Really frustrating that unlike other bug reporting platforms (like Github) - reports just get closed without resolution or any ability to add later comments or solutions or insights. Not a good bug tracking system at all which is perhaps why so much seems to be forgotten.
Sync just keeps disconnecting on android after any sort of obsidian indexing alert - also with no indication that it is disconnected without looking in the settings (which as previous bug reporter pointed out is a fairly critical bug in and of itself)
I can only repeat everything in the referred thread by other reporter so will not reiterate it all.
To make matters worse every time you relink it you have to enter all the many folder exclusions all over again, and since the folder exclusions popup only shows you already synched folders this is not possible to do…
I hear your frustration. That topic you linked to was moved to help because no real reproducible steps were given. And help topics close after months of inactivity.
They also didn’t answer the question about where the vault was stored, except “two directories deep”. The reason for the question is to isolate whether it is in a path that is automatically synced, like iCloud or OneDrive paths.
It would be really helpful if you would. If you please, answer the questions that were asked in that other thread.
What other devices are you syncing to? The issue might be from one of the other devices, even though it appears to disconnect on the Android device.
Are you using any other sync tools? *Are you sure?* Make sure to double check your vault is not stored in a directory that is automatically synced or managed by your OS, on each device.
Where is your vault stored on desktop (if it is)? Hide your username or any sensitive info, but please show the exact path.
What is the “indexing alert”? Can you screenshot it? Where is the alert from? How often does it happen? A plugin? Obsidian Sync? Something else?
Can you please share your “Show Debug Info”?
I’m not a dev, and I can’t give you any definitive answer. But I would really suspect that you have a 2nd syncing tool (or clean-up tool) that is interfering with your vault settings.
The devs might have better suggestions, like checking the console for errors, or your Obsidian Sync log.
You could also consider making an email support request. It’s possible that they did get their answer via email.
Only a single Win 11 desktop (full vault) and a single android phone with some folder exclusions. It only disconnects on the Android device, and is preceded by the usual obsidian indexing (as per other poster).
Definitely no other synching involved at all at either end (I think this would only really be an issue at the android end anyway because Sync itself is not supposed to touch Sync settings locally)
Not sure how path on desktop is related but it is X:\Obsidian\My Notes
The indexing alert is just the usual inbuilt obsidian toast that comes up with regular indexing nothing to so with Sync or any plugin
Not sure how to get to debug info but I can’t now because it is now transferring thousands of files that were previously in excluded folders (this is a more general problem that when you link to an existing remote vault the popup does not show the folders on the vault in the popup to exclude them, and the only way is to type each path manually - but on the desktop you can do this - on Android I have never been able to enter any non-existing path even though it says you can - so regardless of the specific issue here this is always a problem when connecting to an existing remote vault when you want exclusions - it is basically impossible to do (at least for me) without letting the whole remote vault synch, then doing the exclusions and then deleting the many folders that should not have been transferred in the first place.
I know this is a meta-comment, but frankly Sync, as a paid service seems distinctly untrustworthy in comparison to the rest of obsidian.
A clue might lie in the obsidian alert above - obsidian may be switching functionality like Sync off while it is indexing and then not restoring that stuff on again (perhaps if that functionality is it is accessed during that time?).
On related lines the indexing (as per the toast) is only supposed to happen once. But many people are finding that it happens over and over. And in the thread discussing that, it was closed and blocked when one person happened to find a solution that happened to be relevant only to their situation. Obsidian keeps indexing notes when starting up
Given that the reports indicate a common conjunction of the vault indexing (which it should not do at all according to the indexing popup itself) and the dropping of the sync connection - I suspect that the first bug is facilitating the second.
And as pointed out in both posts regardless of anything, a sync which is no longer connected - but does not point that out anywhere other than in the settings (regardless of the cause of that disconnection) is a functionality bug.
Is that a local partition, external drive, or network drive? The reason this is relevant is to try to narrow down if some tool or process is messing with your settings externally. I’ve seen several times when people say “I’m not syncing” but their vault was stored in a default iCloud folder, for example. If your X drive is external or network-mounted, there might be a useful clue there.
