Opening folder on initial screen in OSX hangs

Steps to reproduce

With Obsidian open to the Create/Open dialog:

Scenario 1

  1. Click “Open” for Open folder as vault.
  2. Obsidian hangs for 30 seconds.
  3. Obsidian returns to the main screen.

Scenario 2

  1. Click “Create” for Create new vault.
  2. Enter a Vault name.
  3. Click Browse for Location.
  4. Obsidian hangs for 30 seconds.
  5. Obsidian returns to the main screen.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide?

Yes, I tried to follow the troubleshooting guide. However, this failure precedes any vault being opened.

I reinstalled Obsidian from scratch multiple times.
I manually removed the contents of /Applications/Obsidian.app Library/Application\ Support/obsidian.

I also started Obsidian from the command line so I could see errors, but nothing appeared during the time Obsidian was frozen. Afterwards, I got this single message:

2024-02-17 12:55:46.327 Obsidian[4565:34678] *** Assertion failure in -[NSOpenPanel _initBridgeAndStuff], NSSavePanel.m:432

Full logs: Obsidian OSX hangs - Pastebin.com

Expected result

I want to be able to navigate to the folder of my choice and open my vault.

Actual result

I cannot open any existing vaults or create new ones since I cannot navigate the file system.

Environment

I cannot access the Command Palette without an open vault.
I have granted all permissions I can in OSX.

1 Like

If you have admin rights, you could try creating another user account in macOS to see how Obsidian behaves there. Something similar from a bit ago:

I had the same issue with my normal user account. But when I used an account with admin rights, the problem didn’t appear anymore. So it seems Obsidian needs admin rights to be able to create a vault on Mac OS X.

I have this same problem on my Mac with an admin account and with Full Disk Access granted to Obsidian:

Obsidian 1.5.12
Mac OS X Sonoma 14.3.1

1 Like

It was Full Disk Access for me. I had been using Obsidian on this computer, but when I turned it on this AM, I had the “opening dialog hang,” issue. System Settings | Full Disk Access didn’t even show Obsidian in the list as disabled, so added it. Worked right away, no reboot.

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.5.12
Installer version: v1.5.12
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Fri Mar 15 00:12:41 PDT 2024; root:xnu-10063.101.17~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 23.4.0
Login status: not logged in
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 1
Plugins enabled: 1
1: Importer v1.6.1

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.