Question:
I realise that over time the total content of my md files on Obsidian’s sync server has become quite polluted.
Already long time ago, I have tried to take out all md notes and move them to a network folder on my home network, the idea being to use a tool such as Beyond Compare to clean them out and then later move the relevant files back to Obsidian sync.
For a number of reasons this has not worked out as desired.
Is there some way or 3rd party tool (not obsidian) that can be uses to connect to Obsidian sync? Something similar to a typical file transfer application like:
Make two complete backups of your current vault. One for storage and safety, and for the next steps. Keep this away from syncing, somewhere local
Erase all files in your vault, and allow the sync to erase everything on the sync server
Outside of Obsidian use the temporary copy to cleanup any unwanted files, and reorganise to your hearts desire
Make a copy/backup of the new structure
Copy the new structure back into your empty vault, and allow for some time to index and sync the new vault
Enjoy the new, and better organised vault
Note that this is a procedure which limits the access to your vault while you do the reorganising, and as such it allows for an easier cleanup as you don’t keep doing changes to the vault while you’re reorganising.
If you do want to reorganise while using the vault in everyday updates, it’s going to be a tougher task, as you need to keep multiple connection between vaults and copies of vaults all the time:
1: The main vault (being actively synced all the time)
2: The (original) main copy of your vault
3: A secondary work copy of your vault
The idea would then be to use leave 2) as is, but use 3) to be the new variant. When you then decide you’re satisfied with the new vault structure, you can compare between 2) and 3) to keep track of the changes you’re making there. This would then give you an indication as to what you do need to do with 1) when you finalise your work.
When ready to finalise the work, you can also do comparisons between 1) and 2) to see if some files needs to be propagated into 3) or special care/steps needs to be taken somehow. Or you could possible sync 3) back to 1), with carefully monitoring which changes are done before doing the sync.
You could even, after comparing 1) and 2) with the updates propagated into 3), consider doing a full removal of all files in 1), allowing it to sync, and then copy over the 3) variant of your vault.
Almost needless to say, but do make backups of your vault during this process. It’s a lot easier to copy/restore/cleanup in some backups, then trying to redo your work if something goes horrible wrong somewhere along the way…