Unusual cursor behavior, no vim commands do anything.
Escape turns a line cursor into a block cursor and backspace will (in block cursor) only move the cursor left. It is not possible to return to the line cursor except by pressing the insert key, which changes only the backspace behavior.
Environment
SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.7
Installer version: 1.12.7
Operating system: #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat, 23 May 2026 14:21:20 +0000 7.0.10-arch1-1
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on
RECOMMENDATIONS:
none
Additional information
I’ve tested with and without plugins, sandbox mode, new workspace, my existing workspace, with and without themes, the official appimage and every other install method available to me. I have tried every combination of every thing I can think of that could possibly affect this.
The vim feature categorically does not work anymore and has not for a few versions.
I use Vim mode extensively and, while it’s not perfect, I’ve been mostly happy with it. However, in a recent update (sometime around version 1.12.3?), I noticed none of the Vim commands work any more at all, and moreover, Vim mode support seems to no longer exist.
I use Obsidian pretty exclusively in preview mode, but the behavior I’m describing is present also in source mode.
When activating Vim mode, the cursor switches to a block shape. All keypresses are interpreted as if in insert mode.
When I press the insert key, the cursor switches to the narrow (insert) shape, as if vim mode were not enabled.
When I press escape, the cursor switches to block shape, and remains in insert mode.
j and k do not move up/down lines, it just inserts j and k in the note.
Backspace moves left one character, but doesn’t delete. x does not delete the character under the cursor, just inserts x.
: doesn’t enter command mode, just inserts :.
i doesn’t switch to insert mode. It just inserts i into the text. Cursor stays a block. Same with a, I, c, s, etc.
Shift-V, Ctrl-V, and V don’t insert selection (visual) mode. It just inserts a V or pastes from clipboard.
This is infuriating for me because I depend quite heavily on a very large number of vim commands for basic editing tasks, and I use vim mode in nearly every application that has it for that reason. Having it straight up stop working in one of my more critical applications is unacceptable.
Things I have tried
Disabled/enabled vim mode
adding vim plugins
removing plugins
disabling plugins
creating a new workspace
restarting
updating
searching all variations on the phrase “obsidian vim mode” with keywords ranging from “broken” to “stuck in insert”
I am running on Kubuntu 25.10. Obsidian was installed via .deb file.
Steps for me to reproduce:
Open Sandbox vault.
Settings → Editor → Vim key bindings.
Type :q! to prove I know how to use Vim
Click to the bottom of the “Start Here” page.
Observe that the cursor is a block cursor, which means we’re in Normal mode.
Type the k key.
Expected: cursor goes up a line.
Actual: the letter “k” appears.
The strangest part is that as I ran through these steps a few times to make sure the instructions were complete, one of those times vim mode acted as expected! I could use j and k to move up and down, C to change a line, <Esc> to return to Normal mode, and so forth. But the rest of the times it behaved as described above, with a Normal mode cursor but Edit mode behavior.
I don’t know what was different between my tests. Perhaps a timing problem or some kind of race condition? I’ll post again if I discover any clues.
SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.13.1
Installer version: 1.12.7
Operating system: #35-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue May 26 13:10:28 UTC 2026 6.17.0-35-generic
Login status: logged in
Language: en
Catalyst license: insider
Insider build toggle: on
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 0
Plugins enabled: 0
I’ve just installed Obsidian on another system (NixOS, KDE Plasma, also wayland), and vim mode works as expected on my existing workspace. There is no difference between the appimage and the Nix package.
It happened to me a few days ago. I wrote it off as a very odd side effect of a new theme I was trying. I switched back to the default theme, and it went away. Now I think that was a coincidence because Vim mode has been glitchy in other themes. I’ll collect more information and post it here if I can. In the meantime, I’ll guess you’re not hearing more about it because everyone thinks it’s a one-off issue that just affects them.
