How to keep settings when updating plugins manually

Help
1

What I’m trying to do

For some reasons, I cannot use update function in OB and have to update plugins manually each time.

Things I have tried

The way is to copy plugin files which downloaded from GitHub into .obsidian\plugins folder. Then re-start OB. The new version plugin will work well when switched on. But there is a problem. The settings of old version plugin disappear. The new version plugin works with default settings. Thus, I have to reset all settings one by one through all updated plugins. It is boring and waste a lot of my time.
If there is any way to keep settings of plugins when updating?
I searched through this forum with key word " update plugins" but nothing helps.

Thanks in advance.

2

I think plugins’ settings are saved in .obsidian/plugins/example/data.json (“.obsidian” being a hidden folder in the root of your vault and “example” being a version of the plugin’s name). So you could try saving a copy of that file elsewhere before updating the plugin and then copying it back afterward.

Or maybe remove “data.json” from the new version of the plugin before installing it.

You probably need to restart Obsidian after that (I imagine you’re already doing that).

3

thank you for ur advice.

But unfortunately, there is no /example folder nor data.jason file in my .obsidian/plugins folder.
I use Win10+OB1.3.7

4

“Example” is an example name. Replace it with the name of the plugin (it may differ a little from the published name). The data.json file will be in that folder, not in the plugins folder. Each plugin has one.

5

Off topic (sort of):
What I do when e.g. editing a data.json file (of Editing Toolbar or Apply Patterns plugin, for instance) while Obsidian running is disable and re-enable the plugin using BRAT.

6

understood. thank you. i will try it next time.