Storage space leak on mobile

Bug graveyard
1

Steps to reproduce

  1. On iPhone or iPad, override the config folder to e.g. .obsidian-iphone
  2. Configure Obsidian, install some plugins. In my case, the same ~30 plugins that I had in my default configuration.
  3. Observe that this makes the config folder grow up to about 25MB. Now you have on your iPhone both the default .obsidian and .obsidian-iphone.
  4. Decide you want a new configuration. Override config folder to new directory: .obsidian-mobile
  5. Install your 30 plugins.
  6. Now you have 3 * 25MB = 75 MB in configuration folders in your iPhone.
  7. There is no way to delete the old folders, or to even know what names they had to go back to them, because they don’t sync and Obsidian doesn’t show them to you.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Yes.

Expected result

Not leaving behind configuration folders that can’t be deleted or found again.

Actual result

Storage space wasted. Difficult configuration on mobile.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Operating system: ios 18.3.2 (Apple iPhone12,1)
Obsidian version: 1.8.9 (195)
API version: v1.8.9
Login status: logged in
Language: en
Catalyst license: none
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 8
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 57
Plugins enabled: 35
1: Tasks v7.18.3
2: Outliner v4.9.0
3: Dataview v0.5.68
4: Calendar v1.5.10
5: Better Search Views v0.3.0
6: Dynamic Highlights v0.3.1
7: Zoom v1.1.2
8: Tag Wrangler v0.6.4
9: Creases v0.7.0
10: Settings Search v1.3.10
11: File Cleaner v0.1.5
12: Tags Overview v1.0.4
13: File Tree Alternative v2.6.0
14: Footnote Shortcut v0.1.3
15: Admonition v10.3.2
16: Prominent Bookmarked Files v2.0.2
17: Link Tree v1.0.0
18: List Callouts v1.2.9
19: Recent Files v1.7.4
20: Style Settings v1.0.9
21: Git v2.32.1
22: Tab Switcher v1.4.0
23: Find orphaned files and broken links v1.10.1
24: Reveal Active File Button v2.0.3
25: Plugin Update Tracker v1.6.2
26: CustomJS v1.0.21
27: File Explorer++ v1.2.1
28: ToggleList v1.2.7
29: Tidy Footnotes v0.1.2
30: Link Favicons v1.8.4
31: Daily notes calendar v1.13.2
32: Mononote v1.2.2
33: Auto Link Title v1.5.5
34: Periodic Notes v0.0.17
35: Daily Notes Editor v1.0.0

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Custom theme and snippets: for cosmetic issues, please first try updating your theme and disabling your snippets. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community theme and snippets.
Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.

Additional information

There is a trove of feature requests across the forum asking to ease access to the configuration folders in mobile. They suggest a range of possibilities, like Obsidian allowing config folders not starting with a dot, or that Obsidian Sync synced those same folders. All of them would fix this issue. But instead those requests are ignored! Why?

This was not a problem when I used iCloud for syncing, because dot folders were synced like any other folders. It’s disheartening that moving to Obsidian Sync to support development leaves me worse off.

2

I am confused. How many times are you overriding and for what purpose?

I’m curious. Are you installing your plugins (“the same” plugins, as you wrote) from memory? Why not make a copy (on PC or use can use Taio app on mobile to access dot folders).

I don’t use Sync so I don’t know what settings are available but I’m pretty sure you can sync custom config folders. It’d be insane if you couldn’t sync .mobile, .pc or whatever folders.

I use git to sync and if I want to have different config folders for whatever platform I want to use Obsidian for, I have to accept that the original .obsidian folder will be “triplicated” (for Win, Linux and iOS, in my case).

Again, on iOS with Taio app, you can see what dot folders you have. You can see the creation date of the files in those folders. You can delete folders. You only need the config folder you have previously re-launched with.

3

Sorry for the late reply, I didn’t get a notification.

In theory I only need to override 2 times - one for an iPhone, another for an iPad.
In practice, while experimenting and dealing with the dotfolder weirdness, I repeated the overriding process a few times with different folder names.

That was the very first thing I tried, of course. But, as I said in point 7, Obsidian Sync does not sync folders whose name starts with a dot.

I agree, it’s insane, and that’s why I filed this bug report.
It’s even more insane when you think that , as I said in the “Additional Information” section, I could do this with iCloud Sync, but not with Obsidian Sync.

And there’s a lot of questions in this forum and reddit about both getting dotfolders synced, and about allowing normal names for config folders - so that they would sync. But those questions never get answered, so it does look like a purposeful omission by Obsidian.

Even worse: I have tried looking for plugins that could work around the problem by copying files or renaming folders. Even, there is a plugin that does exactly this. But all plugins that deal with dotfolders show as not supported on iPhone! So, sounds like even the APIs are neutered?

The whole situation makes 0 sense to me.

Regarding Taio: thank you for the pointer, but for that I could just use e.g. a-Shell and deal with the folders manually with mv, rm, etc. But at that point, it’s just easier / cheaper / saner to get rid of Obsidian Sync and go back to iCloud.

4

I agree It would be nice to have an in app management of hidden folders.

I am not sure I would call this a storage space leak.

Please, continue here: Support in app access / management of hidden folders (like .obsidian) access on mobile

5

It’s storage that was used up but never released and that can’t be officially recovered in Obsidian. I don’t know of a better name than “leak” for this.

Thank you for the link, I already “hearted” it some time ago. I posted in there the summary.

But note that this bug report is not exactly the same issue. If Obsidian doesn’t want to allow full management of dotfolders, fine. But at least allow me to delete the unused folders before they leak!