I’ve been using Obsidian for my note taking for a little while and I love it. I love you can just do a quick [[[other note]]] and it will link to the other note. I love that the full thing is just in markdown files, so that I can have full control; even if Obsidian were to disappear.
The one thing that is a little frustrating for me is getting my notes synced between my desktop, laptop, and phone. I have tried using syncthing to just sync the markdown files directly and it worked pretty well. But, it seems a bit overkill on my phone. I think I’d rather move to a single server that I can connect them to and they can sync from there.
I have looked into a few plugins. I saw that there a git one. I am a developer. So, that seems like the natural way for me to do it. But, I also saw a post on reddit where they suggested webdav. Which might be closer to what I want. I don’t need it to be where I can type on two devices and have the stuff sync super fast or something. I just want to type my notes, close the app, and when I open it on a different device; I want it to have my latest notes ready for me.
What are you personally using for Obsidian? I’d love to hear from other people here. I don’t want to pay for Obsidian’s subscription service. I want to host it myself.
I wrote a guide with a few options: https://avidandrew.com/elevate-your-note-taking-with-obsidian.html
I personally use SyncThing with the SyncThing-Fork app now
I know this doesn’t answer your question, but I love obsidian and have no problem paying for the sync. If anyone can’t afford to do so, I completely get it and am not judging. But the company behind obsidian has taken zero VC funding, and are doing amazing things. I highly encourage folks to support them if you have the means.
Not what you’re asking, but in case it helps. I don’t use Obsidian, I use https://silverbullet.md/ it’s very similar, markdown files with the ``[[other note]]` syntax (as well as some querying mechanism that I believe Obsidian also has), in short it’s almost an open source version of obsidian but it has some advantages IMO:
- It is open source
- It provides a sync mode, where you download the text to your device and it’s accessible offline to get sync afterwards.
- It’s hackable so you can write your own functions and styles
I’m surprised almost no one has heard of it, the main developer is here on Lemmy, that’s how I found out about it. BTW I also use syncthing to keep backups of my data, and even specifically to not sync a work folder outside of the work computer even though the rest is synced, so I can access Silverbullet from localhost on the work computer and get everything there and any changes to non-work stuff get synced to my home server, and from my personal server get everything except work stuff.
I hope that there is a dark mode! lol I checked it out. I’ll probably try it soon.
There is and it’s completely hackable, so you can set your own css if you prefer.
Obsidian is great though, even if it’s not open-source. The stability of alternatives is not at the same level from what I’ve heard.
Never had an instability problem with Silverbullet, although I’ve only been using it for a year or so.
For what it’s worth, I ended up choosing the obsidian sync service. While it goes against my “self host everything” mantra, I do also want to support software makers who make great products that respect peoples privacy. As such, I decided the $8/m investment was warranted.
My son in highschool uses Obsidian for all his school note taking, so he actually is able to use the same sync subscription… As each vault has separate keys, there’s no privacy issues between us…
My favourite part of this solution is it supports live update from multiple devices at once, so I have the vault open on phone, tablet, home laptop and work laptop simultaneously, and it just works…
Just thought it was worth sharing.
That’s fair. It’s just a lot of money right now.
Oh, I totally get it… I’ve been in the same place many times (and I’m sure I will be again…)
I just have a policy of trying to support these things whenever I’m able to, otherwise I feel I’m not able to grumble when privacy respecting apps disappear from existence through lack of financial support…
12€ (I believe) is way too much to using it maybe once every week for private use.
If it was something like Bitwarden where it’s around 1€ per year I would be totally up to paying it
It seems to me that Syncthing is the exact right thing to use here; what is “overkill” about it that makes you think you should use something else?
This is what i do. Just ensure version control is enabled. Works perfectly.
No Syncthing is perfect. The problem is the Android app development issue. The main all had it last update ever earlier this month.
Yeah I think it’s Syncthing-Fork now?
Yes I’ve switched just recently. Just hope it gets continued development and didn’t just count on the original app.
That’s the problem making me think about switching now lol
I’m using syncthing-fork on Android for years on multiple devices without problems.
To be fair, Syncthing-fork has been around for a while, even before the main app got discontinued and it’s still rock solid
I’m using Syncthing. It doesn’t feel like overkill, especially since I’m also using it for music and photos. I basically just set it up and forget about it.
Same, but apparently android app is no longer supported since google play was too annoying for the developer. So wondering how long I can keep it up.
