[question] how to avoid double sync on mobile?

Platform

[x ] iOS
[ ] Android

Obsidian Mobile version: v1.0.4


I have read many times on the official site and other forum that we should not be using both Obsidian Sync (which I have activated) and other cloud sync such as iCloud.

Now my dumb question - I store my vault on iCloud that was created on my Mac (with Obsidian sync activated). If I point my IOS the same iCloud vault, should I just rely on iCloud sync for my IOS vault and should not turned on Obsidian Sync on the mobile app? I guess the same question applies if I sync my other Mac to the same iCloud vault and that I should NOT activate Obsidian Sync on the 2nd Mac, is this correct?

According to the official site iOS app - Obsidian Help the IOS vault can be stored on iCloud.

Syncing a vault via iCloud specifically means via iCloud Drive. To do this, you’d have to save your vault in a special folder Obsidian creates—i.e., iCloud Drive/Obsidian/Your Vault. The iCloud Drive/Obsidian folder has a little Obsidian logo.

Arguably you could have an Obsidian vault elsewhere in iCloud, but the mobile apps would not be able to recognize it. You would need to use Obsidian Sync for that.

In either case, using multiple sync services can lead to race conditions.

For more info, please see:

https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+%26+add-on+services/Obsidian+Sync

thanks again @ryanjamurphy .

However , this is where this is getting interesting. The way I set up the vault is to start with creating a blank vault on Mac mini iCloud Drive (using exactly the path that you mentioned, in my case it is iCloud Drive/Obsidian/cloud500) , then I turned on Obsidian sync to download all files and folders from the remote vault. After I checked all files and folders on my Mac mini have been synced and indexed , I used my iPad to open the same vault on the iCloud Drive, it recognised the drive and I can use that without Obsidian sync turned on.

Now my follow up question, how can I use Obsidian Sync (preferred as I used my own strong password to encrypt) for the vault that is sitting inside iCloud Drive. If I turn on Obsidian sync for the vault inside iCloud Drive and concurrently sync to my remote vault is that dual sync that can result in file duplication?

That’s the scenario described above. Again, see:

https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+%26+add-on+services/Obsidian+Sync#Third+party+sync

(That’s a link specific to the heading on race conditions.)

Thanks I read that previously, that is why I try to avoid having both Obsidian and iCloud sync. My question remains - how do I use Obsidian Sync for a vault that is inside iCloud, or should I not leave the vault inside iCloud at all?

If it’s in iCloud, it’s being synced by iCloud, increasing the chances of a race between the sync services when a change is made. So, it is advised that you only use one or the other.

You could just try enabling Obsidian Sync with your current set up and if you never have problems, don’t worry about it.

got it thanks, this is helpful

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