How do I back up my Obsidian vault?

The simplest backup is copying your vault folder to an external drive or uploading it to cloud storage. For versioned backups with history, use Git with a private GitHub or GitLab repository.

Where is my Obsidian vault stored?

In the folder you chose when you created the vault. In Obsidian, go to Settings → About and look next to your vault name for the full path.

Does Obsidian back up automatically?

Not by default. Obsidian Sync keeps 12 months of version history if you subscribe. Otherwise, use macOS Time Machine, Windows Backup, or the community plugin Obsidian Git for automated backups.

How to Backup Obsidian Vault – Complete Guide 2026

Where Is My Vault?

Before backing up, confirm your vault location. In Obsidian: Settings (gear icon) → About — look for the path next to your vault name.

🪟 Windows

C:\Users\You\Documents\MyVault

or wherever you chose during setup

🍎 macOS

~/Documents/MyVault

or iCloud Drive/Obsidian/MyVault

🐧 Linux

~/Documents/MyVault

or any folder you specified

4 Backup Strategies

Manual Copy

Free · 2 min

The quickest backup: copy your vault folder to a second location. No tools required.

→External drive: Copy vault to USB or external hard drive. Recommended frequency: weekly.

→Cloud folder: Copy or move vault into Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive — it uploads automatically.

→Zip archive: Right-click the vault folder → Compress (Mac) or Send to ZIP (Windows) → name it with today's date.

⚠️ Manual backups only protect up to the last time you did one — remember to do them regularly.

Cloud Sync as a Backup (iCloud / Dropbox / Drive)

Free · Automatic

Storing your vault inside a cloud sync folder (iCloud Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive) gives you a continuously updated off-device copy — effectively a rolling real-time backup.

→Dropbox keeps deleted file history for 30 days (free) or 180 days (Plus). You can restore any accidental deletion.

→iCloud keeps recently deleted files for 30 days in the iCloud.com trash.

→Google Drive keeps deleted files in Trash for 30 days before permanent deletion.

See the full setup guide: Obsidian Cloud Sync Setup →

Git + GitHub / GitLab (Versioned Backup)

Free · Full history

Git gives you a complete edit history of every note — you can restore any file to any point in time. Private repositories on GitHub and GitLab are free.

→Set up Git: Open a terminal in your vault folder and run git init && git remote add origin YOUR_REPO_URL

→Automate with Obsidian Git plugin: Install the community plugin Obsidian Git → set auto-commit interval (e.g. every 10 minutes) → it commits and pushes to GitHub automatically in the background.

→Add a .gitignore: Exclude .obsidian/workspace.json and .obsidian/workspace-mobile.json to avoid noisy commits.

💡 Git is the gold standard for Obsidian backup. Every note edit becomes a commit — you can roll back any accidental deletion or bad edit instantly with git checkout.

OS Built-in Backup (Time Machine / Windows Backup)

Built-in · Automatic

🍎 macOS Time Machine

Connect an external drive. System Settings → Time Machine → Add Backup Disk → select the drive. Time Machine backs up hourly, keeping hourly snapshots for 24 hours, daily for a month, and weekly for all previous months. Your vault is included automatically.

🪟 Windows Backup

Settings → System → Storage → Advanced storage settings → Backup options → Add a drive. Or use File History to back up your Documents folder (which typically contains your vault) to an external drive every hour.

Recommended Backup Strategy

The 3-2-1 rule applied to Obsidian:

Three copies of your data

1. Live vault on your main device. 2. Cloud sync copy (iCloud/Dropbox). 3. Git repository on GitHub.

On two different media

Your local drive and a remote server are two different media — a fire or hardware failure cannot destroy both simultaneously.

One copy offsite

The cloud copy (iCloud, GitHub) is your offsite backup. Even if your home burns down, your notes survive.

Backup Obsidian Vault