Hyperlinks Causing Obsidian to Freeze

[YoungestBoy]

Hello! New here. I’m curious if I’m using hyperlinks correctly. What I have works, but I’m having a severe issue.

To make a link to a webpage, I use the format:
[Tag Name](Link to page)

When this renders, clicking it will take me to the webpage as intended, but
trying to make the link itself causes issues. If my cursor lies within the {} brackets or square brackets or if I click on the field to edit the link, the whole program freezes, then stops responding. Once recovered, moving the cursor left or right will cause another freeze, so the only option is to click away.

I see that no one else has this issue. Any idea why this causes it to hang?

Thanks

[ariehen]

Hi! Hello!

I don’t recall experiencing anything like you describe when making or editing Markdown links.

Just to rule out plugins etc., can you try in the Sandbox vault and then in your vault using the default theme and in Restricted mode?

Those steps and others are here:

512×512 4.96 KB

Troubleshooting Guide Search before posting Before opening a new bug report, please try searching the whole forum for duplicates. It really helps us. Troubleshoot Instructions In order for us to fix a bug, we need reliable and consistent steps that cause the bug every time. If something looks wrong, first make sure you are using the latest Obsidian version and that your installer is up-to-date. The app and installer versions don’t need to match, but they shouldn’t be too far apart. The instal…

[YoungestBoy]

Thanks for the reply! This slowdown occurs in both the sandbox and my own vault.
I’ve played around a bit, and here’s what I’ve noticed:

Adding a set of extra parentheses in the hyperlink text sometimes causes the lag to disappear, depending on the link.
Ex.:
[Link](h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_(physics)) → slowdown occurs only when the cursor is within the (physics) set of parentheses

[Link](h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_(physi( )cs)) → slowdown fixed everywhere

[Link](h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_(physi( )( cs)) → slowdown occurs now when the cursor lies anywhere in the [Link](→ ←).

[Link](h ttps://forum.obsidian.md/t/about-the-bug-reports-category/24/11) → the slowdown occurs for this other link

[Link](h ttps://forum.obsidian.md/t/about-the-bug-reports-category/24/11( )) → extra set of parentheses does not help the cursor’s slowdown for this one, though.

There doesn’t seem to be an obvious pattern. I’m not too concerned about it, but it is interesting.
Thanks for letting me know if you have any ideas. Otherwise, I can just paste hyperlink text directly in my doc.

[ariehen]

For next time, have a look at the code formatting section of the forum tips and put your examples in a code block. This way, we can be sure the forum isn’t mangling your links.

[Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_physics)

Hmm. I’m not sure. I just tried manually typing out and editing a bunch of Markdown links and am not experiencing any slowdowns or freezes.

A few things that come to mind to check (although probably not related):

• what are your PC specs? older computer? new one?
• where is your vault? on a local disk or somewhere else? Obsidian saves every few seconds so maybe a network or cloud storage drive could cause slowdowns?
• have a look in activity monitor/task manager to see if anything is spiking.
• could your anti-virus software be causing an issue?

If you can grab a screen recoding of it happening, maybe folks could spot something. I don’t know…

[YoungestBoy]

Here is my hardware

CPU=1 x Core i7-8750H - 2200 MHz (6 cores, 12 threads)
Socket Designation=U3E1
Code Name=Coffee Lake S, H, E
Generic Name=Intel64 Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 10
Instructions=MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, x86-64, VT-x, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3
Max Speed=8300 MHz

Memory=16 GB
BANK 0=8 GB DDR4 SODIMM - 2667 MHz (SK Hynix)
BANK 2=8 GB DDR4 SODIMM - 2667 MHz (SK Hynix)
Video Adapter=NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 - 6144 MB (WDDM 3.0)
Video Adapter=Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 - 1024 MB (WDDM 2.5)
HDD RAID= 512 GB

During slowdown, the process associated with the obsidian file jumps from 0 to 20-30% CPU usage. I would explain exactly what is happening on the resource monitor, but it seems unlikely to give additional helpful information.

Thanks for trying trying to help anyhow.

[YoungestBoy]

The debugger throws this exception when trying to move within a link.

Exception thrown at 0x00007FFC757F4C3C in Obsidian.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: wil::ResultException at memory location 0x000000C6E63FBC30.

I admit that doesn’t really tell anything, though

[CawlinTeffid]

Have you rebooted your computer since the problem started happening?

[YoungestBoy]

Couldn’t remember so I just did. It’s persisting though.

[CawlinTeffid]

Alas.

You have backups of all your computer files you care about, right?

[YoungestBoy]

I should say yes, but honestly, I’ve never backed up. Working on the storage situation. My puny SSD has been full for years, and I just keep removing files I don’t use instead of just getting external storage. Thanks for putting that on my radar. My computer must be gasping and wheezing.

[CawlinTeffid]

Now is the best time to do it (compared to later)! Get you an external drive or two, and follow these directions to setup local backups: https://web.archive.org/web/20200101015933/http://www.worldbackupday.com/en/ (or at least copy everything over for a one#time quick-and-dirty backup, but following the directions won’t take much longer). Also here are about links about online backups since it good to have some far away too: http://www.worldbackupday.com/