who want it.

Perhaps it would make sense to enter this as a feature request?

10

BTW, the “Calendar” plugin suffers from this problem too – it automatically adds the calendar to the right sidebar but now clicking on a date also opens that daily note in the sidebar. The sidebar is too narrow to view the daily note, so this basically makes the Calendar useless.

1 Like
11

Not the same as putting it in the sidebar, but would pinning your Home note work?

Edited to add so it’ll show under the top post: @ewestra points out that after pinning a note you can drag it into the sidebar and it will behave like sidebar notes used to.

3 Likes
12

I appreciate the Floating Windows of 0.15.0. I get it that the Sidebars can now take focus. And as the OP I would like my Calendar (sitting as an icon in the sidebar) to open my daily note in the center pane rather than the sidebar as has been the case since yesterday’s 0.15.0. Starring and pinning doesn’t do the trick since all of the daily notes should preferably open with a single click in the center pane. Also the icons of the calendar seem to multiply in the sidebar since the latest version (0.15.0) Thanks!

1 Like
13

For the calendar plugin, open an issue directly to the dev of that plugin. ( I believe he is already aware of that)

14

I was doing this too. I had a note in my sidebar that was just a query of most recent notes tagged #WIP and another important tag. I was using it as a quick navigation.

And it was brilliant!

Now, clicking a link just navigates inside that pane.

If the devs don’t think this is worth fixing or making an option, this would be a very excellent plug-in idea.

(Edit: Missed the reply with the pinning and then dragging workaround. It works for me! Thanks!)

1 Like
15

Not just you and not just that plugin. I use File Tree Alternative. When I click a note to open it now opens in the left sidebar! I agree they broke something they shouldn’t have broken

1 Like
16

There have been API and architectural changes in 0.15.x. If you have problems with plugins you need to contact them, via their github repo, and if there is a problem with Obsidian they contact us.

17

I don’t think that using Ctrl-click or middleclick to open in new pane is such a big drawback. Anyway, feel free to open a feature request for this.

18

Thank you, CawlinTeffid, your idea is a great workaround.

If you open the “home” note in the centre pane, pin it, and then drag it to the sidebar, the note is persistent again. Clicking on a link in the sidebar opens the linked note in the centre pane rather than replacing the sidebar note.

Whew!

Of course, there are still problems with broken plugins.

2 Likes
19

I second this suggestion. I often will make “sidebar notes” that are vertically aligned and provide an index for the subject I’m working on. I pin the sidebar note, then shrink it to a narrow column next to the main editor. Clicking a link in the pinned note then opens it in the main editor. This approach still works for me.

3 Likes
20

@ewestra you can actually still put the note in the sidebar and pin with the command palette command. It should act like before.

21

A lot of the utility such a broad API/behavior compatibility range of users get from the product comes from the plugins. Making changes that don’t preserve api/behavior compatibility for a decent period tend to be quite annoying to users and contributors. yes, it is more work for the developers but makes a better experience for users. Others try to support existing API and then provide an extended version that implements new/changed capabilities. The extension developers are contributing their own efforts to make your product better. I think it shows respect for their efforts to be careful about changes and impact since if they have tens of thousands of users you are asking the extension author to do more work for your benefit.

Understand the desire to drop legacy editor support or whatever drove the changes, but hate to lose extension capability/usability that I’ve been enjoying.