Obsidian 1.15.1 Desktop (Early access)

Search

• Added Relevance sort option that sorts notes based on the best match for your query.
• Search and search filters in other views (e.g. Backlinks, Outline and Bookmarks) now ignore accents, so cafe finds café.
• Search and suggestions now treat ø, ł, đ, ð, ħ and ı as o, l, d, d, h and i, and ß, æ, œ and þ as ss, ae, oe and th, which helps with German, French, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Croatian, Serbian, Vietnamese, Icelandic, Faroese, Maltese, Turkish and Azerbaijani. For example, lodz finds Łódź and strasse finds Straße.
• Results now appear much faster when a search matches thousands of notes.
• Results now update faster as you keep typing a word or add words to a search.
• The search term explanation no longer flickers and shifts the results while you type.
• Fixed Show more context showing a whole long table, code block, or list at once instead of the part around the match.

Improvements

Performance

• The workspace now appears right away while Obsidian starts, with start-up progress in the status bar instead of a loading screen.
• Notes now render faster in Reading mode, and the vault is indexed faster, especially with long notes.
• Files: Loads faster in vaults with thousands of notes, and when expanding large folders.
• Canvas: Large canvases now open, pan, and zoom much faster when content is visible.
• The first launch after re-indexing a vault is no longer slower than usual.

Editor

• Live Preview: Opening a note no longer shows the Markdown syntax at the cursor (e.g. the ## of a heading on the first line) until you move the cursor or start typing.
• Smart lists prevents over-indenting list items more than one level deeper than the item above it.
• Smart lists no longer moves nested list items when indenting or moving lines where text is selected.

Other

• New vaults no longer show the ribbon. It can be turned on in Settings → Interface → Show ribbon.
• Settings → Files and links → Allow URI callbacks is now set once on each device for all vaults instead of syncing with the vault. If you use callbacks, turn it on again on each device.
• Opening a file of an unrecognized type in another app from a link in a note now requires confirmation, since some file types can run code on your computer.
• Settings → Web viewer → Homepage and Search engine are now set separately on each device instead of syncing with the vault.
• Sync: Vaults shared with you no longer sync main settings, appearance, themes, snippets, or hotkeys by default when you first connect.
• Holding Ctrl/Cmd while picking a vault from the vault profile menu in the sidebar now replaces the current window instead of opening a new one.
• Deleting a file now shows an error when it can’t be moved to the system trash, instead of moving it to the vault’s .trash folder (except from the CLI’s delete command).
• Community plugins: Installing a plugin no longer picks up settings that came with the vault before it was installed. They’re kept as data.json.bak instead.
• Obsidian URI: obsidian://new with a heading but no append or prepend now appends to that heading instead of showing an error.
• On Windows, creating or moving a vault inside Obsidian’s installation folder, or opening a folder there that isn’t in your vault list, now shows an error. Opening a vault that’s already in your list shows a warning, since the installer erases that folder when Obsidian updates.

No longer broken

Canvas

• Curved connections no longer disappear near the edge of the screen.
• Scroll position no longer resets after you zoom out and move away from a card.
• Buttons on a “missing file” card stay responsive after you zoom out and back in.

macOS

• Fixed the main window turning black when you minimize the Settings window while the main window is in full screen.
• Fixed Obsidian staying open in the Dock, or not reopening after “Relaunch”, when a note was still saving or a pop-out window was open.

Links and backlinks

• Fixed a rare case of links and backlinks no longer updating until restart, after a note was deleted just after it changed.
• Fixed a rare case of links and backlinks no longer updating after Settings was closed right after it opened in its own window.
• Fixed a rare case of a note renamed just after it changed being listed twice in backlinks, or sharing its headings and links with a new note at its old name, until restart.
• Fixed a rare case of a note in Reading view no longer updating after a pop-out window, such as Settings in its own window, was closed.

Other

• Vault: Fixed a vault failing to load when it contains a folder Obsidian can’t read.
• Settings: Fixed plugins turned on or off and Sync settings changed right before quitting sometimes going back to how they were the next time Obsidian opened.
• Community plugins: Fixed Settings → Community plugins showing nothing when a plugin’s manifest.json has no name. Such plugins are now skipped.
• Files: Fixed long folders snapping open or closed instead of animating.
• Tabs: Fixed empty tabs showing the old buttons after a core plugin is turned on or off.
• Editor: Fixed “Inline math” in the Format menu not showing a check mark when the cursor is inside inline math.
• Diagrams: Fixed obsidian:// links in Mermaid diagrams not opening the URI.
• Graph view: Fixed a tag: filter with Tags turned on still showing the other tags of matching notes.
• Tags: Fixed a tag: search (e.g. tag:#foo) hiding every tag.
• Vault switcher: Fixed it staying in the old language after you pick a new one.
• CLI: Fixed commands that take a moment to finish printing nothing when run from a script or another program.
• Sync: Fixed folders at the top of the vault with certain names (e.g. constructor) never syncing to other devices.
• Publish: Fixed Publish changes, Publish’s navigation settings and “Bookmark” not working with a top-level folder named constructor, toString or valueOf.
• Math: Fixed links in formulas (\href) accepting addresses other than web and file links.

Developers

• setTimeout and setInterval now run on time in minimized and hidden windows. Use window.setTimeout instead of activeWindow.setTimeout, whose timers never fire once their pop-out window closes.
• CLI: eval now supports top-level await (e.g. eval code="await app.vault.adapter.list('/')").
• Array#contains and String#contains are deprecated. Use includes instead.
• FileManager#trashFile and FileManager#promptForDeletion now resolve to false when the file couldn’t be moved to the system trash.