Devices Used: Windows 10 & Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G on Android 11
Guide
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Download Dropbox on your PC, as well as downloading Dropbox and Dropsync onto your Android.
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Copy your vault from the original location and paste it into your Dropbox. Go into Obsidian and make a new vault from the files you just pasted. Delete your original vault if you want to. (Note that this is what I did, I don’t know what happens if you move your files from the original location to Dropbox and how it affects the Obsidian app on PC.)
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Open Dropbox on your phone. Download your vault from Dropbox into your device. Both Internal Storage and SD Card work fine, although if your vault has a lot of files and you have access to an SD Card, I suggest moving it there. Make sure you know where your files are so that you don’t lose them. Scroll down to the Troubleshooting section of this guide if Dropbox won’t let you download your vault files.
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Open Dropsync. It will tell you to allow permissions to your storage. Allow that, then log into your Dropbox account. Once all of that is finished, go ahead and click Choose what to sync.
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Choose Let me create my own folder pair. Going from top to bottom, pick a name for your folder pair. After that, go to Remote folder and choose your vault from Dropbox. Make sure to choose your main folder and not a subfolder (aka the contents of your vault).
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Go to local folder and find your vault files that you downloaded in step 3. Make sure to choose the main folder here as well. Choose the sync method as Two-way and the four options after can be chosen to your liking. Enable folder pair if needed then press save.
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It will then start to sync your folders together. Let it finish, that you are done. Make sure to go to the Obsidian app and open the vault from the location you saved it at on your phone if you haven’t done so already.
Dropsync Areas
Status - Lets you see when the last time your folders synced (usually every hour).
Sync History - Shows you what happens during sync
Synced Folders - Shows you what folders you are syncing and have the option to make any changes if necessary
Upgrade - Lets you upgrade the app if you want.
Testing the Sync Feature
If you want to test it out, go ahead and close Obsidian to refresh everything. Open it back up on one of the devices and make any change you want (usually making a new note is easiest but do what works for you). After, go to Dropsync and press the sync button on the top right. This will go ahead and sync your folders immediately. Open Obsidian on the other device. You should be able to see the changes that you made.
Troubleshooting
Dropbox didn’t let me download my vault from the app itself, so this is the method that I chose.
- Grab a USB cable that can connect your phone to your PC (Usually your phone charger cable will work for this).
- Connect your phone and go to File Explorer. Find your files in Dropbox (your File Explorer should have a section called Dropbox) and copy your vault. Go to This PC and find your phone. From there, choose either Internal Storage or SD Card to save your files, then paste. Like I said in step 3, it’s easier to go and make a new main folder so that you don’t lose your files easily. After that, disconnect your phone and you can move to step 4.
If your Dropsync app doesn’t let you access your storage, open App Info and choose Dropsync, then check its Permissions. Make sure that Storage access is allowed. After that, you’re good to go.
