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Comment by afturner | Hacker News Reader

The local first approach is the primary reason I use Obsidian. I trust that I can _depend_ on Obsidian because of this.

On the other hand, this has also caused some headaches around using it on mobile.. but so far this has been a worthwhile tradeoff. Thanks for all the hard work!

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I use iCloud Drive as a vault location. The trick is to create it first on the Mobile app and then use the desktop app later to point to that vault.

If you are transferring from desktop to mobile, make sure the .obsidian folder inside the vault is copied also

Syncthing comes to my mind for that specific need. https://syncthing.net/

Syncthing on mobile is a little clunky because of OS limitations on background processes. Basically the reason I pay for Obsidian's own sync addon

You can always use Mega sync.

And it has 15 GB free forever, just like Google Drive.

Mega sync has native clients in MacOS, Linux, Windows, iOS, Android.

Does it not ultimately have the same problem? i.e. when you open obsidian, there's no guarantee the files are up to date as Android may have killed the third party sync program. And on iOS, there's no way for the sync program and obsidian to share the same filesystem short of the obsidian devs explicitly integrating

Android does have Content Providers [0], basically apps can provide a "filesystem" which isn't locally stored on your phone and act like Network Shares. Caveat is that you need an internet connection.

[0] https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/content...

Good question, because it is indeed the default behavior.

But you can always tweak settings to run the 3rd party sync app always in the baclground, and override the battery optimization setting for that particular app.

I've turned on the settings to keep the service on in the background and start on system startup, no sync issues for me.

Syncing bytes is easy, many solutions exist (and syncthing / syncthing-fork is good at it).

Syncing by merging changes and resolving possible conflicts is a much harder task. Theoretically git has all the right bits, including the pluggable diffing and merging. In practice, I haven't seen it seriously used in this capacity.

This is to say nothing about files you only want on one node but not on another (heavy stuff lives on server and laptop, but not mobile, etc.)

This is why special-case syncing tools that know how to sync semantically are indispensable.

> In practice, I haven't seen it seriously used in this capacity.

What do you mean? What is preventing you from using git to sync your notes?

Most apps aren't built to use it, especially on mobile. Think of the use case of your grocery list--you want one tap, open the list, type type type, and done. Anything else--having to tap save, sync, write a commit message, etc... anything, is a fail in my opinion. Git is great to use behind the scenes but I don't want to see it in the UI or slow down my workflow.

Why the need for another step? Just have it auto save/commit/merge/push in the background once you finish typing.

Indeed, this can be done, but usually isn't. And when it is done, it looks like another proprietary syncing protocol.

The thing is that you should not expect a user to explicitly host a git repo somewhere to for a grocery list app. Most apps are designed for users who are unwilling to do that, and are actually ready to pay to avoid whatever technical hurdles.

OTOH I see a niche for an app geared towards more technical users, chich would, among other things, allow you to point at a git / hg / whatever repo to use as the synchronization point.

I use syncthing together with wireguard to keep my vaults synced across devices.

Syncthing works well on Android for photos, music, movies, and downloads. Not so much for notes. You'll end up with conflicts, and there aren't many great ways to merge changes on mobile.

Obsidian Sync is by no means cheap, but I've never used a better syncing service. I'm on my second year and can't think of a single issue I've had across laptops, desktops, an Android phone, and a Chromebook.

I love Obsidian Sync as well but to be devil's advocate, it doesn't "just work" as a lot of people claim. It's still a bit rough around the edges. For example, it doesn't sync settings or starred files immediately. I've also noticed it dropping some text if I edit the same file on multiple devices simultaneously (or even in quick succession before sync is able to catch up). I'm sure these issues and more would exist with a 3rd party syncing solution but Obsidian sync still needs some work before it's perfect.

> I've also noticed it dropping some text if I edit the same file on multiple devices simultaneously

I don't think that's the intended use case of Sync or anything they've ever said it could be used for.

When I say simultaneously I mean typing something on a file on my laptop and then putting that away and making more change on my phone a few seconds later (sometimes the gap is even longer than that). Sync is pretty slow especially since it doesn't sync in the background.

I can think of a number of other notes syncing that's better -- probably even Evernote's. As a happily paying Obsidian Sync customer, I'll drop some reality, so new people aren't caught off-guard.

