Sync conflicts when file only edited on one device

Support
1

I have been dealing with sync conflicts for a while now. They mostly occur in my Obsidian notes, which are synced to both Windows and Android devices. As you may already know, Obsidian likes to save files continuously while the user is editing.

As a workarounds to reduce sync conflicts, I’ve tried the following:

  • My Obsidian sync directory no longer detects changes, but instead scans at 60 or 120 second intervals.
  • I tried to make my home server the central node in the sync process such that all other devices only sync to the server machine to avoid spiderweb sync paths.

I tried running the debug command on a conflicted file, but how do I know I’m running it on the right node when the file syncs so many places? Also, I’m not so sure what to do with the info below. Finally, the file has been modified since the sync conflict first happened (which is quite common when working with Obsidian because I don’t typically notice immediately when the conflict occurs).

D:\PortableAppsIndy\SyncTrayzorPortable-x64>syncthing cli --home=".\data\syncthing" debug file unhps-... journals\2025_12_25_Th.md
{
  "availability": [
    {
      "fromTemporary": false,
      "id": "KOEMUV4-..."
    }
  ],
  "global": {
    "blocksHash": "Ndt8t5FS5kQVYQwimYDC3VxnbeRWT99NYQhKbXtZDm4=",
    "deleted": false,
    "ignored": false,
    "inodeChange": "1969-12-31T19:00:00-05:00",
    "invalid": false,
    "localFlags": 0,
    "modified": "2025-12-27T11:26:09.090008643-05:00",
    "modifiedBy": "7HFZ7OJ",
    "mustRescan": false,
    "name": "journals\\2025_12_25_Th.md",
    "noPermissions": true,
    "numBlocks": 1,
    "platform": {
      "Darwin": null,
      "FreeBSD": null,
      "Linux": null,
      "NetBSD": null,
      "Unix": null,
      "Windows": null
    },
    "previousBlocksHash": null,
    "sequence": 9759,
    "size": 2544,
    "type": "FILE_INFO_TYPE_FILE",
    "version": [
      "JRRTBVJ:1766852765",
      "KOEMUV4:1766669011",
      "UMDV2QC:1766703997",
      "4VCOU36:1766758009",
      "7HFZ7OJ:1766852874"
    ]
  },
  "local": {
    "blocksHash": "Ndt8t5FS5kQVYQwimYDC3VxnbeRWT99NYQhKbXtZDm4=",
    "deleted": false,
    "ignored": false,
    "inodeChange": "1969-12-31T19:00:00-05:00",
    "invalid": false,
    "localFlags": 0,
    "modified": "2025-12-27T11:26:09.090008643-05:00",
    "modifiedBy": "7HFZ7OJ",
    "mustRescan": false,
    "name": "journals\\2025_12_25_Th.md",
    "noPermissions": true,
    "numBlocks": 1,
    "platform": {
      "Darwin": null,
      "FreeBSD": null,
      "Linux": null,
      "NetBSD": null,
      "Unix": null,
      "Windows": null
    },
    "previousBlocksHash": null,
    "sequence": 9759,
    "size": 2544,
    "type": "FILE_INFO_TYPE_FILE",
    "version": [
      "JRRTBVJ:1766852765",
      "KOEMUV4:1766669011",
      "UMDV2QC:1766703997",
      "4VCOU36:1766758009",
      "7HFZ7OJ:1766852874"
    ]
  }
}
2

Just a quick heads-up, I’ve been seeing some unexpected conflicts pop up recently as well. For files which are synced to multiple systems, but I’m quite certain that I only ever edited them on one system. I’d be interested in some guidance how to investigate further as well. Note that the most systems are still at v1.30 though, only one Android device upgraded to v2.

3

ignore permission if you have android among devices. android always set permission as rwrw–. that may make conflict with normal linux device.

4

That’s what the android wrapper sets by default.