Hey everyone! I just started using Obsidian a few weeks ago and I’m trying to figure out the best way to access my notes on both my laptop and phone. The official Obsidian Sync service costs around $4 per month which seems a bit steep for me right now as a student. I’ve been thinking about using Google Drive instead since I already have it set up on all my devices. Has anyone tried this approach? Does it work well or are there issues I should know about? I’m mainly concerned about my notes getting corrupted or having sync conflicts when I edit files on different devices. Any advice would be really helpful!
i’ve been using gdrive for my obsidian notes too! as long as u avoid editing on multiple devices at the same time, it works pretty smooth. just give it a moment to sync when switching, otherwise you might run into some conflicts.
Been doing this exact setup for over a year now and honestly it’s worked out better than I expected. The key thing nobody mentions is setting up your Google Drive folder structure properly from the start. I keep my entire vault in a dedicated folder and make sure both devices are set to sync that folder offline. The trick I learned after some trial and error is to always check the Google Drive sync status before opening Obsidian, especially on mobile where the sync can be slower. Had maybe three minor conflicts in all this time, and those were easily resolved by checking the file timestamps. One downside is that large image attachments can slow things down, but for text-heavy notes it’s been rock solid. Definitely beats paying monthly fees when you’re already tight on budget.
Google Drive works fine for basic syncing but there are some limitations you should be aware of. The main issue is that Google Drive doesn’t handle real-time sync as smoothly as dedicated solutions, so you’ll occasionally see delays especially with larger vaults. I’ve noticed that plugins can sometimes cause problems when the vault syncs mid-operation. Also worth mentioning that the mobile experience isn’t quite as seamless since you need to ensure files are downloaded locally on your phone. That said, I used this setup for about eight months before switching to paid sync and it served me well enough. Just make sure to close Obsidian completely before switching devices and wait for the sync indicator to finish.