Ctrl-P for the command palette, and “Show Debug Info” command. Particularly, I’m curious about the version and installer version on the desktop.
That may seem counter-intuitive, but my hunch is that something external is causing this, and the effect - not the source - is on the Android device. I could be wrong. And I still encourage you to reach out to support if you haven’t yet.
As I said in the other thread. This is a sign that something is deleting/resetting Obsidian’s internal storage. Since in the other bug report that you posted today, you said you had the space android phone full maybe it is that. You OS or some other cleaner app is trying to claim space and it is deleting Obsidian’s internal configuration.
Another problem that I see here on the desktop side is that if you open obsidian before plugging in your external harddrive (or the path changes), you will erase Obsidian internal knowledge of that vault (including sync).
I still occasionally have this issue too, but I don’t have the re-indexing along with it anymore. Now, sometimes after I restart my windows computer or restart obsidian, it doesn’t connect to sync. Usually if I just leave it, it will eventually connect on its own. Last time this happened was this last week. It took over 10 minutes to connect on its own.
I don’t know what fixed my re-indexing issue because it was intermittent and I did every possible troubleshooting thing. Some more than once.
Some things I would suggest checking if you haven’t:
check your Obsidian version. Support said that they fixed the issue that was causing my problem in version 1.5
Large markdown files or files with some type of code potentially embedded in them.
I imported from notion and had some very large markdown files as a result. It was basically links to my entire notion database. After removing those, the frequency of the problems I had went down a lot.
Double check that you don’t have any cleanup utility on your desktop or mobile device. I had some Dell cleanup feature that I didn’t know about being on my desktop. Even though none of the underlying markdown files were modified by it, I wonder if it was doing something related to the cache or database that was causing problems.
I share your frustration about problems being closed or moved with no solution given. I get the limited capacity of the development and support team. The requirement to replicate the issue when you report it on a new vault with no plugins doesn’t make sense to me. The problems I have had seem due to my combination of notes and what obsidian is doing.
Now I am getting confused. I thought the issue was that Obsidian “forgets” that it was connected to a remote vault you have to do the procedure to associate a remote vault again from zero.
In this latest post, @corey is implying that the association to the remote vault remains but it doesn’t connect to it.
These are two completely different scenarios. The latter can be explained with networking problem on you end, our end, or the infrastructure itself.
At least my end it shows that there is no connection and invited you to connect. I imagine that what Corey is suggesting is that despite showing no connection to any Sync Vault, it later remembers it was connected and reconnects. I don’t find this that curious - when I used Sync before it regularly showed as not connected to any vault during the initial loading of a large vault, and then this connection only showed up a minute or two later. This simply seems an expanded version of the same thing.
The other thread is completely unrelated as I completely reset my phone and started again.
Really really unhelpful to keep eliminating bug discussions. I’m quite sad about obsidian. Like the other bug report I discovered where a user reported that the (i) badge on changing a setting in Sync on the phone was unreadable on the phone to know what the (i) was for (on desktop there is a hover popup). This kept me busy for a long time before I discovered a clear bug report here about it - which was just closed without resolution or comment.
It isn’t a networking issue. When I go into the settings for the sync during this time period of it not connecting, there is no information on a remote vault. it is as if I never set anything up. Then without me taking any action to rectify things, that information shows up. Sometimes after a very long time after starting obsidian.
Ok.
I accidentally closed obsidian this morning and found out that the issue re-produced after re-opening it quickly
Then I tried to reproduce that and it didn’t just have the sync not connected, it started to re-index my entire vault. Something that hasn’t happened in a long time for me. I forced closed obsidian to avoid the re-indexing. When I re-opened it, the sync still took about 5 minutes to connect, but wasn’t re-indexing.
Can you comment on what you think is going on with the sync startup issue ? What was changed to try to address the problem ? It seems like the sync startup is being blocked by something that either it doesn’t actually need or that it does need the result it is waiting on, but that the retry isn’t triggered until this timeout is reached. Which seems to be about 5 minutes.
