I do this but additionally with an always-on Raspberry Pi, so syncing works perfectly even if the laptop and phone aren’t able to sync directly to each other. The SyncTrain iOS app arrived just in time for me: https://t-shaped.nl/posts/synctrain-a-rethought-ios-client-f...

It’s $4 a month to sync Obsidian notes, for anyone wondering.

This was news to me, so this must have changed recently, as I have been billed more than that ever since I signed up.

I looked at my account, and I am charged $10 but it seems they automatically moved me to a "Plus" plan that has more storage. So no complaints from me really. Either that or the $4 plan is new. [1]

The $4 only comes with 1GB of storage. I would recommend the $10 for 50GB if you use images in your notes.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37251708

The $4 plan was launched March 20, 2024

https://obsidian.md/blog/standard-plan/

It's a good price but still feels wasteful if you also run/pay for nextcloud or similar.

There are plugins allowing you to sync via other means (for free). I don't know how the author fails to realise/mention this. I've been using Remotely Save with WebDAV or years without issue.

And the notes are all just markdown files. If the obsidian software were to disappear you have all your notes. It's fine someone wanted to spend a load of time writing their own software but none of the reasons presented in this piece make sense.

It's not wasteful to support great software.

For me it was the It Just Works-iness of it combined with a handy way to support the project cheaply.

As long as I'm paying for it, I'm the client and not the product.

I tried some of the third party stuff, iCloud, Dropbox, etc and with all of them I either lost data because of notes not being in sync or had to manually fix stuff. $4/month and zero issues was well worth it for a tool I literally use every day.

I think your comment is very disingenuous. And not just because it's another subscription. That plan does not work if you got more than one vault, and if you use Obsidian you will probably have more than one vault.

https://obsidian.md/sync

It's a time/cost tradeoff and for me personally $4 has been fine for out-of-the-box syncing between clients for the last ~2 years of using just the one vault. It's now $8 for 10 vaults (I only recently added my second), which is still a relatively insignificant amount considering I spend more than that on toilet paper.

> if you use Obsidian you will probably have more than one vault.

Why would anyone ever want to use more than one vault? I just use different folders. The only reason I can think of would be if you are using Obsidian for work where you aren't allowed to use unapproved services.

Just me perhaps, but I have three. Personal, Work, and Shared. But only personal and shared are synced as work stuff needs to stay on the work PC.

I use Obsidian as a distant secondary notetaking app.

I use one vault per video game. I don’t need to clutter up a vault just so I can link from a page on Art combos in Xenoblade games to a page detailing all the random things I need to pick up around Hyrule to upgrade this or that piece of armor.

I use Obsidian and don't have more than one vault. What a weird thing to claim.

I don't think you know what the word "disingenuous" means, and I advise you not to makes such personal attacks in any case.

I've been meaning to switch over to syncthing. I currently use insync for google drive syncing on Linux and it's basically instant and constant. I can make an edit on one machine and in the time it takes me to grab my laptop, it's been synced. That said, using google drive which I don't want to do anymore.

Syncthing is a lifesaver, it's such a useful tool!

There are also several Obsidian community plugins for sync, I use Remotely Save via WebDAV.

too bad Syncthing is no longer officially maintaining andoird app https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-androi...

But the syncthing fork (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.cat...) has been going for years now, and should have been the first choice anyways.

For anyone who would prefer to get the Syncthing-Fork build from F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncth...

Or you setup a Couchdb and the self hosted live sync plugin. Although the data will reside on a remote server in this case.

Apple allowing iCloud directories to be permanently downloaded fixed this for me.

Does the iCloud & Windows caveat still apply? https://help.obsidian.md/sync-notes

Yep. I use iCloud for my Obsidian vault, set to always be downloaded. I haven’t had an issue, and doesn’t cost me anything (beyond what I’m already paying for iCloud due to Photo Library).

I've also been using Obsidian a lot. I recommend the SyncThing Fork over SyncThing.

I myself currently use Google Drive with DriveSync on Android to sync my notes, which works great. Other cloud providers also work well.

I wrote a comparison of different tools to sync here: https://bryanhogan.com/blog/how-to-sync-obsidian

SyncThing has some gotchas when it comes to sync, for example I've had files reappear when I edit them on one device and move them on another. It also seems to create "sync-conflict" files when there is no conflict at all (no modification on one side). I'd also quite like to be able to see the history of my notes sometimes...

I also had this nice surprise literally today, all my synced folders stopped working and had to be re-added: https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android/issues/1430

But overall it has worked well, I am using it between 4 devices.

Same. I admit I've running into a few syncing headaches over the years, but given the cost of $0 and the fact it's open source, I recommend it too.

I previously rolled my own notes system and I find Obsidian plus Syncthing is better. Plugins are a big deal.

I did this and hooo does Apple make it difficult to sync files without iCloud. I felt like it was too janky for my liking, and paid for obsidian sync, but I felt like it was really silly how an official app could do it no problem, but you can’t get generic functionality to work with iOS.