I just pay for the sync.

I like that I can have some vaults that sync to both my personal and work laptops and other vaults that only sync to one or the other.

It’s awfully convenient without any vendor lock in since I can just take my plain markdown files and leave anytime.

Another option is obsidian lets you set which folders should sync. So I have everything in one vault, and in my trusted environment I let have everything synced, work machine only gets the work folder, and windows gaming machine only gets required non-confidential stuff (i.e notes about stuff that isnt me).

Its nice to be able to review it all from one machine though

I used to use SyncThing, then Dropbox, then iCloud. But then I just caved and paid for Obsidian Sync and it is the best money spent aside from Claude. I don't have to tinker with weird settings anymore or deal with sync issues, it just works.

I can't wonder if that's by design to make it hard for a plugin to have it's own sync mechanism. Definitely not proof of this that I know of, but a thought.

Obsidian is plain Markdown and JSON files.

There can't be a will from the devs to make it hard to sync.

It's just that unlike git or Dropbox or whatever, that are just generic "syncing" tools, Obsidian Sync has been built to provide the best experience with Obsidian.

I'm talking more about the plugin architecture not about the file format or third-party applications. sync plugins seems to be pretty limited compared to what's offered for a subscription.

I’ve been using Obsidian with Dropbox sync for years. What’s so special about the Obsidian sync?

Obsidian with Dropbox can work on an iOS device?

With Obsidian Sync you manage everything directly in Obsidian: sync status, activity, history, selective sync...

And "it just works" across platform, without having to think about/set something else up.

it's not per-vault is it? I have multiple vaults I'd like to sync selectively (50% of files in one vault for one machine, and 100% on another etc.) No space restrictions?

I only use a single vault, so I'm afraid I can't answer to your question.

So when I talk about selective sync, it's about what is synced within a vault, and more specifically Obsidian settings/plugins...

I don't have the need to selectively sync only some of my vault's content, so never looked into it.

I just know that Obsidian Sync does what I'm expecting it to do.

And to add some context: I'd rather they just add a regular "Obsidian" sub that included vault sync; instead of giving away Obsidian for free, and selling add-ons. Because on itself, Obsidian Sync is quite expensive. If I'm willing to pay that much for that little, it's because, to me, I'm paying first for the development of Obsidian in itself.

But I understand why they wanted to go this way.

I don't know if it is/was the best move; because I see lots of people not willing to use Obsidian just because they are "scamming" people on their expensive Sync add-on.

Seems fair to me.

Obsidian Sync has always been presented as a paid add-on, here to provide income for the company building Obsidian and giving it for free.

If they provided a direct BYOS(ync/erver) mechanism, less people would pay for the add-on, which is their source of income.

Instead, they let you use your own sync mechanism by only relying on text files.

I understand why some people could get upset about this, but they've always been transparent :

- no proprietary format ; can migrate at anytime without effort

- free but closed-sourced software

- add-ons for income

Joplin has great sync support for a number of providers, Dropbox, Onedrive, Nextcloud, S3 etc, Obsidian supports none of these on iOS so I cant sync all my devices without having all my notes go to Obsidian servers and paying the fee.

Definitely one of the biggest ROI is to pay for the sync. I regret all years I tried git-based alternatives (it's still useful to have it in git for backup, but not as the main syncing mechanism).

Just pay for the sync. I used to juggle with git, rsync, inotify etc and other tools

Its one of the few subscriptions where it actually feels like money well spent

I was using SyncThing, and it worked, but any time you have an Obsidian vault open on two devices, or shortly after another, you're always thinking about if you're going to have to clean up a bunch of sync conflict files later. And that mental overhead is not worth saving $4/mo.

The conflicts are never hard: it's like a git merge conflict where you just take the latest of every conflict block.

For me using SyncThing totally worth it, but I guess it's down to our income difference

I used multiple sync "solutions" (terrible idea, in retrospect); Dropsync, Syncthing, Drivesync, in addition to paying for Obsidian Sync, because I was delusional about "backing up my data". Huge mistake on my part, I've spent many, many, many hours deduplicating worthless "backups". Agree with "just pay for Obsidian Sync".

