Where Are Obsidian Vaults Stored?
Where Obsidian vaults live on disk, where the .obsidian settings folder sits, and where the desktop app keeps its own data.
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An Obsidian vault is just a normal folder full of Markdown files. You pick the location when you create it, often somewhere in Documents. There is no central vaults directory enforced by the app, which confuses newcomers hunting in AppData.
Settings are local to each vault in a hidden .obsidian subfolder. That makes backups easy. Copy the vault folder and you keep notes plus plugins, themes and hotkeys together. The desktop app itself keeps a small cache outside the vault with the vault list and window state.
Where Obsidian stores this, by platform
%appdata%\obsidian
This is only app data like window state and vault list. Your notes live wherever you created the vault, commonly Documents. Each vault holds its settings in a .obsidian subfolder.
~/Library/Application Support/obsidian
Same deal as Windows: app cache here, notes elsewhere. Open a vault folder in Finder and enable Show Hidden Files to see its .obsidian settings.
~/.config/obsidian
App data only. Vaults are plain folders you chose at creation time. Back up the vault folder itself, not this config path, to save your notes.
Frequently asked questions
I forgot where I put my Obsidian vault, how do I find it?
Open Obsidian, click the vault name at the bottom left, then Manage vaults. Hover or right click a vault to reveal its path. The .obsidian folder inside confirms you found the right one.
What should I back up to keep everything?
Copy the entire vault folder, including the hidden .obsidian subfolder. That preserves notes, attachments, plugins and settings in one move. The app data folder alone is not enough.
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