Tips & Tricks: Drag-n-Drop from _outside_ the vault

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Drag-n-Drop from outside the vault

  • drag a file from outside the vault into a note and drop it:

    • Obsidian will copy the file to your attachments folder, then
    • create an embed wikilink to it in the note:
      • Example 1: ![[AC_DC - Hells Bells.mp3]]
      • Result: ![[AC_DC - Hells Bells.mp3]]
      • Example 2: ![[LUER Lock needles.txt]]
      • Result: ![[LUER Lock needles.txt]]

  • drag a file from outside the vault into a note and Ctrl+drop it:

    • Obsidian will not copy the file into the vault but instead create a file: link to it in the note:
      • Example 1: [AC_DC - Hells Bells](file:///home/matthias/Musik/Tagged/AC_DC/AC_DC%20-%20Family%20Jewels/AC_DC%20-%20Hells%20Bells.mp3)
      • Result: [AC_DC - Hells Bells](file:///home/matthias/Musik/Tagged/AC_DC/AC_DC%20-%20Family%20Jewels/AC_DC%20-%20Hells%20Bells.mp3)
      • Example 2: [LUER Lock needles](file:///mnt/matthias/Install/China-Kram/LUER%20Lock/LUER%20Lock%20needles.txt)
      • Result: [LUER Lock needles](file:///mnt/matthias/Install/China-Kram/LUER%20Lock/LUER%20Lock%20needles.txt)
    • The file: link will be URL-encoded automatically.
    • When clicked, the file will open with the associated application (if any).
    • Note that file: links are absolute links and thus machine-specific. These will most probably not work if the vault is synced to another machine!

This is how it looks on my system:

obsidian-drag-n-drop-from-outside-vault
obsidian-drag-n-drop-from-outside-vault1120Ɨ1035 102 KB

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2

This is awesome thanks for the tip.

drag a file from outside the vault into a note and Ctrl+drop it:

  • Obsidian will not copy the file into the vault but instead create a file: link to it in the note:

One note: Iā€™m on Mac (M1 Pro - Sonoma 14.2) and I had to option+drop instead of ctrl+drop to get this behavior.