OneDrive Sync

Obsidian OneDrive Sync

Sync your Obsidian vault with OneDrive Personal accounts. Zero-config, mobile-friendly, battery-efficient.

📖 How It Works · Troubleshooting · Development

[!TIP] 🦞 OpenClaw Users - This pairs well with the 🦞🐚📝 Carapace Obsidian toolset when integrating these vaults with OpenClaw, so synced vault content can plug directly into your broader tool-driven workflow.

[!IMPORTANT] While I do work for Microsoft and on the OneDrive team, this plugin is in no way an official Microsoft plugin. Just a thing I needed and wanted to share. If you like it, give me a ⭐. As a friend of mine says, "I'm only in it for the subs and likes.".

✨ Features

• Zero-Configuration — No Azure AD app registration. Just click connect and authenticate.
• Mobile-First — Device Code Flow works on iOS and Android with no redirects.
• Event-Driven Sync — Syncs on file changes, not polling. Great for battery life.
• Bidirectional — Automatic two-way sync with configurable conflict resolution.
• Two Access Modes — App Folder (secure, isolated) or Full Access (shareable, flexible location).

Why this over native OneDrive file sync?

• Skips device-specific clutter — workspace UI state files (.obsidian/workspace*.json) are intentionally excluded.
• Faster content sync behavior — sync is event-driven on vault file changes instead of waiting for generic file-system polling cycles.
• Built-in merge/conflict handling — choose overwrite, duplicate, or manual resolution instead of relying on last-writer-wins file sync behavior.

🚀 Installation

Community Plugin Store (Recommended)

1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
2. Search for "OneDrive Sync"
3. Click Install, then Enable

[!NOTE] Upgrading from 1.0.x? Version 1.1.0 uses a new Azure app registration. After updating, you'll need to disconnect and reconnect to OneDrive in the plugin settings. Your files in OneDrive are not affected — the plugin will re-sync on first connection.

To clean up the old app authorization, visit account.live.com/consent/Manage, find the old entry (it may appear as "Obsidian OneDrive Sync by Jeff Steinbok"), and click Remove. You can also delete the old /Apps/Obsidian OneDrive Sync by Jeff Steinbok folder from your OneDrive if present.

Via BRAT (Beta Testing)

1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins
2. BRAT settings → Add Beta Plugin → JeffSteinbok/obsidian-onedrive

Manual

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Place them in .obsidian/plugins/onedrive-sync/
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

🔧 Setup

1. Settings → OneDrive Sync → Connect to OneDrive
2. Enter the displayed code at microsoft.com/devicelogin
3. Sign in and grant permissions
4. Done — your vault syncs automatically!

Configuration

Commands

Available via the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P):

• Sync now — trigger a manual sync immediately
• Connect to OneDrive / Disconnect from OneDrive — manage authentication
• Force full sync (re-download everything) — clear sync state and re-pull all files from cloud
• Reconcile from cloud (cloud-as-truth recovery) — destructive recovery; see Reset vs. Reconcile below
• Show sync conflicts — open the conflict resolution view
• View sync logs — open the current day's log note (mobile-friendly diagnostics)

Reset vs. Reconcile — which one?

Reset sync token is upload-biased: local always wins, so any local-only file gets pushed to cloud on the next sync. Reconcile from cloud is the opposite: cloud always wins, local-only files get deleted (with a confirmation prompt for large deletes). Empty folders left behind by reconcile are pruned automatically — except folders that also exist in OneDrive.

Files always excluded from sync

The plugin hardcodes these exclusions for safety:

• .obsidian/plugins/onedrive-sync/ — prevents auth token leakage and self-downgrade
• .obsidian/workspace*.json — per-device UI state (Obsidian Sync excludes these too)
• _OneDriveSyncLogs/ — device-local debug logs

Optional: .syncIgnore

Create a .syncIgnore file at your vault root to skip extra files/folders from sync (similar to .gitignore).

• One pattern per line
• # starts a comment
• ! negation patterns are not supported
• Folder pattern example: private/
• Wildcard example: *.tmp

🔒 Access Modes

To switch modes: Settings → OneDrive Sync → Access Mode, then disconnect and reconnect.

👥 Sharing Your Vault (Full Access Mode)

1. Enable Full Access mode and set your sync folder path (e.g., /Documents/MyVault)
2. In OneDrive web/app, share that folder with others ("Can edit")
3. They don't need the plugin! They just use OneDrive's native sync:
   • Desktop: Accept the share → OneDrive syncs locally → open folder as vault in Obsidian
   • Mobile: Accept the share → "Make available offline" in OneDrive app → open as vault

Tip: Use "Create duplicate" conflict resolution to avoid overwriting each other's changes.

📱 Mobile Support

This plugin is designed with mobile as a primary target:

• Device Code Flow — no custom URL schemes or redirects needed
• Event-Driven Sync — only syncs when files change (battery-efficient)
• iOS: Use Safari to complete authentication
• Android: Use Chrome or your default browser

Custom Client ID

By default the plugin uses a shared Azure AD app registration. For privacy or rate-limit reasons you can bring your own:

1. Go to Azure Portal → Microsoft Entra ID → App registrations
2. Click New registration
3. Name: Obsidian OneDrive Sync (or anything you like)
4. Supported account types: Personal Microsoft accounts only
5. Redirect URI: Leave blank (not needed for device code flow)
6. After registration, copy the Application (client) ID
7. Under Authentication → enable Allow public client flows

Then paste the client ID into Settings → OneDrive Sync → Advanced → Custom client ID.