2022/10/19/do-you-use-one-or-more-obsidian-vaults/

[utterances-bot]

Do You Use One Or Multiple Obsidian Vaults? · Preslav Rachev

I am a software engineer with a decade-long experience developing software using Java, Go, and Elixir.

https://preslav.me/2022/10/19/do-you-use-one-or-more-obsidian-vaults/

[christophberger]

Another drawback of using multiple vaults: You need to install your favorite extensions multiple times, and check for updates on each vault separately.

I am using multiple vaults, because my data turned out to be too much for one vault. Obsidian startup time is unbearable with the amount of data I have, and so I had to split my documents into six vaults.

[preslavrachev]

@christophberger Yeah, this is a problem. One possible solution that comes to mind is keeping the .obsidian config folder under separate source control and then starting each new vault by bringing in that folder to it. Of course, it won't help with the vault configurations diverging from then on, but it might provide a reasonable starting set of options and plugins that you use every time.

Feel free to check out my other post where I described how one can switch between multiple .obsidian folders int he same vault (e.g. when wanting to keep different device setups, etc.). It might give you some ideas for further exploration.

[kaladorn]

I had both the concerns about mixing something I'm working on that may be shared with others and personal journaling or planning and as well I was concerned about limits in Obsidian. In most information systems, if you overload file path limits, total file iNodes, or other sorts of things like that, some ugly things happen. That also can happen in databases. The best thing is to usually keep things not related that can be expected to grow and perhaps overwhelm some of the Obsidian software's ability to handle the volume, having multiple vaults could be a good preventative measure.

Two few things I don't know:

What are the limits of the Obsidian vault system? Any limits to file path lengths which I assume would be an issue if you had many degrees of hierarchy in your work? Any limits of file maximums at any given level which would be tied to a directory? Are there any limits to the search and other features that would need to scan and operate on the entirety of the vault's content?

I wonder if this sort of 'limits of scope' exist in the documentation for Obsidian...

I am very happy with Obsidian for my purposes. It, like the text editor Q10, Notepad++, and a few other tools, they enable my ability to think and create and organize in a way that no other tool manages. I had a couple of tools that I was fond of (one got deprecated, the other became a pay item which is fair I guess).

When you get comfortable with a method of working, you get things done. If things change greatly (MS mucked up where admin functions every time they'd release a new version, there were shifts away from keyboards and mice to jabbing fingers at greasy glass with limited precision.....) and all that does is forcing the user to spend time to relearn what they'd already spent time to learn. I'm hoping that Obsidian does not make those sorts of changes often.

I appreciate the need to support some other users, but I think they must have care for those of us who want to do work rather than relearning the steps needed to begin the work...