Setting Up Obsidian Git on iOS without iSH* or Working Copy

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1

I read a few other posts but have found an easier way.

The key difference between those posts and this one is a (I think) new feature in iSH and iOS. (Hence the * in the title - you need iSH for a few things, then you can delete it.) iSH now mounts your iSH filesystem into the iOS Files app, where you can access them from within the iOS environment.

Note: I’m assuming you know Git and Obsidian for this tutorial.

I’ll use ForceBru’s excellent tutorial as a basis for this tutorial.

Tutorial

  1. Create an Obsidian Vault and configure it to use Git (in this case, Github). There are many good tutorials for this.
  2. Commit and push your vault to Github.
  3. On your iOS device:
    1. Install Obsidian
    2. Install and enable the Obsidian Git plugin
    3. Add your name and email to the Author Name and Author Email fields in the Obsidian Git settings
    4. Create a Personal Access Token (aka PAT) on Github
    5. Create an empty local vault on iOS
    6. Install iSH from App Store
  4. In the iOS Files app:
    1. Click on Browse in the lower right corner and, if necessary, click < Browse in the upper left until you get to the topmost Browse page.
    2. Click on On My iPhone
    3. Click on the Obsidian folder with the Obsidian logo on it
    4. You will see a folder with the name of the empty Vault you created above
    5. Delete that folder by long pressing on it and clicking Delete but remember the name of the folder.
  5. In iSH command line (start the iSH app)
    1. install git:
      1. Update Alpine repos: apk update
      2. Install git: apk add git
      3. Change to your home directory cd ~
      4. Clone your git repository
        1. git clone https://github.com/<username>/obsidian-git.git -use your own repository URL from Github. You will need to use your username and the PAT you created above.
        2. (Optional) Run ls -a to see whether your files are there
  6. In the iOS Files app:
    1. Click on Browse in the lower right corner and, if necessary, click < Browse in the upper left until you get to the topmost Browse page.
    2. Click on iSH and then root. You should see your newly cloned Vault git repo there. If you click on the repo, you should see all of your files. (If you do this, make sure you click < root in the upper left to get back to the correct level.
    3. Long press the folder which represents your git repo.
    4. Click Move
    5. Click On My iPhone in the upper left
    6. Click on the Obsidian folder with the Obsidian logo on it (which should be empty, or you skipped the Delete step above).
    7. Click on Copy in the upper right corner
    8. Wait for the copy to complete
    9. Long press the folder that was just copied, and select Rename. Type in the name of the folder you had here before, which is the name of the empty Vault you created.
  7. In the Obsidian app:
    1. You should now see all of the files from your vault, although you may need to click on the show sidebar button in the upper left if all you see is No file is open.
    2. Click on the hamburger icon in the lower right (three horizontal lines)
    3. Click on Open Git source control
    4. This is the same Obsidian Git panel you have on your desktop.
  8. (Optional) Delete the iSH app

After that, use Obsidian just like you do on your desktop to sync the files using Git. No more using iSH to push and pull files. It all happens in the Obsidian app.

This may be common knowledge these days, but I couldn’t find it when I searched this morning.

2

I just skimmed the contents of your write-up.
Can you tell us why iSH is needed? Because you cannot initialize a repo with Git plugin? Maybe this write-up is for people with no PCs? I don’t quite understand.