Notes 'disappear' whilst editing

Symptom

Whilst editing a note, the note ‘disappears’/closes and is then not visible in the explorer or in the directory where it was being stored.
It has not been deleted as nothing is in both MacBook trash or iCloud trash (where I’m storing the .md files).

Originally, the original set ‘disappearances’ meant nothing could be recovered but then for ‘reasons unknown’ all of the ‘lost’ notes reappeared in the directory with multiple versions but with the content when ‘lost’.

Below is the one of the folders I was using when I experienced several of these issues which shows all the files after they ‘re-appeared’ creating new versions of the files with the content when they disappeared.

I have now lost a note which contains so rather more important information than my daily notes so I’d like to understand how I can recover as described above if possible.

Steps to reproduce

I cannot reproduce as I do not know what combination of keystrokes is causing this.

This could be user error but I receive no warning and, to me, I am simply editing the note.

Expected result

Not to have my note ‘disappear’.

Actual result

Note disappears.

Environment

  • Operating system: MacOs 10.15.5/6

  • Obsidian version: 0.7.6 & 0.8.0


Additional information

Obsidian_Note_Error

1 Like

I am not an icloud user. Is it possible that you have iclould and obsidian open in two computers and icloud thought there were coflicts with your files and renamed some of them?
Can you access your file history in icloud?

did you select delete files in .trash or permanetly delete in the settings?

If this happens again, 1) can you figure out exactly what triggered this, it’s important that we replicate this. 2) can you check cmd-shift-i console and see if there are any errors?

That doesn’t sound like something the app would be able to do… Especially the numbering (some of it is “filename 2” and some of it is “filename(1)”).

In previous reports like this, it’s usually the sync solution being used somehow screwing up the file system. If you can test using a folder not watched under the sync folder just to try to isolate this bug that would be really helpful!

I think I have tracked down the culprit for this.

I found the missing files on a spare Windows10 laptop I have on which I had installed iCloud for some very good reason that now escapes me.

It is still unclear why the original file on my MacBook is removed but at least I now know where to look for missing file.

Obsidian was the innocent victim here so please squash this bug into the ‘Not related to Obsidian’ folder.

This issue was killing me after “losing” several files while editing! Indeed, it looks like it is related to how iCloud syncs and whether you are editing at the moment.

Based on the comments I looked into the recently deleted folder on iCloud and sure enough there the files were. This only has occurred (so far) when using a Windows machine with iCloud drive installed

hi, this still happens to me repeatedly. while editing, a file will disappear. i use icloud on two laptops, and they are pretty much never open at the same time. i’ve seen a number of other such reports here in the graveyard, all with “oh this is kind of tough to fix”. this seems to be a thing people experience fairly regularly, can we think about how we can debug something like this? maybe make the app do something other than close and toss the file you’re currently editing if the backing file goes away for some reason?

1 Like