Obsidian + Goodnotes Workflow (Free)

What this workflow allows you to do is the following:

Take your notes in Goodnotes (like on your iPad) and those have those notes automatically be synced (as pdf or as a Goodnotes file) to your vault. I have not tested this workflow with other cloud storage providers or operating systems but Google Drive and Windows.

This does not cost anything but requires you to have your computer on for the synchronization to work.

The Workflow:

  1. Have synchronization turned on inside Goodnotes so that it syncs to the cloud.
  2. Download FreeFilySync onto the computer where you have your Obsidian Vault.
  3. Download Google Drive for desktop
  4. Open RealTimeSync (bundled with FreeFileSync) and set it up to monitor the directory on your Google Drive where Goodnotes saves the pdfs.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FreeFileSync XmlType="REAL" XmlFormat="2">
    <Directories>
        <Item>G:\My Drive\GoodNotes\[Folder]</Item>
    </Directories>
    <Delay>0</Delay>
    <Commandline>"C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "[Path to Free File Sync Script File]"</Commandline>
</FreeFileSync>

What this does is it will monitor any changes inside a folder you designate (in this case our Google Drive Goodnote folder) and if it does it will launch FreeFileSync and run a script to copy the files directly from Google Drive to your Obsidian Vault.

Here is the code that makes up that FreeFilySync script:

...
<FolderPairs>
    <Pair>
        <Left>gdrive:\[Email attached to Google Drive]:GoodNotes\[Your Folder]</Left>
        <Right>[Path TO Obsidian Vault Folder Where You Want The Note To Sync To]</Right>
    </Pair>
</FolderPairs>
...

I recommend you have the RealTimeSync script setup to run automatically when your computer boots up and FreeFileSync minimized so that everything happens in the background.

I am available to answer any questions you might have, and if there is enough demand, I can make a video detailing the process.

The entire sync process is very fast and is usually sub 30 seconds.