Why Pay for Sync When You Can Build It Yourself
Obsidian is a genuinely excellent note-taking app, and the team behind it deserves credit for building something powerful and local-first. But the official Obsidian Sync plan costs $10 per month, and for a tool that stores plain Markdown files on your own device, that price raises a fair question: why would you pay a subscription to move text files between computers? You do not have to.
The app’s local-first design is actually the loophole here. Because your vault is just a folder of plain files, any tool that can sync a folder across devices can sync your Obsidian vault. That includes free-tier cloud services, self-hosted solutions, and version-controlled repositories. Each approach has trade-offs in complexity, privacy, and reliability – but all of them cost less than $120 a year.
This guide covers three working methods: iCloud Drive (Apple devices), Git with GitHub (cross-platform, technical users), and Syncthing (self-hosted, no cloud required).
Method 1: iCloud Drive for Apple Users
If you live entirely inside the Apple ecosystem – iPhone, iPad, and Mac – iCloud Drive is the path of least resistance. Apple gives every account 5GB free, and most Obsidian vaults stay well under 1GB unless you are storing large attachments. The setup takes about two minutes and requires no third-party tools.
On your Mac, open Obsidian and go to the vault switcher screen. Click “Open folder as vault” and navigate to a folder inside your iCloud Drive directory – typically found at ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/. Create a new folder there called something like “ObsidianVault” and point Obsidian to it. MacOS will handle the upload automatically. On your iPhone or iPad, install Obsidian from the App Store, tap “Open vault from iCloud Drive,” and select that same folder. From that point, changes on any Apple device sync through iCloud with no manual steps required.
One caveat worth knowing upfront: iCloud sync can lag by several seconds to a few minutes depending on your connection and how recently a file was edited. If you open the same note on two devices in quick succession without letting iCloud finish uploading, you risk a conflict. The habit to build is simple – always wait a moment after finishing edits before switching devices. Obsidian will also occasionally display a spinning sync indicator in the status bar on iOS while files upload, which is normal behavior and not a sign of an error.
Method 2: Git and GitHub for Cross-Platform Sync
Git is not the most obvious sync tool, but it works across every platform – Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS – and it gives you a complete version history of every note you have ever written. If a note gets accidentally deleted or corrupted, you can roll it back. GitHub’s free tier supports unlimited private repositories, so storage is not a concern for text files.
Start by installing Git on your desktop machines if it is not already present, then create a private GitHub repository and initialize your vault folder as a Git repo. On desktop, the community plugin Obsidian Git handles everything from inside the app. Install it through Obsidian’s community plugins menu, then configure an auto-commit interval in the plugin settings – 10 minutes is a reasonable default. The plugin commits your changes and pushes to GitHub on that schedule, and pulls from GitHub when you open the vault. On Android, Obsidian Git also works directly. On iOS, the setup is more involved: you will need the app Working Copy as a Git client, with an iOS Shortcut configured to pull and push on a schedule, since background processes on iOS are restricted.
The real advantage of Git over every other method is the audit trail. You can open your repository on GitHub and browse the full history of every note, see exactly what changed in each commit, and restore any previous version. For research notes, journals, or anything you might want to reference years from now, that kind of durability is worth the setup friction. The main downside is that Git handles binary files and large attachments poorly – if your vault is full of PDFs or images, commit sizes balloon quickly and you may hit GitHub’s file size limits. A .gitignore file that excludes your attachments folder solves this, but it means attachments do not sync through Git.
Method 3: Syncthing for Full Self-Hosted Control
Syncthing is a free, open-source sync tool that transfers files directly between your devices over your local network or the internet, with no third-party server involved. Nothing goes to any company’s cloud. If privacy is your primary concern, or if you want sync that keeps working regardless of whether GitHub or iCloud are having an outage, Syncthing is the most independent option available. If you are already running a self-hosted setup – perhaps a Nextcloud instance or a home server – Syncthing slots naturally into that environment.
Install Syncthing on each device you want to sync. On desktop, it runs as a background service with a web UI accessible at localhost:8384. On Android, the official Syncthing app is available on F-Droid and handles setup cleanly. On iOS, Syncthing’s situation is more complicated because Apple restricts background network activity – the app Möbius Sync provides a workaround, though it requires the app to be open occasionally to complete transfers. Once installed, you pair devices by exchanging Device IDs through the web UI, then share your vault folder between them. Syncthing will negotiate the transfer directly, using local discovery when you are on the same network and a relay server when you are not.
Conflict handling in Syncthing is different from cloud services. When two devices edit the same file before syncing, Syncthing creates a conflict copy rather than silently overwriting one version. The conflict file appears in your vault folder with a modified filename, and you resolve it manually by comparing the two versions. This is more work than iCloud’s approach, but you never lose data. For single-user setups where you are disciplined about closing notes before switching devices, conflicts are rare in practice.
Picking the Right Method and Moving Forward
The honest recommendation depends entirely on your situation. Apple-only users should use iCloud and not overthink it. Cross-platform users who are comfortable with a terminal and want version history should use Git. Anyone who wants zero reliance on external services should use Syncthing. All three approaches have been running reliably for Obsidian users for years, and none of them require a credit card – the $10 monthly fee exists for users who want first-party support and the simplicity of a single official solution, not because syncing your own files actually costs that much.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Google Drive or Dropbox to sync Obsidian for free?
Yes, both work similarly to iCloud Drive. Point your vault to a folder inside your Google Drive or Dropbox directory and the service handles syncing automatically. Watch for sync conflicts if you edit notes on multiple devices simultaneously.
Is syncing Obsidian with Git safe for private notes?
Yes, as long as you create a private GitHub repository. Private repos are not publicly visible. For maximum privacy, use Syncthing instead, which keeps files entirely on your own devices.
