Sync Obsidian with iCloud

Use your existing iCloud space to sync your Obsidian vault across multiple devices.

Sync Obsidian with iCloud
Published on in Obsidian, iCloud, Backup & Productivity.

Being an Obsidian.md Power-User, I always wanted to update my notes from any of my devices and sync them but I didn't have a great use case to host my notes with the paid version of Obsidian Sync. iCloud Drive would be the best option for this, plus it's free! These steps are not the only way to sync with iCloud Drive but I found this order to be easiest.

Requirements #

Setup #

  1. Setup and enable iCloud Drive on all devices you want to sync.[1]

  2. Open the Obsidian iOS or iPadOS app and select "Create new vault".

  3. Type a vault name and check "Store in iCloud" then tap "Create".

iOS Obsidian - Store in iCloud
iOS Obsidian - Store in iCloud

  1. Move to your macOS device and open the Obsidian app.

  2. Open the newly create vault with File > Open Vault...

  3. Browse to iCloud Drive > Obsidian > vault name and click "Open".

  4. Create a new note for testing with File > New Note.

macOS Obsidian - Hello World
macOS Obsidian - Hello World
  1. Return to your Obsidian app on iOS and see if your file synced.
iOS Obsidian - Hello World
iOS Obsidian - Hello World

Success!

*Existing Obsidian Users: Copy all your previous vault files and directory structure to iCloud Drive Obsidian folder

*Note: You can also download iCloud Drive for Windows and keep your Obsidian vault in sync on a Windows device.

Personally, I have gotten one vault synced across all of these devices, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Windows!

  1. "Set up iCloud Drive". Retrieved November 3, 2022. ↩︎