Why Choose Obsidian

To be honest, Obsidian is a Markdown text editor that caught my attention. I’ve used Notion, Typora, and iAwriter before. But why did I ultimately choose Obsidian?

Many say Obsidian is just a locally deployable Notion, but in my eyes, that statement is only half true. Notion is a veteran productivity software, and its provided features are undeniably powerful. Without exaggeration, Notion is actually stronger than Obsidian in most management tasks. After all, Obsidian is essentially just a writing software. However, Notion completely eliminates user choice—you can’t use it without an internet connection. Your data must exist on their servers. Personally, I prefer local deployment, so I have a love-hate relationship with Notion.

Let’s talk about the other two, Typora and iA Writer. Essentially, they are both very simple text editing tools. Typora is more minimalist, while iA Writer marks the grammar of sentences (as shown in the image below). Before using it, I thought it was quite interesting, but after using it, I found it to be not very useful. If you’re thinking about buying iA Writer, my advice is to immediately dismiss that idea.

Typora used to be free, but now it has started charging. I feel this software is not irreplaceable for me. So when it started charging, I began searching online for software that could replace it, and that’s when I stumbled upon Obsidian.

I admit that Typora loads a bit faster than Obsidian, but do you really care about that millisecond difference? Perhaps you might say yes, but with the powerful open-source community behind Obsidian, it boasts a massive array of plugins. The abundance of plugins isn’t the point; the key is that everyone can have their own mix and match, choosing what best suits their needs. This plethora of plugins in Obsidian greatly enhances these possibilities and flexibility.

Problem Discovery

If you have previously used Notion or are a Microsoft 365 user, you might feel that Obsidian is somewhat archaic when you first try it. It supports many devices, yet surprisingly, it doesn’t offer file synchronization across devices by default. I later found out that it’s not that it lacks synchronization; rather, its synchronization service is a paid feature, and not exactly cheap, costing about $4 per month if paid annually. Honestly, even for someone who loves writing, it’s hard to imagine filling up 10GB with Markdown files, which are essentially plain text.

Would you be willing to spend nearly $50 a year just for a bit of extra storage space? Although it’s expensive, that’s not the main issue; there are better solutions available for less than $50 a year.

Download the Remotely Save Plugin

This plugin supports multiple platforms. I tested this plugin on Windows, MacOS, “iPadOS”, iOS, and Android, and it works perfectly on all.

First, open Obsidian, go to the settings interface, and then click on Community Plugins in the left sidebar.

Next, turn off strict mode to allow your Obsidian to support third-party developer plugins, and then click Browse.

Enter Remotely Save in the search box at the top.

If you are in mainland China, remember to use an international network for downloading here. There are no prompts during the download, so you need to wait patiently for a few seconds, if your network conditions are OK. Once downloaded, remember to click Enable.

Basic Plugin Configuration

Please, please, please make sure to backup all your files before using this plugin. It is crucial, especially if you are installing it on multiple devices. Always backup your data before each new device installation. Otherwise, an empty folder on one device might sync up, and you could lose your files.
Here, I can offer a suggestion, but please, please, please ensure you back up your files before doing anything. Remember, data is invaluable. On new devices, you might want to select Pull Only (as we’ll discuss later), sync all files first, then enable bi-directional sync. This way, empty folders won’t sync to the cloud. It’s worth repeating: make sure to backup all your files before proceeding with any operation.

First step right off the bat is to select OneDrive, and then log into your Microsoft account. Remember to copy the link below into your browser to open it.

By now, it’s pretty much usable. But to enhance our usage, I recommend following my next settings to improve the overall experience.

Usage Optimization

Priority is Automatic Syncing

The first arrow shows how often it syncs to the remote server, as you can see, I’ve set it to sync every 1 minute.
The line below sets when the Obsidian software should sync after you open it. My advice is to sync immediately upon opening, so it feels seamless and comfortable.

Change the Minimum Syncable Change Threshold

This setting means that a page can only sync if the modifications exceed a certain percentage of the original. For example, if I have an article of 1000 words and I change just one word, syncing would normally give an error. My suggestion is to set it to 100, which means it doesn’t check changes; it will sync regardless of whether there are modifications or not, unless you have your own preferences. If you set it to something other than 100, it might conflict with the auto-sync feature. This issue confused me initially until I checked GitHub issues and realized it needed a minor adjustment.

Set the Mode

Here, you can set your sync to be bi-directional, receive-only, or send-only. Personally, if you’re just using it as a backup to OneDrive, you can choose Push Only, or if you’re just monitoring, you can select Pull Only. However, if you want this device to receive changes from other devices and also send local changes to others, then bi-directional is best.
As for me, I set my computer and tablet to bi-directional and my phone to Pull Only because I don’t edit articles on my phone.

Final Thoughts

I think Obsidian is a very suitable software for writing, with a strong plugin ecosystem and a beautiful interface, which are the reasons I chose it. Although I am an Apple user, I still don’t use iCloud for syncing because iCloud does not handle multiple files well. For example, I might have an Untitled.md file and after some time, an Untitled(1).md appears, and then after a while, an Untitled(1)(1).md, which is very abstract.

Let’s talk about how to avoid problems. My advice is not to switch devices too frequently. If I have finished editing on my computer and want to input on my iPad, then my suggestion is to manually press the sync button on the left sidebar. Then press the sync button on the iPad. This way, you can ensure to the greatest extent that your files will not have issues. This habit is easy to develop; I remembered it completely after about 1-2 days.

If you find any bugs in the plugins while using them, you are also very welcome to submit an issue to the author to make the plugin more user-friendly. I am posting the repository of this plugin here: https://github.com/remotely-save/remotely-save

This article only introduces installing the plugin on one device, but the settings are exactly the same on all devices, so I won’t repeat them.

Finally, I wish all readers smooth writing!