Registered sign (®) in a file causes Android app freeze

Platform:

  • Device: Android smartphone (Android 9)
  • App version: Obsidian Android 1.9.14 (242)
  • Vault location: local (no cloud sync involved)
  • Theme/plugins: Default settings (no community plugins or custom CSS enabled)

Summary:
When a note/file in my vault contains the symbol “®” (Unicode U+00AE, REGISTERED SIGN), opening that file in the Obsidian Android app causes the app to become non-responsive (freeze) and remain frozen even after a device restart. On desktop versions of Obsidian this issue does not occur.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Ensure you are running Android 9 with Obsidian Android version 1.9.14 (242).
  2. In your vault, create a Markdown file (e.g. test.md) containing the character “®” (the REGISTERED SIGN, U+00AE).
  3. On your computer (or any external editor) save the file into the vault, then open the vault in the Obsidian Android app.
  4. In Obsidian Android, open that file test.md.
  5. Observe that the app freezes (becomes unresponsive), and persists in that state. Even after closing the app and restarting the smartphone the app remains stuck trying to display that file.

Expected behavior:
The app should display the file normally, with the “®” character rendered correctly, and remain responsive.

Actual behavior:
The app becomes unresponsive when opening the file containing “®”. It appears to attempt to load or render the file indefinitely. The freeze persists across app restarts and device restarts until that file is removed or renamed externally or the symbol is removed from the file externally.

Additional information / notes:
This appears specific to the Android version of Obsidian; I did not reproduce the issue on Obsidian desktop (Windows/macOS).

  • The problematic character: Unicode Character ‘REGISTERED SIGN’ (U+00AE).
  • Removing or renaming the file on the computer and then synchronizing and relaunching Obsidian Android returns the app to normal behavior.

Reproducibility:
This occurs reliably when the file containing “®” is opened.

I can’t reproduce. Please post a screen recording of this happening in a new empty vault and also provide the output of the show debug info command. Thanks

As I understand it, Android 9 stopped receiving security updates a few years ago.

@CawlinTeffid True, but how does this relate to issue?

A current app on an outdated OS is a possible source of bugs / weird behavior. But mostly I mentioned it as an aside in case you didn’t know and wouldn’t want to be in that situation.

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