Note autocreation fails silently if note name contains a forbidden character

Steps to reproduce

In some existing note, enter a link to a non-existent note with a forbidden character (e.g. colon) in the name, e.g.:

[[Article: Foo]]

Then in the preview pane, click the link to that note.

(Forbidden characters seem to be as follows *, ", \, /, <, >, :, |, ? — at least, that’s what the pop-up says when you try to manually create a new note containing one of these.)

Expected result

I’d expect Obsidian to create a new note — ideally I’d expect it to be called Article: Foo, but the forbidden characters thing is a separate issue, so assuming they really do have to be forbidden I’d expect an article called Article Foo (there are three spaces in the middle of that filename, but the forum preview only shows one, annoyingly), or Article _ Foo or similar.

Actual result

Obsidian doesn’t create the new note: if I click on the note name, nothing happens; if I Ctrl/Cmd-click on it, then a new pane opens, but no note is created/loaded (it’s just a fresh pane, ready to open a note into).

Environment

  • Operating system: MacOS 10.14.6
  • Obsidian version: 0.6.4
  • Using custom CSS: gruvbox theme

Additional information

At least on MacOS, most of those forbidden characters are valid in filenames (I think / is the only genuinely forbidden one), so I think it’s a bit of a shame they’re forbidden - but that’s a separate issue. The issue here is that autocreation fails, and fails silently.

WIll be fixed in the next release 0.6.5. Let mw know if you still have problems.

2 Likes

LGTM — Obsidian refuses to create the file, just as if I’d tried to do it by hand in the file explorer. Thanks!