Hey, I tried to use Obsidian on my iPad with an external screen and external keyboard connected.
Unfortunately, the toolbar/actions bar appears randomly when I try to write (see the screenshot). This is a bit distracting when I try to write a longer piece of content.
Steps to reproduce
Connect an external monitor to your iPad via USB-C
Connect an external keyboard and mouse/trackpad to your iPad
Open Obsidian on the external monitor (in full screen or window)
Create a note and try to write something using an external keyboard
Yes, I tried using an empty vault without any plugins.
Expected result
The toolbar should remain pinned to the bottom of the screen, the same as on the iPad built-in screen.
Actual result
The toolbar/actions bar appears randomly in the middle of the height of the screen when I try to write (see the screenshot). Sometimes it is lower, sometimes higher (covering half of the available screen space!).
Environment
SYSTEM INFO:
Operating system: ios 18.0.1 (Apple iPad13,6)
Obsidian version: 1.7.4 (167)
API version: v1.7.4
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on
RECOMMENDATIONS:
none
I am also experiencing this same bug on my 11" iPad M4 hooked up to my 4k external monitor. The empty space below the toolbar can take up almost half the window depending how it is resized.
Obsidian 1.7.8 (168)
iPadOS 18.1
I tried with the default theme as well as the Minimal and Primary themes and they are all the same.
I found a workaround and it may also point to the cause. The floating input bar that iOS spawns is what causes this extra space to form (see the red circled area). I removed all the elements from the toolbar in a vain attempt to fix this, but you can see the blank area that gets created whenever the input bar is present.
There is a workaround however! The workaround is to minimize the input bar from iOS. Then this extra blank space goes away. The toolbar will be aligned to the bottom if you are using it.
I’m uncertain when this began as I recently started using an iPad as my primary portable computer. Other than this bug, it is working pretty good standalone or connected to my external display
Yes, it’s still happening. On an external display the keyboard bar takes up 50-90% of the note field when I click it to start typing. Combined with the mouse not being able to scroll PDFs it’s making the app pretty much unusable. I have to open notes in another text editor to use my vault on iPad at the moment.
I’m running 1.9.12, and on iPadOS 26 developer beta. I don’t use an external display, and the empty space only the height of iPadOS floating input bar, minimize the input bar seems resolves it.
I also hope there is a way to remove the toolbar/actions bar at the bottom, when I write on iPad, I always use a external keyboard, I think those buttons on the bar is not useful to me.
This is the default theme. I’m using an external keyboard and external monitor.
No iOS keyboard toolbar is appearing.
Weirdly, I jus tried to recreate the screenshot I posted yesterday and now text and the two pinned sidebars extend right to the bottom of the monitor and iPad’s screen, so all looks good. However I’m on the exact same versions of iPadOS and Obsidian as yesterday, so consistency seems off?
