This BR is used to track users who, after enabling the new “create conflict file option”, report that a conflict file is generated even though they say they have only modified a note on one device.
To the users affected by this problem: I kindly ask you to run obsidian in restricted mode (in all devices) and to let me know if it still happens and in which files happens (with the sync long/sync history).
It’s important that the plugins are off, because a plugin may modify a note in the background (inject text, lint the note, etc) and that counts as note modification even if you didn’t do it.
I’ve had the option enabled since it was released, and I’ve been pleased with the fact that the feature prevents me from having to worry about my files getting corrupted without me realizing.
I do still have the same problem with Obsidian creating incorrect sync conflicts. But now I get conflict files instead, which I can check and then delete, since they’re always incorrect sync conflicts.
Hopefully this helps you guys narrow down the issue since it isn’t just related to having automatic merge enabled.
If obsidian creates -conflict file, it means that we are under this condition of multiple independent edits.
I want to reiterate, if it wasn’t clear from my previous message, that the “Create conflict file” only applies when we detect that both the remote file and the file on device have diverged from a common point in sync history. In the other circumstances, the automatic merge algorithm is still used.
Therefore, if using the “create conflict file” solves the problem for you, i.e. there are no more duplicate notes section, your problem was that multiple independent edits were occurring.
Well I wouldn’t say Create conflict file “solves the problem”, it just makes the issue of incorrectly created conflicts less impactful because it doesn’t create erroneous edits in the affected file.
The only reason I opened a bug report is that it’s not me editing the files and creating conflicts, though. The conflicts are created entirely by Obsidian. I originally opened this as a bug report via email and I sent a bunch of screenshots demonstrating the incorrect edits that were created. Only after corresponding with support a few times was I asked to create a bug report in the forum as well. All of this is documented in my initial post.
If it’s helpful I can send more screenshots of incorrectly created conflict files that show edits that I did not do. I have many in my Deleted files history. I just don’t want to post my notes publicly here.
For what it’s worth, my best guess is it has something to do with the sync mechanism and detecting file modification time changes. I think what might be happening is the file on the iPhone starts to update with changes from my PC (where the file was actually edited), and somehow this gets picked up partway through as an edit that’s native to the iPhone, and this is what creates the conflict, as the modification time changes on the iPhone. But that’s just me guessing as to what could be the cause.
Regardless, I am one hundred percent positive that the edits are not created by me.
I just got a conflict for my sleep log on my tablet. I almost never edit that file on anything but my phone, and I definitely didn’t do it on the tablet in the relevant time period. There were conflict files for several other files, all of which I’m nearly or completely sure I didn’t edit on that device, and all of which were just old versions of the file with no actual conflict.
Got a conflict on a file when opening Obsidian on iPad, a file that I am sure I never edited here (as it’s a work related file and I don’t do work on iPad).
Seems like Sync treats an older version from a different device in out of order, and tries to merge changes that aren’t there.
None of my plugins should be changing the files without action from me, but I’ve enabled Restricted Mode on all my devices and will see what happens. The conflicts are sporadic for me, so it may take some days for another to appear. Maybe I’ll try to avoid using my spare device, to raise the odds.
When you do get a conflict file, what types of changes seem to be not reflected. Random, or is it something consistent like list items, headers, frontmatter, etc.
I personally have noticed all my “conflicts” created this way have been for frontmatter, so I am curious is others have similar items.
I think random. I don’t use properties much so haven’t had any there. In the one I saved from last time, it’s paragraphs. I’ve seen parts of paragraphs before (where I finished one at a different time than I started it, or added something later).
The recent Cloudflare outage yielded a couple of conflict files, both clearly just older versions of their files. Restricted Mode was (& is) enabled on all my devices. Unfortunately the Sync logs from the devices directly involved have already evaporated, but FWIW I’ll DM the files and the log from my MacBook where Obsidian is always on. (I tried to eliminate conflicts by not having it always on a while back and it didn’t help.)
