Multi-select/move multiple folders at once

[shepner]

Use case or problem

In migrating from Evernote, I ended up with a whole lot of of notes structured along these lines:

├── note.md
├── note.html
├── note
│   ├── attachment  

While manageable, this makes for really large directories because I have thousands of notes per year. As I suspect this is one aspect to the show performance I have with Obsidian, Ive been working to break up the directories along these lines:

├── note.md
├── _resources
│   ├── note.html
│   ├── note
│   │   ├── attachment

Obsidian will let me drag/drop (or use a menu option) to move a folder. One. At. A. Time. Each one takes ~20 sec to complete. Those .html files? Yeah, I can multi-select but I cant sort by extension so I can move 2-3 at a time.

Proposed solution

I specifically would like to see 2 updates:

1. A way to select, and then move, multiple folders as a single operation
2. An option to sort files by extension

Current workaround (optional)

Ive been contemplating writing a Python script to update the links. But for now Im doing this while watching TV and keeping an eye out for when Obsidian has finished. Its horribly slow going

Related feature requests (optional)

Please make these operations faster!

[PR-C]

Can you use the file explorer to do this? It’ll allow for multi-select and custom sorting based on file type.

[shepner]

Yes it is possible to select multiple files but it will not permit more than 1 directory at a time. Also, not being able to sort by extension is also a problem because you cant just select a range of files to move.

The whole file explorer seems ripe for enhancement. It doesnt need to be extensive but implementing a bit more basic file management functionality would be helpful.

[PR-C]

I mean, the file explorer interface (at least on Mac) can be displayed so that you can see up to six levels of sub-folders and you can select as many folders as you want and move them around. I imagine Windows allows for something similar. However, if you want the functionality within Obsidian, the closest I’ve seen is the Bartender plugin that allows you to do custom sorts and move things around on the file explorer. You might want to file a FR for the specific feature you are looking for.

[shepner]

You might want to file a FR for the specific feature you are looking for.

I had. Thats what we have been discussing.

I dont think you understand what Im asking so lets try this little example. Here is an example dir tree shown in Obsidian (ascending sort by name, directories first):

Here is the same dir in MacOS Finder (also ascending sort by name, directories first):

This example is the second part of what I originally requested:

This would permit a user to select/move the non-Markdown files in fewer steps

Now to the first part of my request:

A way to select, and then move, multiple folders as a single operation

Lets break this down a bit. Specifically this part:

A way to select […] multiple folders […]

In Obsidian, try selecting those 3 directories. Not their contents. You cant. The concept of doing this just doesnt exist. The best you can do is hover over a folder then drag/drop or right click/move folder:

Now imagine that instead of the 3 notes in this example, you have 10,000+ of them to contend with. The main reason I havnt written something to move/update the files is because that would be silly as Obsidian nearly does what I need already.