Committing to Obsidian with VIP and Sync

Now that I have been using Obsidian for a year, I felt I could make more of a committment to the product itself. I’ve recently done this in two ways.

First, I’ve upgrade my Supporter-level account to a VIP account. I didn’t do this for the badges or perks, but to support the product and the developers who make Obsidian. As someone who produces software in my day job (as well as occasionally outside of work), I know what goes into making good software, in planning out the features, executing them in code, debugging, all of it. It is hard work, and my support of Obsidian at the VIP level reflects my value of the tool that I have grown to live in more and more each day.

Second, I’ve subscribed to Obsidian’s sync service. I was already using Obsidian on my iPhone using iCloud sync, which for the most part worked okay, but for which I noticed a few minor quirks. These quirks themselves were not enough to disuade me from using the iCloud sync. But, after reading this reddit thread on Obsidian Sync, I was convinced to use it for two reasons:

1. Its “set it and forget it” aura. People who use it say it just works.
2. As another way of supporting the development of the product and service.

I made this switch back on January 20¹. Itr was relatively painless. After subscribing to the service, I worked it out as follows:

1. I created an empty sync vault from my account settings in Obsidian
2. I manually moved the vault on my MacMini from the Obsidan folder in iCloud to a local folder on my computer.
3. I synced Obsidian on my MacMini to the newly created sync vault in the sync service.
4. I created a new blank vault on my MacBook Pro and then connected Obsidian to my sync vault in the sync service.
5. I created a new blank vault on my iPhone and… you get the picture.

Two I like about the sync service so far:

1. It is fast. To me, it seems noticeably faster than the iCloud sync.
2. I like how you can pick and choose what to sync. For instance, you can sync basic settings, plugins, themes, etc., all independently. On my iPhone, I didn’t sync the theme and instead, I use a theme that renders better on the small screen, while still syncing everything else.

I’ve been using Obsidian Sync for half a day, but so far, I’ve been impressed by it. Of course, as time goes on, I’ll have more to report. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to some of the features that are coming to Mobile soon, especially Live Preview, which has grown on me the more I’ve used it.

Written on January 20, 2022.