Vault lay-out change

Basement
1

My vault lay-out is standard, with 3 folders and my notes as .md files. The latter are always visible as they are in the root folder (the vault).

I would like to have all the .md note files in a folder and just a few hub notes in the root folder (the vault). The hub notes will contain links to the .md note files.

See screenshot below.
I can add those hub notes to the root folder right now, and create a new folder for all the other .md note files.

My question is: how can I move all the other .md note files to that new folder without breaking the links in them?

vault
vault567Ă—626 77.5 KB

2

Backup the vault and work on the backup.
Just move them all in Obsidian - all links should be preserved.

Try another backup. Do the same using the OS - my experience has been that all links will be preserved.

Playing with backups and test vaults is fun.

3

@Dor: when you say “move them all in Obsidian” do you mean cut and paste while in Obsidian?

4

:thinking: I suppose I mean that it’s worth learning how tedious it is. Doing it manually. Or cutting and pasting.

So if you know that already, just try in the OS.
How well it works maybe impacted by the path you use or whether you use markdown links, but just test it.

Obsidian can’t match what OS can do, and probably never will.

I’ve completely changed my vaults and folders set up in just a few minutes. Nothing broke.

5

@Dor: OK thanks, I’ll give it a try. I’ll let you know.

6

As I say, playing is fun.
And it’s always helpful to have a hands-on feel for what is possible and what isn’t.

1 Like
7

@Klaas What link format are you using and are your note titles unique? The foolproof way of preserving links is to use Shortest path links and have unique titles.

8

@sam.baron: I have used Wiki links mostly, also some Markdown links. I only recently set path link to Shortest after reading a comment elsewhere from Dor (I think) about it being foolproof. Before I had it set to Relative.
My note titles are unique.

9

@Dor: just for the record, esp. for others who might stumble upon this page, I can confirm that drag & drop (the only way to move files individually within the Obs file explorer) leaves all links intact.

The same goes for cut and paste in the OS file explorer.

In all cases, whether the links are [[wiki links]] or absolute path links, they remain intact with a move.

Thanks for your input.

10

Thanks for this confirmation. I was originally put off trying it by comments that links would be broken, but that wasn’t what I found when I tried it. It is a question that has been asked a few times, and it is helpful for people to know they can just use the OS, which can feel counterintuitive.

I think it’s also true that you can write a note in a different program typing in a wikilink to other notes you are writing in that program. And when you copy them into a vault Obsidian recognises the links.

I think Obsidian simply reads the files when they are loaded.

11

Yes, this is correct, and if this seems like it’s not working, you can delete your vault cache.