How do I work with Obsidian on Mobile?

[DummyME]

Also, there can be a plugin utilizing this for OBSIDIAN

[ja_rule]

Has anyone figured out how to get Notebooks (on iOS) to import an existing Obsidian vault? I’ve got my vault in a Dropbox folder and have been using it successfully with 1Writer for several months now, and have been very happy with the synching, but not so much with internal links. I thought I’d give Notebooks a try, and configured it to sync with Dropbox. My problem is that new notebooks I create in Notebooks will show up in Dropbox, and thus my Obsidian vault on Windows. But all my existing files don’t show up in Notebooks, which is what I expected to see. That is, when I configured Notebooks to use my Obsidian vault folder as the sync folder, I expected all my notes to show up in Notebooks. They didn’t.

[captgoodhope]

I believe all you would need is to choose the folder you want to sync in Notebooks settings here.

[ja_rule]

Thanks for the reply. I found the step I was missing, which was to pull down the Books list to initialize the first sync. I had a little green light next to the “Dropbox sync status,” so I thought it was done. It was pointed in the right place, but hadn’t actually pulled the files. All good now!

[rscottjones]

I’m a n00b and haven’t set up a mobile solution for my vault yet, but am wondering how the launch of Obsidian Sync affects any of the solutions mentioned here.

[roguefury]

The best I can tell, sync is done via a proprietary method. That means syncing will require the developers to provide APIs to app makers for it to work as a replacement to iCloud/Dropbox, etc.

That’s all cool. I bought the sync functionality for a couple of reasons:

1. Fund the developers. Obsidian’s development pace and quality is remarkable.
2. Given that sync can select folders to sync, and ones not to, this opens up an important option for me. I do most of my work on an iMac, but also have a work MacBook. I don’t want personal notes to float over to the work MacBook, but I do want a common vault. The current sync allows for this possibility.

Long winded answer, but at the moment, sync is not for mobile devices.

[Fulcanelli]

This thread got me curious about Notebooks - an app which I gave up upon a couple of years ago. I downloaded the trial version to my Mac. After setting my Obsidian vault as default store location in Notebooks’ settings, may whole vault, including folders, appeared in the sidebar of Notebook.

Notebook left me PLEASANTLY surprised, WIKILINKS seem to work and I can create new files with automatic backlinks.

So far I have been using Drafts App as mobile companion an iOS devices. Now I am contemplating a switch to Notebook.

[tward09]

I loaded up my folders to Dropbox to try out Notebooks 10 and the links seem to be looking for .txt files instead of .md files. Am I missing something in the settings that enables this? Due to this, existing backlinks that point to a markdown file in Obsidian, like Paul.md, instead pop up the box to “Create ‘Paul.txt’” instead of going into the existing .md document.

For me personally that’s a dealbreaker because I do like the look of the app.

[sandrop]

There’s a setting in Write and Edit to set the default document type. Pick markdown.

That will partially resolve the backlink popup you’re seeing. Once you specify markdown it will look for a file at the same level directory as the the file you’re in. It doesn’t look like it supports folders. Guessing the link will work for same directory notes but I can’t confirm as I am having issues with Notebooks

I tried Notebooks 10 with Dropbox last night and struggled with a couple things that are currently dealbreakers:

1. the real time sync isn’t working for me. In 1Writer when I make my edit it just saves then Dropbox syncs to my laptop. With Notebooks 10 I managed to get everything sync’ed into NB10 from DB but couldn’t get it to reliably and real-time sync back to Dropbox.

2. NB10 created plist files for every .md file I have containlng only the creation date and dropbox sync date. I appreciate the atomicity of this but it’s too many files cluttering up my directories. If they have to do this I guess .files would be better as they are hidden and ignored.

Not sure if anyone is seeing this too and any insights would be appreciated

[tward09]

Ah, that is the issue then. I recently sorted everything into folders in my vault. Looks like I’m sticking with 1Writer, though that doesn’t seem to work well with folders either. Excited for the Obsidian app if it works just like Obsidian on macOS/Windows.

[ja_rule]

Whoa, that’s super annoying! I just looked at my vault on Windows and it now has a zillion plist files. I didn’t notice because Obsidian has been so good with vault management that I don’t actually touch the files through the filesystem now, so maybe I can get past this.

I haven’t had any issues with sync via Dropbox once I got past the initial sync confusion. I’ve been using 1Writer for 4 or 5 months now, and the sync is pretty quick, and I’ve found NB10 to be about the same in the few days I’ve been trying it.

With regard to folders and links, I think they’re currently equivalent. Obsidian is great because it will find any matching link in your vault without specifying a full path. Both 1Writer and NB10 appear to support relative paths if you’re willing to add them. I typically throw images and other included content in an “include” folder, and links that look like ![[include/myImage.jpg]] seem to work fine, but I’d rather that they add Obsidian-like smarts.

[Val]

This is the solution I keep coming back to for iPad as well. I use Drafts to capture information quickly and ia Writer for when I’m giving one existing note my prolonged attention. But the moment I want to do even the tiniest bit of organization or create links, nothing works remotely as well as accessing Obsidian on my stationary Mac through Jump. I don’t even bother with ia Writer anymore most of the days.

[rscottjones]

Drafts is great—I use it to capture all sorts of random thoughts—and what you outlined has been my workflow so far as well. Can’t wait for a true mobile app though.

[obsidium]

Any chance that you are on iOS? Is Resilio actually syncing the files if you edit them from another app, say, 1writer? I have to manually open Resilio Sync to trigger the sync.

[PeterE]

I use Notebooks 10 and can change text in Obsidian and it immediately syncs between both. I also have a shared Dropbox folder so I am not sure what the issue is?

Notebooks 10 allows you to not show the plist files in Drobpox and Obsidian doesnt get cluttered.

I use 1Writer and think it is a great app but wanted an iOS/MacOS application and the only credible one I could find which worked with Drobpox and therefore Obsidian is NB10. Very pleased with it.

(I should add that I sometimes capture the original ideas in Drafts and then just use the integration that is available to send the file to NB10. Again this works straightforwardly for me)

[PeterE]

My suggestion is to look at the “Hide system files (.plist) in Finder” in the Advanced menu in NB10.

[mycosphere]

I keep my Obsidian vaults in Dropbox, encrypted by Boxcryptor. On iOS, the decrypted Boxcryptor volume can be accessed via the Files app. I’ve read this thread & gather that there aren’t any great iOS Markdown Editor apps that can access a service as a Files app location, is that correct? I use Drafts to capture information on iOS and bring that content into Obsidian as part of a daily review process. But there are times I’d like to edit files in an Obsidian vault directly. Any ideas?

[Twen]

The app Taio is more an more impressive to work on iOS. They improved it so that images pasted are automatically added to a pre-defined folder (assets) in the notes directory. Similarly, dropping a webpage on a note automatically creates a Markdown link. I can now go back and forth frictionless between notes captured using Obsidian and Taio.

[jakub]

You can open md files in Pythonista, it works very well

[mycosphere]

Thanks @Twen. From a cursory look at it, Taio looks promising and my vaults in Boxcryptor are indeed available.