others- how to synchronize your obsidian across your android mobile phone and PC desktop?

1. Problem

I have been used obsidian for a while, and I found that it’s very difficult to synchronize my desktop obsidian with my phone(An android phone). It’s seems that obsidian is not designed to be synchronized across devices.

But I need it. What I need is as follows:

• I can edit a note in obsidian on PC and view it on my phone
• I can take photo or write some short text on my phone’s obsidian and I can view it later on my PC’s obsidian

2. Ways I have tried

After reading the official document ,which shows various synchronization methods we can use to sync data between obsidians on PC or mobile phone:

1. First-party syncing: Obsidian Sync
2. Third-party cloud syncing: iCloud, OneDrive, and Google Drive
3. Local sync: Syncthing
4. Version control: Git and Working Copy

The 1st method: Obsidian Sync

The first is not free.

The 2nd method: Cloud syncing

And I did have tried the second method, I chose the Google drive method, because I already has a google account. Here is the diagram shows my Google Drive synchronization between android phone and my PC:

The pros of this method are:

• It reuses my Google account and Google Drive app, no need to register a new account or setup a server for this synchronization
• It’s reliable because of Google, we trust it.

The cons of this method are:

• It’s a one-way synchronization, not two-way , e.g. You can only edit or insert post on PC, and view on mobile phone, you can not edit it on mobile phone.
• The sync unit is file level, not row level like git, so , we can only overwrite others or be overwritten by others.

The 3rd method: Syncthing

I have not tried this method.

The 4th method: Git

Because I have a vps server , on which I have installed a git server , I want to reuse it for this obsidian sync scenario.

3. My plan

I found an article on how to sync notes using Git, here is the link: Another Way To Sync Obsidian vaults to Android using Git, but I found some problems when trying this method, here is my plan:

And :

4. My Steps

1) Setup a private Git server

I am using gitolite as my own private Git server, I deployed it on my own private VPS , so the data is secure.

You can follow the installation guide in its official repo on github.com.

2) Push obsidian to Git server

Create a vault on PC, and then set it as a git repo, then push it to my own Git server.

3) Pull obsidian on mobile phone

a. Install termux

Because I am using an android phone, so I install the termux app on my phone, which can be used as a terminal ssh tool to do git commands.

The termux can be found here

b. Configure git to connect server

Then I use the following command to create a git phone key , which can be used as identity for my android phone:

ssh-keygen -f obsidian-phone-key -t rsa

Then push this obsidian-phone-key private key to my phone:

adb push "./obsidian-phone-key" /sdcard/Download/

Then I move this file to my ssh directory:

mv obsidian-phone-key ~/.ssh
chmod 400 ~/.ssh/obsidian-phone-key

Now I have got the private git ssh key, I need to configure git ssh login credentials:

touch ~/.ssh/config

I created a git config file in ~/.ssh, in the file , I filled with the following content(If you copy this, please replace the content of <my-server-ip>, <my-server-git-port>, and <my-server-git-user>):

Host *
     HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
     PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes +ssh-rsa
Host myservergit
     HostName <my-server-ip>
     Port <my-server-git-port>
     User <my-server-git-user>
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/obsidian-phone-key
     HostKeyAlgorithms = +ssh-rsa
     PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms = +ssh-rsa

The explanation of the above file:

1. Host *
   • This line specifies that the following configurations apply to all hosts.
2. HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
   • This line adds ssh-rsa to the list of accepted host key algorithms for all hosts.
3. PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes +ssh-rsa
   • This line adds ssh-rsa to the list of accepted public key types for all hosts.
4. Host myservergit
   • This line specifies that the following configurations apply specifically to the host named myservergit.
5. HostName <my-server-ip>
   • This line sets the hostname or IP address of myservergit to <my-server-ip>.
6. Port <my-server-git-port>
   • This line sets the port number for myservergit to <my-server-git-port>.
7. User <my-server-git-user>
   • This line sets the username for myservergit to <my-server-git-user>.
8. IdentityFile ~/.ssh/obsidian-phone-key
   • This line specifies the private key file to use for authentication with myservergit.
9. HostKeyAlgorithms = +ssh-rsa
   • This line sets the host key algorithms for myservergit to include ssh-rsa.
10. PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms = +ssh-rsa
    • This line sets the accepted public key algorithms for myservergit to include ssh-rsa.

Then I test the git clone and git pull command in the termux app:

git clone <my-server-git-user>@myservergit:/<my-obsidian-notes>.git

Attention:

• You should replace the <my-server-git-user> and <my-obsidian-notes> with your real username and notes name.
• The myservergit must be the same as the git config file defined above

Then I test to pull and push:

$ git pull
Already up to date

$ git push
Everything up-to-date

Everything works!

4) Push obsidian from mobile phone to PC

Now I create a new note in my phone’s obsidian:

001-PhoneNotes

I will insert any new idea or photo in this file , and I will:

• not edit it on my PC, only read this file on PC
• only edit it on my Phone, only write it on my Phone

The above two rules will keep this file clean and un-conflict between my devices.