Mirrors my experience.

What tool can be used to resolve syncthing conflicts? I get a lot of.stversion files.

I try to selfhost most of my stuff I rely on. Immich, Vaultwarden, etc. I gave up on trying to selfhost sync solutions for Obsidian - Obsidian Sync is just so damn frictionless compared to all other solutions. Also, it feels good supporting the development of Obsidian.

I just pay for the sync. It probably helps I jumped on board when they still had early bird pricing for the sync

I've been using Obsidian since the beginning, and it's the best money I can spend annually. It works perfectly, and I've never had any problems.

I gave up on iCloud sync.

After the tenth time iCloud absolutely destroyed my vault’s file layout and scattered copies of my files all over my iCloud Drive, I just gave up and shell out for paid sync now. It’s fine. I don’t mind paying for things I get actual value from.

Same. I lost data this way. It wasn't worth it. Happy to support Obsidian

Im just running a Nextcloud on a raspberry pi to sync everything. Works flawlessly for multiple years now.

I use both and I prefer their builtin sync, since I also code on Linux.

I use Syncthing (with Synctrain client on iOS) and it works great.

protip: You can make synctrain sync with an iOS shortcut, with the shortcut being triggered when Obsidian is opened or closed. This means you're always in sync, even if iOS hasn't allowed synctrain to run in the background.

I've had good luck with syncthing. But I only sync between laptop and desktop.. the mobile story with syncthing isn't ideal.

Why not? I've used it between my desktops and my phone with no problem for years.

I use syncthing on mobile with no problems. Depending on your settings it might not work on low battery though.

I've had no trouble with syncthing on Android. It just has access to the sync folders, as far as I can tell. Seems to work great, even if I've got the same file open simultaneously on several devices. I use a tablet in my kitchen to show my TODO at all times.

I have been using remotely save and a free bucket from backblaze. It as a s3 compatible api so works using the s3 feature.

How is remotely save obsidian plugin mentioned only once here? I set it up with a OneDrive I was already using anyway to host and sync my vault there. I have it set up and synced on 4 devices with 4 different os (win11, macos, ios, android) and it works great and is free.

I'm doing the same since this is the only method I found I can let my bot access the files, something I couldn't achieve with Obsidian Sync.. until now!

I use git. push to private repo, you can use a cron in your machine to push regularly and so on.

The only limitation comes if you use the vault in a closed system like iOS, where you can't run terminal commands. other than that, flawless.

I’ve just about got this working on ios using the a-shell app as a terminal to run the git commands, with shortcuts set to run them when Obsidian opens and closes.

Paying for sync is my way of supporting the developers of this excellent application. The sync works well, it's less hassle, and more secure than using the usual cloud services, particularly for iOS and Android. Obsidian and Tailscale are the two pieces of software I gladly pay for, I don't ever want them enshittified!

Obsidian's paid sync works great for me.

github private repo works fine

I first used the Obsidian git-sync plugin. That worked fine, but but when I couldn't get it operable with my phone I caved and paid for sync.

If you mostly use single-vault Obsidian in two devices, SyncThing is perfect imo.

Resilio.

I did run with this setup for a few months (I believe like, 5 months already?) and when it works, it's nice, but 90% of the time it has been extremely painful.

Something breaks, one automatically updates and then it breaks the entire database, SCRAM mode, recovering is painful, and all the time I get warnings, spam and logs, it's anything but seamless.

Which is a real pity, because when it works it feels magical to use within my laptop, my phone and my tablet, all self hosted, but the pain won and so I'm searching for new alternatives.

I use this and a self-hosted couchdb. So far it seems to be good, but I haven't spent more than a few hours with it yet. I do have what appears to be a working setup on ios, macos, and linux. Obsidian's large number of plugins and control surfaces is a bit hazardous.