- Obsidian Sync is pretty slow.

- Obsidian Sync doesn't happen in the background, at present. That means, if you just made a bunch of updates in Obsidian, or you haven't opened the Obsidian mobile app in a while, you're in for a wait.

- Obsidian Sync occasionally has sync errors that involve manual interaction.

That said, it's fine and the overall Obsidian experience makes it worth it (well, if you can swing a discounted price).

What's faster than Obs sync? Genuinely curious since I thought I tried most of the options out there apart from syncthing.

1Password sync is definitely the fastest sync I’ve ever used.

I use Microsoft Word’s multi-editing feature at work. The sync is essentially real-time (setting aside other opinions in Microsoft Office). You can see every change that your co-editors make as they make it. You can work on one file on two different devices at the same time. That is the kind of sync that I’d like.

More realistically, I used to use a custom sync setup with a WebDAV server I set up and Goodsync software. You can set it to sync in file change, and it was fast, with changes replicating in a few seconds.

As it is, the Obsidian sync takes a few minutes. And if you edit the file on another device before sync goes through, you’ll lose the changes from one device or the other.

> As it is, the Obsidian sync takes a few minutes. And if you edit the file on another device before sync goes through, you’ll lose the changes from one device or the other.

Clearly we have had very different experiences. I have mainly markdown notes, PDFs, and screenshots and it syncs everything continuously as I work. As for "losing" the changes, I'll have to push back on that. You have full version history, so while you might have to look at an old version, you won't lose anything. There's certainly nothing unique to Obsidian with respect to conflict resolution. If version history isn't working, you'll have to talk to the developers because there's a serious bug.

> "As it is, the Obsidian sync takes a few minutes. And if you edit the file on another device before sync goes through, you’ll lose the changes from one device or the other."

This has been my biggest fear using sync. So far I haven't had any issues, but I just get a" feeling" (maybe it's the lag between syncs) that this could definitely happen.

Can you explain in a little more detail how it might actually occur? Maybe so I can prevent it from happening.

Usually, I've had it happen when I try writing stuff on a device that's been offline and I haven't brought it online to pull in the latest changes. We essentially have a merge conflict. Thankfully, they're not a pain to resolve.

OK, got it. Thanks. So, to prevent from happening in the first place, it'd make sense to give the recently sleeping device a moment or two to catch up.

Totally agreed. Obsidian sync is pretty disappointing, honestly. I still use it, but I would call it just barely good enough.

It significantly improved for me a few months ago. The syncing seems to start much more quickly after I open the app. Not perfect but much better than it had been when I had to keep the app open by constantly touching my screen and hoping it would even start the syncing process.

It depends on your workflow. I use git to sync my obsidian vault. There's plugins to automate this, but doing it manually isn't that bad either. I use mobile mostly to read notes, and occasionally I'll write down a short line or two which I can sync over and edit and organize on desktop.

Some options for syncing on mobile:

Obsidian sells a first party syncing solution, which I hear works well:

https://obsidian.md/sync

I do git syncing on Android via termux (It works most of the time, except when git decides to shit itself every now and then on my tablet):

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/guide-using-git-to-sync-your-obs...

I can't vouch for it because I don't have any iOS devices new enough to support it, but supposedly you can use Working Copy to sync via git on iOS:

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/mobile-setting-up-ios-git-based-...

I went for the paid syncing because I want it to "just work" while still having the futureproof way of storing the data locally in an accessible way.

So far it has worked absolutely flawless. If I change a file it's changing on my connected device in seconds. Not exactly like working on a shared google doc but close enough that I would even use it as a hack to quickly share links between my mobile and my desktop

I’m using Working Copy on iOS with the setup described in the post. It’s working like a charm for me

I just use DropSync and put all my Vaults in one synced Dropbox folder (to get around DropSync's folder limit). Works like a charm.

I use it with Working Copy git client, nice and properly nerdy setup. There are nice ready-made guides for this combo.

So simple, they combine the best of all eras: local first, open, published formats and pluggable/byo multi-device sync/backup – Cloud if you wish, but not required. It gives me hope for the future, I wish more software these days followed this model.

Caveat: not an obsidian user (although I am a big step closer after this)

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