Q&A: Should I Start a New Obsidian Vault For This Project? What are the Downsides?

Essential things to consider before working with more than one vault

Photo by Mauricio Gutiérrez on Unsplash. Additional elements by Author

I’ve been a single-vaulter during my time in Obsidian, but I’m thinking about my next book, and I’m tempted to start a new vault for it, but I’m sure there must be downsides! What’s your approach? 

When June Thomas asked me this question recently, a number of thoughts ran through my mind, which I’m going to expand on now in more detail than the brief answer I gave at the time. Check the Obsidian forum or help files if any of this is unfamiliar.

I told June that my approach is to keep almost everything in one vault. Even new projects, because I haven’t yet found a strong enough reason for separating them. I have three Obsidian vaults: the main one where pretty much everything goes, a second experimental vault, and a third for business SOPs.

The first question you need to ask yourself when considering opening a new vault is— 

Why?

Write down what’s got you considering a separation from your current vault, and the benefits you imagine a new one will bring. 

Here are some points to consider:

Will your new work benefit from direct links to files in your main vault?

Adding links to files in different vaults is possible, but it’s a lot more convenient to do within a single vault. If your new project will benefit from linking to information in your regular vault, it’s best to stay put.

Do you feel the need for a mental or emotional separation from your existing work? 

This alone can be a good enough reason to create a new vault, and change the theme so it has a different feel to your regular work.

Are there any settings in your regular vault that you’d miss in a new one?

 Recreate them, or go into the .obsidian settings of your old vault and copy them across. You can reveal this hidden folder on a Mac by pressing ⌘⇧. (Command + Shift + period).

Still don’t know whether or not to create a new vault?

Remember, the cool thing with Obsidian is that you can very easily unify or separate your new project with / from your main vault at any time, by dragging your files to their new location from the Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows). 

It’s best to make sure Obsidian is closed when you make this kind of change. Also, be sure to only drag individual files to their new location, rather than the entire folder of a vault, to avoid bringing along the invisible settings folders that are part of each new vault. Nesting one vault inside another is its own can of worms, and not something to enter into lightly. 

Rule of thumb: keep only one vault, until you need another

The main downside of separating a new project from your main vault is that it won’t be possible to make auto-complete wiki links between the two.

 So my final answer to the question of whether someone should or shouldn’t start a new vault is, try it and see! You can always recombine your work later on if you change your mind.