Problem whit reading characters

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1

Good morning.

Since a week ago I see the information of my vault in an unreadable format, I have tried with the safe mode without plugins and the same thing happens. I have installed earlier and later versions without success.

errorObsidian
errorObsidian786Ă—818 53.6 KB

Attached is an image of how the data looks like.

Greetings.

2

Looks like a font issue. Quick answer: try other fonts.

1 Like
3

From the attached image, I think you are trying to open a “binary” file inside Obsidian. You haven’t mentioned what you are trying to open. Is this an MD file or something else?

However, the first line with AES/CBC/PKCS7Padding also suggests that this could be an encrypted file.

AES in CBC mode with PKCS7 padding is a standard encryption scheme.

My blind guess is that you’re trying to open Java :hot_beverage: file.

Cheers, Marko :nerd_face:

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4

Good morning.

Thank you for your reply. It is plain text, so I am very surprised that it looks like this.

Best regards.

5

Good morning.

Thank you very much for your quick reply.
The error persists with all fonts available in obsidian natively.

Best regards.

errorObsidianFuente
errorObsidianFuente737Ă—812 71.7 KB

6

Can you locate this file on your drive and open it in another text editor, such as Notepad, if you’re using Windows?

  • If yes, something is wrong with your Obsidian, and I hope the Obsidian Team can answer this.
  • If not, a system problem is possible, like assigning the wrong application to the wrong file extension.

Try running TrID or something similar, which will tell you exactly what file type it is.

But, if this is your homework and you want to convince a teacher, let us know and we’ll play along :wink: - a joke!

Hope you find a solution for this, as it look strange!

Cheers, Marko :nerd_face:

7

My next guess is that you or somebody else with access to your user account encrypted your notes/vault.

Encryption can originate from a plugin, some 3rd party app or through your operating system.

If other people have access to your account, please create a new account for other users and restore your account via backup, eg. Timer machine on Mac or TimeShift on Linux or similar tools for windows

8

Could be worth adding some more context here :blush: :

  • What device do you use ? What OS ?
  • Where is your vault located ?
  • Do you sync your vault across devices ? If yes, how ?
  • What version of Obsidian are you running ? (What’s the installer version ?)
  • Do you use any community plugins ?
  • …

Also, by “plain text” do you mean a .md file or .txt one ?
Are you sure the file is encoded as UFT-8 ?

1 Like
9

This is not an Obsidian bug. You need to figure out who or what altered your notes.

I don’t know if all your notes are like this or just this one. You can try using the File Recovery Plugin (in settings) to see if you can rollback to previous version.

10

I second @DiCaver’s remark. The presence of the string “AES/CBC/PKCS7Padding” is a clear indication of an encrypted file.

Now you have to investigate a bit more to discover or remember what was recently installed that could encrypt your files. It could be, for example (non-exhaustive list):

  1. An Obsidian plugin to encrypt the vault (are all your notes unreadable like this?)
  2. Some option in your filesystem to encrypt folders (are the files outside the vault also unreadable?)
  3. Ransomware (a virus encrypted your files, and you are asked to pay to recover them)

Hope it’s just a plugin and you can recover everything easily.