I really want to love Obsidian. But it keeps making it hard.
I can’t get my notes to stay downloaded on my computer, which means it either takes forever to open notes, or they don’t open at all.
Note content gets deleted when switching to a different app, can be restored with CMD + Z, except when the note was closed
“Unable to retrieve version history”
In general, why is there so much overhead in managing Obsidian? Why does “sync” not also offer to sync settings etc between devices? Why does the sync password not get saved to keychain?
I guess I’d like to
a) untangle Obsidian file access from iCloud, while still having iCloud backup my vault
b) reset and then remember my sync password so I can actually use the sync feature I’m paying for
It sounds like iCloud is ‘purging’ your files because it doesn’t think they’re in use.
You can tell it not to do this, at the expense of it keeping all iCloud files locally; which you might not have room for. Sadly there’s no granularity to this option. You’d need to turn this setting off.
In addition to the Optimize Mac Storage setting in the macOS settings, if you are using Obsidian Sync with a vault in iCloud Drive there could be issues:
I’ll repeat it a 3rd time, because it’s important. Don’t mix cloud syncing tools! If you are using Obsidian Sync and iCloud at the same time, that is almost certainly why you are losing notes. They are fighting each other.
For point b) No one can help you remember your password. I suggest using a password manager. Copy/backup your notes somewhere safe first because it sounds like you have a mess going on. Then you’ll likely have to delete the Obsidian Sync remote vault and make a new one with a password you can remember. Deleting the remote vault will not delete the local files you have.
It does. Turn it on in the Sync settings. But stop mixing two cloud tools first, because the settings files might be getting lost too:
