Automating Your #Obsidian Backup, Let Me Save You Some Hassle
The current sale underway at Bundlehunt offers over 40 Mac apps for under $5.00 apiece. There are some definite bargains but two I want to point out are Alarm Clock Pro and Lingon X. Both of these utilities offer a feature that comes in handy when setting up an automated backup solution for Obsidian. They can both launch applications according to a set schedule. If you are a Keyboard Maestro user, that can do it too, with the added benefit of also being able to close applications for you.
Sync Folders Pro
Keyboard Maestro launches an $8.99 app I got from from the Mac App Store to run an automated backup of my Obsidian vault every morning at 2:00AM. Sync Folders Pro It perfroms a one-way sync to a folder on my Google Drive, which in turn backs up the files to the cloud, giving me an offsite back up in case of theft or natural disaster. I’m planning to start using Dropbox instead of Google Drive because it offers file versioning. If you are a PC user, you can get Free File Sync which doesn’t offer a scheduler but is easy to set up and you just have to remember to run it manually on a regular schedule.
Obsidian Git
I also use the Obsidian Git community plugin. If you are a Mac user, save your self some hassle and install Git and Git Credential Manager via the terminal and Homebrew before setting up your backup. Failing to do so may result in annoying permissions errors when attempting to back up.
Install homebrew if you don’t already have it and then run the following command from terminal:
$ brew install git
To install Credential Manager use:
>```
brew install --cask git-credential-manager
Then use Github Desktop for Mac to create a private Git repository based on your Obsidian vault. You’ll need a free Git account to do this. Once you’ve got your repository set up and your initial upload done,install the plugin and you’ll have an automated real time back up of your files - with versioning. Danny Hatcher has a video to help you understand the procedure.
Time Machine
Of course, it’s a best practice to back uo your entire Mac regularly. Thankfully the bulit-in Mac backup utility, Time Machine makes it as easy as plugging in an external hard drive. I use a Sandisk 1TB portable SSD to back up my Macbook every night. See this Apple document for detailed instructions on Time Machine.