Stuck index/cache? Bases unaware of new notes, Outline & heading link suggestions empty, Rebuild Cache button inert

[WhiteNoise]

Hello to everyone in this thread. I have been following it. I am not sure everyone here has the same problem. I want to reiterate here that manually updating the index cache should not be necessary. It was put there an an emergency operation, not for regular use.

@AFewMistakesAgo what you are describing sometimes happens when there is a note or a few note that are not digested well by our index and it get stuck.

Do you get some popups like these:

[WhiteNoise]

@AFewMistakesAgo does this problem only happen on iOS or does it happen on desktop too?

Do you have a vault where this problem happens consistently, especially without third party plugins enabled?

[CawlinTeffid]

Steps to reproduce

Unfortunately I don’t know what conditions are needed.

• It may be more likely with a long note.
• It seems to me that the problem happens less often when Restricted Mode is activated. Maybe try to reproduce on a device with constrained RAM in a vault that uses a lot of it.

Setup:

• Have at least 4 notes with headings.
• Open 2 of them in the same tab group.

When the conditions are right:

• Try to link to a heading in the current note: [[#(probably linking to any heading anywhere works, but this is my usual case).
• Open the right sidebar and (if it’s not already open) switch to the Outline.
• Add a new heading.

Further:

• Switch to another note and repeat.
• In the original tab, navigate to a different note and back.
• In the second note’s tab, open the original note.
• In the second note’s tab, open a note that hasn’t been opened yet in the current session.
• In a new tab, open the original note.
• In a new tab, open the second note.
• In a new tab, open a note that hasn’t been opened yet in the current session.

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

Y

Expected result

• Link suggester offers headings.
• Outline shows the note’s headings.
• Outline updates to include new heading.

Actual result

• Link suggester offers no headings in existing tabs. In new tabs it at least sometimes offers them in notes other than the original.
• Outline shows no headings in the first note. They may be missing in other notes too, but in my test while writing this up they only disappeared from the first one.
• In notes where the Outline shows headings, it doesn’t update to include new ones.
• In the first tab, navigating to another file and back doesn’t fix the problem.
• Opening the first note in a new or existing tab doesn’t fix the problem.

Reloading the vault fixes the problem until the next time it happens.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Operating system: ios 26.1 (Apple iPad13,1)
Obsidian version: 1.9.14 (241)
API version: v1.9.14
Login status: logged in
Language: en
Catalyst license: none
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 31
Restricted mode: on

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.

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Additional information

This has been happening for a while prior to the current version; sometimes more often, sometimes less. Until now I haven’t had the patience to run in Restricted Mode long enough to verify that the problem happens there too. In this case I enabled it on 1 device, encountered it on another device and enabled it there, and then I think the problem arose in the next 1–3 days (unfortunately I didn’t think to track it).

My vault has 6,275 files and 415 folders, and I believe enough links to push me into the simplified Quick Search / link suggestion algorithm.

[WhiteNoise]

Do you get the indexing is taking to long pop up or anything like that?

[CawlinTeffid]

I don’t think I’ve seen that one, but I do occasionally get the “Indexing vault” popup without any obvious cause. This is on mobile (phone and tablet); I’m not sure I’ve seen it on desktop without knowing why.

The same is true of the problem reported here; it’s something I see on mobile, not desktop.

I haven’t noticed an obvious correlation between the indexing notices and the problem (but of course that doesn’t mean they’re not related).