Vault Reorganizer

Vault Reorganizer

Vault Reorganizer is an Obsidian plugin for previewing and applying bulk vault cleanup plans. It is designed for vaults that have grown into hundreds of folders and need to be flattened into a smaller, easier-to-maintain structure.

Recommended structure

For a large vault, a practical target is usually six folders:

• Notes for Markdown notes
• Attachments for images, PDFs, audio, video, Office files, and other embedded assets
• Templates for reusable Markdown templates
• Canvases for Obsidian canvas files
• Bases for Obsidian Bases .base files
• Files for miscellaneous non-note files
• Archive for material you do not want the plugin to move

If you prefer a very flat vault, use the Markdown in root strategy. It moves Markdown notes to the vault root, while attachments and other files still go into their configured folders.

What the plugin does

• Generates a preview before moving anything
• Moves files with Obsidian's file manager so links can be updated by Obsidian
• Resolves filename conflicts by adding a numeric suffix
• Avoids target names that collide with existing folder-note style folders
• Retries Folder already exists rename failures with Obsidian's lower-level vault rename
• Uses a copy/delete fallback for stubborn root moves that both Obsidian rename methods refuse
• Moves Obsidian Bases .base files into a configurable Bases folder
• Lets users rename the destination folders in settings
• Can centralize attachments without moving notes
• Can optionally remove empty folders after files are moved
• Can remove empty folders as a standalone cleanup action after a previous run
• Can optionally remove visible OS metadata files such as Thumbs.db and desktop.ini before checking whether folders are empty
• Always ignores hidden dotfiles and dot-folders such as .obsidian, .trash, .git, .DS_Store, and .localized
• Reports hidden dotfiles and dot-folders that are blocking cleanup in normal visible folders so users can review them manually
• Combines Obsidian's indexed folder tree with direct filesystem scanning when finding empty folders
• Excludes Vault Reorganizer Reports from reorganization so generated reports stay put
• Reports folders that still contain files or subfolders after cleanup
• Leaves non-empty folders in place during cleanup instead of failing the whole run
• Can copy a run report or create a report note in the vault
• Lets you exclude folders such as Archive

Strategies

Six folder vault

Moves files into the configured destinations:

• Markdown notes to Notes
• Attachments to Attachments
• Templates to Templates
• Canvas files to Canvases
• Bases files to Bases
• Other files to Files

Markdown in root

Moves Markdown notes to the vault root. Attachments, templates, canvases, and other files still go to their configured destinations.

Centralize attachments only

Moves attachment file types into Attachments and leaves notes where they are.

How to use

1. Back up or sync your vault before running a bulk move.
2. Install the plugin in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/vault-reorganizer folder.
3. Enable the plugin in Obsidian.
4. Open the command palette and run Vault Reorganizer: Open vault reorganization planner.
5. Pick a strategy and click Generate preview.
6. Review the planned moves.
7. Click Apply previewed moves only when the preview looks right.
8. If anything fails, use Create report note to save the exact file and folder paths that need attention.

To clean up folders after a previous run, open the planner and click Remove empty folders now, or run Vault Reorganizer: Remove empty folders from the command palette.

Install from GitHub

BRAT

If you use the BRAT plugin, add this repository:

MichelleGDyason/vault-reorganizer

Manual release install

Download these files from a GitHub release and place them in .obsidian/plugins/vault-reorganizer:

• main.js
• manifest.json
• styles.css

Installation from this folder

Run:

npm install
npm run build

Then copy these files into .obsidian/plugins/vault-reorganizer in the target vault:

• main.js
• manifest.json
• styles.css

Release process

The GitHub release workflow builds the plugin and attaches the required Obsidian files to a release when a version tag is pushed:

git tag 0.1.7
git push origin 0.1.7

Notes

The plugin intentionally does not infer semantic categories like projects, areas, or topics. Folder names are often inconsistent in old vaults, so the safest first pass is file-type cleanup. After that, use Obsidian links, tags, properties, search, and Dataview-style queries to build organization that does not depend on deep folder nesting.