Workspaces + Obsidian Sync

[Kaleo]

Continuing the discussion from Obsidian Workspace syncs are never consistent:

This was closed and never solved, however I am experiencing the exact same issue. I put so many time in setting up workspaces, left/right sidebars etc etc, only to find that they are never synced between devices.

So basically reopening a probably forgotten topic in the hopes we can shed some light onto this.

[notDavid]

I have the same issue, Obsidian Workspace sync is broken… it’s that simple. It does not work properly.

(I’m using a Macbook, iPad and iPhone.)

[ariehen]

If Settings > Sync > Core plugin settings is enabled, Workspaces (the core plugin) do sync and then download to other devices on my end.

I can open a workspace saved on desktop on my phone, but the open tabs are only the tabs in the first tab group (from desktop) and the mobile sidebars blank out. See:

Workspace Layouts Don't Work Across Different Devices (phones vs desktop)

I thought this was fixed but we’re still able to load workspaces on a mobile device (phone-sized in my case) that were originally created on desktop, which results in: [IMG_9722] [IMG_9723] in the sidebars. iOS v18.6, Obsidian v1.9.6. There may be an easier way, but I was able to resolve the sidebar issue by renaming the VAULT/.obsidian/workspace-mobile.json file, restarting, and letting Obsidian create a new one.

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If you open a workspace saved on one desktop on another desktop, it’s fine. Open a workspace saved on iPad on another iPad, it’s fine, etc.

The issue is when you try to open a workspace saved on one type of device on another type of device. I recommend labeling your workspaces per the type of device you save them on. e.g.

desktop--WS1
desktop--WS2
ipad--WS1
ipad--WS2
phone--WS1
phone--WS2

[notDavid]

I think the issue i’m seeing, is that the workspace files get merged all the time.

So for example, it seems impossible to close a note (on my Desktop for example).
Because as soon as i open the App (same workspace) on another device, that note will get synced/merged back as “opened”.

The thing is, i think someone needs to create a new bug in this forum, and reproduce this issue on a new clean vault… which is an entire mission of course

[ariehen]

Just to check, are you talking about the general saved state of the workspace, or Workspaces you manually save using the core Workspaces plugin?

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With similar names, it’s confusing, but the core Workspaces plugin uses the workspaces.json file.

The general saved state of things so they are the same when you close-open Obsidian are saved in workspace.json (desktop) and workspace-mobile.json (mobile).

[notDavid]

Ohhh right, thank you for clarifying @ariehen , that’s good to know…!

@ariehen

Workspaces you manually save using the core Workspaces plugin?

Yea i was talking about the workspace layouts which i manually save.

[janegilring]

+1 on this. I gave workspaces another try today, and hit the same issue. If I create a new workspace “test 1” and “test 2” on two different desktops, only one of them “survives” the sync/merge.

Where should we file a bug?

[janegilring]

Also, are there any workaround in form of using other plugins?
My main objective is to save/load groups of tabs based on what I am working on.

[iiz]

I recently filed a bug report that may be showing the same issue as described here:
Workspaces Core Plugin does not work correctly when using Obsidian Sync

[erroredhcker]

Same experience. Looking at the workspaces.json, the organization is VERY unmaintainable, contains a bunch of dynamic states, and is very easily broken by syncthing or git. Same for workspace.json (which keeps a state of the active workspace).