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’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
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
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.
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.
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.
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…
This guide is incredible. It is pretty much instantaneous
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.
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.
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.
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
@[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.
The plugin is nice to know about. I was just putting the vault in a syncthing folder.
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 🤷♂️🤔
I use git to sync Obsidian. Termux on Android and git on any other device. I have two scripts, one .sh one .psh, that I run to just commit and push the latest changes. On Windows I use the plugin shell commands for one-click running the script, on Android I need to use termux.
It’s not the easiest but it is, at least to me, easy to set up :)
I just dumped my obsidian workspace into a folder synced by Google Drive.
You and also use crypmator to encrypt your notes inncase google ai starts reading them.
I simply use Nextcloud to sync the vault directory. It has clients for both desktop and mobile and works perfectly fine. I use it to sync basically everything between my work, home, laptop, and mobile.
The only drawback is that I don’t know if Obsidian automatically reloads a file if it is changed - if not, and you leave the file open in the editor, you might accidentally overwrite the new file with old data.
Just sync it using whatever cloud service you use, doesnt matter if selfhosted or not. ie. DIY
BTW if your library gets large and has a lot of plugins, it wont run to any useful degree on your phone.