Syncthing-Fork has been out for years and has more options too
Perhaps take a look at this :)
Planning to close my Google Play Developer Account. Please say hi if you are interested in obtaining the latest gplay release files from me to help in publishing this app.
Seems like most open source project are leaving Google’s official store? That’s nice but will leave out some potential visibility for people who have no idea other than Google Store.
I wish their was also an easy way to leave github behind :/. Wait&See !!
When Google doesn’t restrict apps via the Android APIs, they restrict them via the BS Play Store review requirements. I’ve seen apps loose important functionality over this, meanwhile there’s still rampant viruses roaming free in that dump.
I predict we’ll see more and more ‘Power user’ apps move away from the Play Store as time goes on
Just like @[email protected] suggested, Syncthing-fork works fine for now, I’ve been using it on my phone to sync logseq notes and I haven’t had any issues so far
F-droid
I would love a way to only keep it on a server (like S3) and access it live with a local cache.
This guide is incredible. It is pretty much instantaneous
I personally use the Obsidian Git plugin and sync it to a self-hosted Gitea server. You could also use GitHub or something similar, if you don’t mind them.
I know you don’t want to pay for their sync service and this is the self-hosted community, but I just wanted to note that they service does work well and gives you access to note history. I decided to pay because Obsidian is excellent and I wanted to support it. I just wish it were open source.
Yep, I used to sync my Obsidian vault with Syncthing but I had some trouble with it once where stuff wasn’t properly synced and led to conflicts so I switched to paying for Obsidian Sync and have been very happy with it. I was especially happy to see that now offer a cheaper tier that has enough storage if you only sync text files.
Look at the LiveSync plugin as another option. It’s pretty robust but does require a CouchDB server accessible to whatever devices will be syncing information. The developer has several repos of slightly different server options, but if you use Tailscale there’s one that runs CouchDB through Tailscale Funnel.
I’m using LiveSync & it has been working great for me.
the obsidian-git plugin. Auto commits and pulls/push every x minutes. Works great for me, I get full version control and works on all my platforms (Linux, Windows, Android). You just need to be careful with your .gitignore and add at least .obsidian/workspace.json to prevent conflicts.
Probably not suitable if you store larger files, but after a year of daily usage with tons of small images I’m still below 150 MB.
Does this plugin work on mobile too? I’m looking to try out Obsidian and this sounds promising.
Yes, to both Android and iOS. It uses HTTPS instead of SSH, since most phones don’t support that without additional software.
I’m using the plugin remotely save and sync via WebDAV. Nextcloud provides a WebDAV interface so it’s pretty straight forward, and I can read my vault online via Nextcloud Web. Im mostly happy with it but sometimes there are some sync hiccups if versions of the plugin are very far apart but I also have 5-6 instances of obsidian that I need to keep in sync.
this is my setup as well, shout out to removely save. and i never have any sync issues with 3 clients.
I just have my vault default location saved on a cloud drive. iCloud in my case as I have an IPhone but I guess it could be done with any cloud or owncloud if you have a server.
I used to use Git, but it is easier to just move the vault on a network/cloud drive as you don’t need to pull/push. As obsidian auto save when you type a character this makes the sync instantaneous with zero effort.
@[email protected] Syncthing worked wonders for me, though it is only recently that I knew about Syncthing plugin on Obsidian; I used syncthing without it. I used it to sync notes for three separate vaults between my laptop and android phone.
How is this any different from having syncthing application?
@[email protected] reading the readme (https://github.com/LBF38/obsidian-syncthing-integration - or search
Syncthing Integrationon Community Plugins), it apparently offers conflicting files resolution (happens to me from time to time when I forgot to sync before opening daily notes, but not a big deal) and an option to modify .stignore from obsidian (stil in beta, and also the same for most of the configurable settings), among other features. Just to be clear, you still need to install Syncthing on your devices. I’m not in the position to give any meaningful review for them, though.Syncthing full allocation also offers conflict resolution 🤷♂️🤔
@[email protected] dunno, I’m just writing what I see. Before, I assumed that their conflict resolution is by merging the .md altogether with the most recent updates from all synced devices, but that doesn’t really make sense in technical level. I think what they actually offer is control for syncthing via Obsidian’s menu, rather than using Syncthing’s interface.
@[email protected] @thea the plugin offer a diff GUI to resolve the sync conflict. I just test that yesterday.
The plugin is nice to know about. I was just putting the vault in a syncthing folder.
