iCloud sync issues

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We are not suggesting anything. I want to point out that Obsidian is a note-taking app that works on local files. The sync of said files is on you and the software you use. No promises to support any sync systems are made (Except Obsidian Sync, and iclould on ios which me manage directly).

Obsidian works fine with Dropbox and OneDrive.
The problem is specifically iCloud on windows. Why is you anger directed towards Obsidian and not Apple?
Why doesn’t Apple step up their game and improve their client on windows? They don’t lack neither the money nor the brainpower.

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The problem is specifically iCloud on windows. Why is you anger directed towards Obsidian and not Apple?

I’m not angry, I’m asking the software devs to address syncing issues between platforms they write software for. Please don’t ascribe emotions to me.

Why doesn’t Apple step up their game and improve their client on windows?

It’s not that I think the blame lies entirely on Obsidian, it’s that the solutions:

  • Don’t use Windows
  • Don’t use iOS
  • Don’t use iCloud
  • Don’t use Mac

Are all deflecting the issue where unfortunately software devs who make cross-platform tools need to address the deficits in order for their product to work as they indicate it can. I’m sure if you asked an Apple dev team why the iCloud sync was lousy on Windows they’d tell you that you should take it up with the Windows dev team that makes a product that doesn’t work as intended.

By asking the Obsidian dev team to address this in their software it points out that it’s a big problem for some of their users and points out that it’s on them to keep their product working. Maybe that includes doing research into upstream issues that are preventing it and asking the Windows/Apple devs or whatever open source project they’re using (if so) to address the issues they’re having. Maybe the devs decide to prioritize support for Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive etc etc in the iOS apps. There’s a slew of things that could come of asking the devs to treat this as their problem instead of shrugging it off and blaming someone else for it.

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Again the problem is specifically iclould on windows. So let’s not over generalize.

Again, nobody indicated they can. Obsidian works with files on your disk. The management and synchronization of said files is on you and the software you decide to use. Obsidian does not make the promise that it will work all file synchronization services because it this depends on how said file synchronization service is implemented.

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I’m not overgeneralizing, I’m sharing my experience as someone who’s paid for this product, using my experience in UX and software development. :expressionless:

I don’t see this conversation being fruitful - it seems like Obsidian is cool with disregarding customers needs through dismissive moderation; or for getting this problem actually resolved by developers who can address these issues.

67

No disagreement here.

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Thanks for chiming in. I usually look for that level of maturity from mods.

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Back to the original topic. Is anyone successfully syncing a vault with iCloud and 1000-2000 notes (or more)?

I have tried everything- nuking my vault, deleting the iCloud storage, restarting phone, deleting and reinstalling the Obsidian app, … I simply can’t get the app to open reliably. It freezes/crashes about 30-40% of the time. The other times it opens and then freezes shortly after the UI appears.

When I go to the Files.app on my phone, and jnto the Obsidian data folder, I see all my files there, however many of them have the little “cloud” icons indicating they have not downloaded. About 5% of them have “spinners” circling around endlessly. No rhyme or reason to it. They are simple small 1-2k markdown files…

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I have followed this thread for a while, so I figured I would contribute my perspective.

I use iCloud+ to sync over 1000 notes and 3600 total files. It regularly syncs between an iPhone, iPad, and Windows 11 machine.

I do experience a lot of issues, but these actions have helped me:

  • On Windows, I right-click my vault folder and choose “Always keep on device.” I have had to do this a couple of times, as iCloud seems to forget.
  • I keep separate .obsidian folders for my Windows and iOS devices.

The iOS and Windows devices have different issues. On Windows, Obsidian sometimes rolls back a few words and creates a file with “(1)” in the file name. If there are any of these files, the app will fail to load if relaunched. Deleting these files always solves the issue. Obsidian may also reset graph, plugin, and workspace settings. I have not experienced a major loss of data.

When I first used Obsidian mobile for iOS in July '21, it was glorious. However, there was a hidden issue: plugins did not work well when the app was launched because iCloud would be working on downloading them to the device. This wasn’t a problem for me because I did not have any essential plugins. However, it became my problem in November '21. This is when an update was released that forced Obsidian to wait at the loading screen until all plugin and setting files were synced. This increased launch time from ~1 second to 10-15 seconds. Also, if you search something on mobile and then fail to clear the search term, it will make the app extremely slow. The UX been getting worse lately. On my mobile devices, Obsidian will say it has synced all files in about 10 seconds, but it will then freeze in the text editor for 2-5 minutes. After that, it will work normally until, I presume, files are pushed to iCloud and removed from the device.

I don’t really blame the Obsidian team for these issues. It really stems from Apple’s philosophy towards files, which I will cynically summarize as this: the phone will grab and then archive text files when it needs to so that the phone can store more photos, videos, and music. I get similarly annoyed that iCloud will instantly archive my books, making it so I can’t read offline.

Also, it is my understanding that the devs cannot easily add a sync to Dropbox option due to how apps are sandboxed. I ran into this issue a lot when writing an iOS shortcut to sync files between Dropbox and a folder Obsidian can access.

I’m looking into a github option, but that only recently became possible thanks a beta plugin that can sync from iOS. GitHub - Vinzent03/obsidian-git-mobile. Sadly, the process seems manual and slow.

It would be great if we could find a reliable, fast solution between Windows and iOS!

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Thanks @NanoCourse for your detailed writeup. I have been having a similar experience, although I don’t sync with any Windows machines currently, just Macs and an iPhone.

I’ve set up a few safety nets to help avoid data loss. Mainly, I treat my iCloud vault as a read-only copy. I use Syncthing to sync my “real” vault among my 2 Macs, and have a scheduled cronjob that copies that vault with rsync to iCloud so it’s available on the phone. If any changes are detected, the script attempts to preserve them by adding a random “-icloudXXXX” suffix to the file and placing it back in the main vault for review/merge. I also have a background task that periodically scours my vault looking for anomalies like 0 byte files, sync conflicts, etc. This has been working reasonably well for me, except for:

  • The mobile app takes way too long to open: often 10-15 seconds, and sometimes hangs after the UI appears, requiring a force quit
  • At close to 2000 files, it seems I am pushing the limits of what iCloud is capable of (sad)
  • the UX on mobile is dreadful. I use it for emergencies only- get in, get what I need and get out. I can’t imagine anyone using it for anything else – maybe on an iPad.
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What could possibly work to increase performance while still staying within the confines of iCloud’s restrictive environment is:

Add support for Read-Only, Compressed Vaults in which the entire vault is stored as a single file in iCloud. The format could be proprietary, or simply a standard format like .zip or .tar.gz

This would allow for quicker and more reliable sync, removing the burden of syncing thousands of files back and forth with Apple’s poor technology and not having to enumerate, touch and force the download of each tiny .md file during app launch which is the reason for the current long delay on launch.

There would definitely be challenges, such as how to read such a large file into memory. And, it would be up to the users to create this file in the first place (so definitely an “advanced” feature) but I think worth considering.

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Hello. I am only in the Apple ecosystem. Never tried syncing with a Windows version of iCloud.
But I changes jobs and wanted my new-to-me Mac to sync with my obsidian vaults.

It will bring in the folders but NONE of the files in the folders.

Any ideas?

All I did was Open another Vault → Open folder as vault → go to iCloud Drive → select vault folder → open.

Again, it brings in the folders but not any of their contents.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

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