When you drag and drop files from your native file explorer into Obsidian, it will now default to creating file:/// absolute links. Holding the Ctrl/Cmd key will copy the files into your vault like it did previously.
This is not the case for me, on Mac, holding CTRL while clicking on a file in Finder opens the right-click actions menu, and when holding COMMAND and dropping a file into Obsidian it just bounces off and doesn’t insert it.
It seems the only way to add image attachments now is to either use absolute paths in standard Markdown image links, or manually move the image into the attachments folder and drag a link from the left sidebar to create a non-standard Obsidian markup image link like ![[Screen Shot 2021-02-17 at 9.22.04 am.png]]
Neither really seems ideal, but I was perfectly happy with the previous behaviour of being able to simply drag and drop images from finder and let Obsidian copy the file into the attachments folder and insert its own image tag.
I prefer the new way, because I already have tens of thousands of PDFs and images, and creating a new file in Obsdian would be duplicative and cumbersome to manage.
So it’s good to have the option of which one to base it on.
Just for completeness, copying my message from the Obsidian Discord:
Cmd-drop (from finder to Obsidian) results in the pointer changing from a “link” arrow (curved) to a standard pointer arrow, but the file then “flies” back to finder when releasing the mouse button (e.g. no effect). option-drag-drop results in the pointer changing to a “+” (remember that option-drag-drop is the normal Mac way of COPYING a file rather than moving it in e.g. Finder) but when releasing the mouse button, nothing is added to the document. Regular drag-drop (no cmd, no option) results in a file:// link to the file’s original location.
It would be really great if this feature could be manually set, i.e. between old and new behavior. If you’re only embedding images, it really makes sense for them to be copied to the currently set attachment folder.
Personally I’d rather be able to drag to my vault instead of having a link so I’m fine with this, but you probably can’t bind ctrl-click either on macOS since it’s the shortcut for right-click.
You would need cmd-click or shift-click
Same issue here.
I personally like to have everything stored in the vault, and I do prefer to use Wikilink whenever it is possible, the old way did the perfect (and easy) job.
Could it be done by adding an option to choose from the old/new way?
Confirming that CONTROL + drag & drop now copies the image into the attachment folder in 0.11.1, thank you for rolling out an update so quickly, I love the release cadence!
I don’t love behavioural changes being pushed out without an option to retain the original behaviour though, which for many of us will be muscle memory now; I’m sure I’m going to do a regular drag and drop without realising, delete the original image in a routine desktop cleanup, and end up with a broken image in the page.
Maybe a bit of background into the need for this change would give us context? Was it solving a problem around keyboard bindings for example? Otherwise, a setting to revert it back from CONTROL to drag & drop with no keyboard modifier if we want would be greatly appreciated.
Seems to me this should at least be a setting for Obsidian Sync subscribers. If I’m syncing my data between devices, I want to sync the actual media files - not the link to a file on my desktop. I’m staying on 0.11.0 for now because I don’t want to EVER add just the link.
I totally agree with this - I do a lot of screenshots and I would like to have those images copy straight to the vault, so when I move around to another computer, my images are there (my vaults are sync to Dropbox).
I am disappointed at the change of this direction to make shortcuts the default. It has significantly impacted my workflow.
I think there is some confusion here.
You can move files to obsidian and there are several ways to do it.
Moving stuff using only finder
Drag and drop between finder and file explorer in obsidian
Drag-ctrl-drop between finder and a note in obsidian. (this is the only thing that changed from drag and drop)
Correct, it’s technically possible to drag an image into Obsidian while holding a modifier key and get the expected result - a file embedded into the note and added to the default file location. But it is very easy to think you did this if you’re moving quickly and then you go to access your notes somewhere later and the file is missing because the default is the file link only. Here’s one use case that used to work but now doesn’t on 0.11.1+: GoodNotes – Tapes
BTW, I know that I could put the file in the files folder. I also know that I could set GoodNotes to save to that folder first. But I work with more than one app, and currently Obsidian is the one that isn’t doing what’s expected.
