I’m trying to set up an Obsidian vault synchronization across all my three devices (Win10 PC, Android phone and Android tablet). But I struggle with synchronization conflicts in the .obsidian folder. If a configuration file is changed and synchronized on one device, it seems that it is not automatically reflected on other devices, they simply overwrite it.
Things I have tried
I use a file synchronization service, not the official Obsidian Sync plugin. Does the Sync plugin have the same problems, or does it work differently? Should I exclude some files from synchronization (like workspace.json, or the recent-files plugin data.json)?
I think I’ve found the cause, but I’m unable to resolve the problem, I can make a workaround only. Sync conflicts in .obsidian folder are caused by Obsidian itself, the conflicts in the vault are caused by the Folder notes plugin. The primary cause is the “aggressive” way how they react on missing files.
When the synchronization app receives a replicated file from another device, it aims to replace the older version of the file. It seems that the following happens:
The sync app deletes the old file
Obsidian/Folder notes detects the deletion, and immediately replaces the missing file.
The sync app tries to rename the replicated file, but a newer file has mysteriously appeared there, so it fails with a sync conflict.
If its a configuration file, Obsidian saves the current config.
If its a folder or a note, the Folder notes plugin creates an empty note.
I can turn off the automatic creation of folder notes in the Folder note plugin. I have verified that this resolves the problem completely, inside the vault.
But I can’t turn off the automatic replacement of the configuration files in Obsidian. It would suffice if Obsidian wouldn’t replace the missing file immediately, but waited a few seconds.