I am trying to restore a vault that I had saved in Google Drive. After opening it in Obsidian, the folders seem to be there, but there are no notes in any of them. Messages such as the following pop up on my computer: “Can’t add file
“app.json” has been removed from Google Drive because you don’t have permission to add files to “.obsidian”. For help, contact your Google Workspace administrator.” If I drag the Google Drive folder onto my desktop, I can restore it without issue. Does anyone know how to fix this issue so that I can rest easy knowing all my notes are up to date and backed up in my drive?
Things I have tried
I tried poking around some settings both in Obsidian and my Google Drive; I’m not sure which one is responsible for giving me this issue.
I get similar problems with OneDrive. If I send files directly, they still have weird permissions that the app was using to manage the files, and I can’t rename them or move them without entering a password each time.
Try this:
Zip up the entire folder from the working desktop. Transfer the zip. Unzip it on the new computer. It might work if your problem is at all similar to mine.
I can transfer the files from the computer using that method alright, but it seems the connection between Obsidian and Google Drive is messed up, which is my main concern. When I make a new file on Obsidian, the backup on the desktop gets updated, but the backup on Google Drive does not. I suppose if worst comes to worst, I’ll just always need to remember to manually resave my work from the desktop back onto my Google Drive after every session, which will be much less convenient than if Obsidian and Google Drive were properly communicating.
Unless I’m reading wrong that sounds like a separate issue. And likely that you don’t have Google Drive files set to be always downloaded (I don’t know if it has that setting).
There is no “connection”, but if the files are offloaded to the cloud, Obsidian can’t see it properly, and at worst, might cause sync conflicts.
Google Drive calls the settings “mirroring” and “streaming”. You want “mirroring” set for any Obsidian vaults so that files and folders aren’t offloaded from under Obsidian’s nose.