Obsidian startup showing black screen. Not sure where data is stored

[obsidianuser123]

What I’m trying to do

I am having trouble opening obsidian. When I open it, it starts up as a black screen and remains as so. Also having trouble finding where data is saved.

Things I have tried

I’ve tried restarting my laptop but that hasn’t worked. I have also tried to run it as administrator but the same thing occurs. I saw on a separate thread that the person turned off chrome’s safe searching feature and it worked for them so I tried to do the same but still no success. I am not sure what other options I have. I am considering uninstalling and installing it again but I am scared to lose my files. I think my files are supposed to be in .obsidian but when I look into the folder I can’t find any file that has my workspace there. There are a bunch of json files but none of them contain the actual data. One of them is named workspace.json and it includes the structure of my workspace but not any of the actual information I have in each directory.

[ariehen]

@obsidianuser123

I am considering uninstalling and installing it again but I am scared to lose my files

This is on macOS, but all of your notes, folders, and attachments are stored within the vault. The (sometimes hidden) .obsidian settings folder is in there as well.

If you backup this folder, TESTVAULT in this case, all of your data will be fine. When reinstalling the Obsidian app on macOS or Windows, this TESTVAULT won’t be touched.

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Have a look at these two topics. One person was able to resolve the issue by reinstalling, and another by renaming the .obsidian folder. Renaming .obsidian will reset your settings, but your notes will not be affected.

Obsidian launches to blank screen on MacOS

I have solved the issue for now. I simply updated the Obsidian app installation by installing afresh from the website, replacing the old application. The newly installed app opened my vault immediately, seemingly with all my formatting settings still intact.

Obsidian shows blank window when launched

@ariehen @WhiteNoise I renamed the .obsidian folder then relaunched, and it worked! Thank you both!!

[WhiteNoise]

Blank / Black / White screen on startup / launch / open

If obsidian doesn’t start properly and it shows a blank/black/white screen, It’s possible that some plugin is causing Obsidian to crash and the crash is unrecoverable. To restore obsidian, use the following procedures on your vault. If you have multiple vaults and you don’t know which one has the problem, you need to try in all of them. Begin Close Obsidian Download and reinstall Obsidian from the website Start Obsidian. If it load great, go to Final Steps. If it doesn’t work try Procedure A …