What I’m trying to do
I’m trying to open Obsidian v0.13.31 but all I get is a black box where the app should be. If I press Alt + F4 it exits.
Things I have tried
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I uninstalled Obsidian and then installed it again - no change.
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I have tried deleting the %APPDATA%\Obsidian folder and then Obsidian will start. However, it then goes back to not starting again on subsequent tries. I don’t think it is vault or plugin related because it happens even if I don’t select a vault, or create a new empty vault - after closing and re-opening the app I still get the black window.
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I have also tried (just now) updating to Obsidian v.0.13.33 because I thought the following two items from the release notes sounded related:
- Fixed lag caused by file explorer in large vaults due to a Chromium bug introduced in Electron 17.
- Fixed Obsidian starts up with a blank window for a split second due to an Electron bug introduced in Electron 16.
v0.13.33 seems to have improved things slightly - I can now open the Obsidian app without choosing a vault 2 or 3 times but then the same thing happens again (see video below).
Video: Obsidian Blank Screen on Startup
I should point out that I had to manually replace the %localappdata%\Obsidian\obsidian.asar file with the one which it downloaded (%appdata%\Obsidian\obsidian-0.13.33.asar) because there was no installer on the home page yet.
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I searched for similar issues and found this one: Obsidian White Screen Delayed Slow Startup . It could be related but I don’t think it’s exactly the same because this talks about a delayed startup whereas mine never loads.
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I checked the Obsidian.log file (see below). Are there any extended log files where I could see more about what’s going on?
2022-03-16 16:40:17 Loading main app package C:\Users\ae\AppData\Local\Obsidian\resources\obsidian.asar
2022-03-16 16:40:18 Checking for update using Github
2022-03-16 16:40:19 Success.
2022-03-16 16:40:19 Latest version is 0.13.33
2022-03-16 16:40:19 Downloading update from https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/releases/download/v0.13.33/obsidian-0.13.33.asar.gz
2022-03-16 16:40:23 Loading main app package C:\Users\ae\AppData\Local\Obsidian\resources\obsidian.asar
2022-03-16 16:40:23 Checking for update using Github
2022-03-16 16:40:25 Success.
2022-03-16 16:40:25 Latest version is 0.13.33
2022-03-16 16:40:25 Downloading update from https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/releases/download/v0.13.33/obsidian-0.13.33.asar.gz
2022-03-16 16:40:28 Loading main app package C:\Users\ae\AppData\Local\Obsidian\resources\obsidian.asar
2022-03-16 16:40:28 Checking for update using Github
2022-03-16 16:40:29 Success.
2022-03-16 16:40:29 Latest version is 0.13.33
2022-03-16 16:40:29 Downloading update from https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/releases/download/v0.13.33/obsidian-0.13.33.asar.gz
2022-03-16 16:40:31 Verifying hash & signature. Size= 12043312
2022-03-16 16:40:31 Saving file
2022-03-16 16:40:31 Update complete.
2022-03-16 16:40:34 Loading updated app package \\csuk.local\private\users$\ae\AppData\Roaming\obsidian\obsidian-0.13.33.asar
2022-03-16 16:40:34 Checking for update using Github
2022-03-16 16:40:36 Success.
2022-03-16 16:40:36 Latest version is 0.13.33
2022-03-16 16:40:36 App is up to date.
- The current workaround that I have found so that I can use Obsidian at the moment is to download the installer for v0.13.23 which I was able to find by manipulating the main download URL on the website. I have installed that, disabled automatic updates and then removed the %appdata%\Obsidian\obsidian-0.13.33.asar file so that the update is not applied on restart.