Renaming or moving a note with a "deferred" tab turns the tab into “New tab” when selected

Bug reports
1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Create a note named Note A.md
  2. Open Note A.md in its own tab and pin the tab.
  3. Create and open another note named Note B.md in a separate tab.
  4. Leave Note B.md selected/active.
  5. Restart Obsidian (“Restart without Save” is also ok)
  6. After restarting, do not select the Note A tab. It needs to remain an unloaded background/deferred tab.
  7. In the File Explorer/Left Sidebar, rename Note A.md to Note A Renamed.md. Or move it into another folder.
  8. After renaming or moving the note - notice that the pinned background tab still displays the old name, Note A.
  9. Select that tab.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? Yes.

Expected result

The existing tab should follow the moved or renamed note:

  • Its stored file path should be updated.
  • Its title should reflect the new filename.
  • Selecting it should display the note.
  • Its pinned or unpinned state should be preserved.

If Obsidian cannot resolve the file immediately, it should retain the original path information rather than discard the tab state.

Actual result

Before selecting the affected tab:

  • The tab still displays the old filename.
  • Its internal state still references the old path.
  • The note exists at its new path.
  • The background tab has not been updated.

When the tab is selected:

  • It is converted into an empty New tab.
  • Its file association is erased.
  • The old path is no longer available from the tab.
  • The moved or renamed note and all its content remain intact.

There is no warning that the tab was previously associated with another file.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.7
Installer version: 1.12.7
Operating system: Windows 11 Enterprise 10.0.26200
Login status: not logged in
Language: en-GB
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: dark
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on
RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

  • The problem appears to require the affected tab to be deferred after restarting Obsidian.
  • Renaming pr moving an actively loaded tab does not appear to cause the same problem.
  • It looks like deferred workspace leaves are not always updated when their files move or are renamed. When Obsidian later tries to load the old path, it replaces the leaf with an empty one. For example:

Before selecting the stale tab, its state is effectively:

{
  "type": "markdown",
  "state": {
    "file": "Note A.md"
  }
}

The view is deferred, so the loaded view does not currently contain a file.

After selecting it, the state becomes:

{
  "type": "empty",
  "state": {}
}

At that point, the original file path has been discarded.

The same could potentially occur whenever a restored tab temporarily references an unavailable path, e.g.: during sync - although didn’t have time to test it.

Possibly related issues:

Video demo:

EDIT1: After a bit more testing it seems to be more general and note doesn’t even have to be Pinned. The only important condition seem to be is that the tab is an unloaded/deferred background tab after restarting Obsidian.

3

thanks