Sync deletes files created on Smartphone

Bug reports
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1

Steps to reproduce

You need:

  1. An Android Smartphone with Obsidian Installed
  2. Windows device running Obisidan app

To reproduce:

  1. On Windows device, Ctrl+P, then “Open sandbox vault”
  2. In sandbox vault, Ctrl+P, then “Set up Sync”
  3. Create a new remote vault, call it “Sandbox Synced” for example
  4. On Smartphone, “Open another vault” > from Remote > Sync “Sandbox Synced” to your smartphone
  5. turn off WiFi and Mobile data
  6. On smartphone create a note titled “note01”, write content “this was written on my smartphone”
  7. On Windows, create a note titled “note01”, write content “this was written on my laptop” to conjur a file conflict. Note on Windows, WiFi is still active. Wait until this chagne is synced
  8. On your smartphone, Turn on Wifi Or mobile data, wait for files to sync
  9. Open “note01” on your smartphone. It will not say “this was written on my laptop”

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

I tried restoring from 'Sync: Open version history for the current file` but the text “this was written on my smartphone” from step 6 is unrecoverable.

You can imagine that you might lose way more valuable notes when you for example take notes in offline mode on the airplane, but once you land, your laptop connects to the WiFi before your phone does.

This is not acceptable??

Expected result

In Step 9, the file “note01” should have two lines:

this was written on my smartphone
this was written on my laptop

Or it should ask the user how he wants to result the merge conflict.

It should NOT silently delete the content created on the smartphone in offline mode.

Actual result

All content created on the smartphone (while in offline mode) is lost and unrecoverable.

Environment

==== OS INFO ====
Edition	Windows 11 Home
Version	25H2
OS build	26200.7462
Experience	Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.275.0

Android phone (more details available upon request)

2

I wonder whether setting Settings > Sync > Conflict resolution to Create conflict file at least catches that conflict instead of overwriting.

In general, I can see why Sync would choose the more recent desktop version over the older mobile version. But for sure that can cause problems when both versions are new (creating two files with the same name on different devices is an easy mistake for anyone to make) and the user didn’t realize one would be overwritten without a version history.

3

I am not sure there is a bug here.

You create the conditions for either a merge conflict (Troubleshoot Obsidian Sync - Obsidian Help) or note just created special exception (Troubleshoot Obsidian Sync - Obsidian Help).

In both cases, the local version that is overwritten is not lost but is stored in the devices specific file recovery part. There should be a link from sync history to file recovery, and yes I agree it would be better if it was also stored within the sync history.

Alternatively, as dawni suggested, you can use “conflict file generation” method.

5

Yes, so make sure you are not using multiple sync tools together.