Description
When using an Obsidian vault stored in iCloud Drive, opening notes through a tag causes the note’s filesystem modification time to change even though the contents of the note remain completely unchanged.
The issue occurs with Obsidian’s built-in Tags pane and also with the Notebook Navigator plugin. However, the issue still occurs when all community plugins are disabled, so it does not appear to be caused by a community plugin.
The issue does not occur when navigating to the same notes through the file/folder pane.
The issue also does not occur in a local vault outside iCloud Drive.
Steps to reproduce
-
Store an Obsidian vault in iCloud Drive.
-
Disable all community plugins.
-
Open the built-in Tags pane.
-
Select a tag that contains at least two notes, A and B.
-
Open note A.
-
Open note B.
-
Click note A again.
-
Check the modification time of note A.
The modification time of note A changes immediately after navigating away from it.
However, the contents of note A are identical before and after the operation.
Expected behavior
Opening a note through the Tags pane should not modify the note if no changes have been made to its contents or metadata.
Actual behavior
The note’s filesystem modification time changes even though its contents remain identical.
Additional tests
I tested the following configurations:
-
All community plugins disabled: the issue still occurs.
-
Notebook Navigator disabled: the issue still occurs when using the built-in Tags pane.
-
Update Time removed: the issue still occurs.
-
Linter disabled: the issue still occurs.
-
Navigating through the file/folder pane: the issue does not occur.
-
Navigating through the Tags pane: the issue occurs.
-
Navigating through Notebook Navigator: the issue occurs.
-
Local vault outside iCloud Drive: the issue does not occur.
-
iCloud Drive vault: the issue occurs.
The behavior is therefore reproducible only when the vault is stored in iCloud Drive and the note is accessed through tag-based navigation.
Obsidian version
Obsidian 1.13.4
Environment
macOS
Vault location: iCloud Drive
Notes
The modification happens immediately when switching between notes; it does not appear to be caused by a delayed iCloud synchronization event.
The Markdown contents of the affected note are identical before and after the operation. Only the filesystem modification time changes.
This may cause iCloud Drive to treat otherwise unchanged notes as modified and potentially create unnecessary synchronization activity or file versions.
I can reproduce the issue consistently using the steps above.