Anyone who likes Obsidian knows: it’s only cool as soon as your vaults are synced across multiple devices/operating systems. The Obsidian ecosystem offers many possibilities to do so. A variant that works best for me is described below:

The situation is as follows:

  • Operating systems
    • iOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux
  • sync options
    • git/GitHub
    • iCloud
    • avoid Obsidian sync services

Using git was non-negotiable. If I work on a laptop or PC, git is the tool of choice for syncing source code or notes. Integration and usage of git on iOS never felt right for me. However, having Obsidian on a mobile device is essential for rapid note taking and note look-ups.

The basic workflow is outlined as follows:

iOS <-iCloud Drive-> MacOS <-git-> GitHub <-git-> Windows or Linux
  1. Activate iCloud Drive on iOS/MacOS.
  2. Create an Obsidian vault on MacOS, the storage location must be the folder with the Obsidian logo.
  3. The vault is synchronised inside the Apple ecosystem via iCloud Drive.
  4. Afterwards, use a terminal, go to the SyncVault and initialize the git repository.
cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud\~md\~obsidian/Documents
cd SyncVault
git init .
  1. Using the GitHub CLI, create a new private remote repository.
gh repo create --private YOUR_GITHUB_USER/NEW_GITHUB_REPO
  1. Finally, configure the remote origin and start your git workflow.
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USER/NEW_GITHUB_REPO
git add *
git commit -m "initial vault commit"
git push --set-upstream origin main
  1. All devices that use git, are perfectly synced via your desired git workflow.