Seamlessly Switch Between Multiple Vaults in Obsidian: The Pro Way

#obsidian

If you use multiple vaults in Obsidian, switching between them back and forth is frustrating. It’s annoying. You click the “Open Another Vault” button and select the other vault you want to open. 

Every time you have to do the same thing. It’s tiring. 

There’s no easy way to bounce back and forth between your different vaults. 

This article will discuss a few workarounds that will help you solve the limitations. 

Note: This article focuses more on desktop workflow.

Use the Hotkey Feature to Switch Between Vaults

Obsidian offers a hotkey to switch vaults. Go to settings> Hotkeys. Search for Vault. You see two options:

  • Open another vault

  • Open sandbox vault

The hotkey to open another vault will open the vault switcher, where you again have to select the vault that you want to open. 

On the other hand, the sandbox vault template will directly open the obsidian help vault. 

For this to work, you will have to assign a hotkey in each of the vaults that you use. 

This is not the ultimate solution we want. Here’s a better one. 

Use Multiple Windows to Navigate Multiple Vaults.

To switch back and forth between vaults more easily, you can open each of your vaults in new windows. 

This way you can easily cycle in between different vaults.

For example: Here’ I’ve three vaults open. And I’m on Windows. I can switch between these three vaults by using the key ALT+ TAB. 

Easy Peezy, right?

Use Obsidian’s URL scheme

This is another best way to switch back and forth between different vaults. Obsidian URL scheme allows you to do different things such as:

  • Open a vault: obsidian://open-vault?vault=some-vault-name

  • Open specific note: obsidian://open-note?vault=some-vault-name&filename=some-note-title

  • Create new note: obsidian://open-note?vault=some-vault-name&filename=some-note-title

  • Append to a note: obsidian://append?vault=some-vault-name&filename=some-note-title

We want to open different vaults and switch between them easily. 

I’m on Windows OS. So, something might differ if you are on macOS or Linux. Here’s what we’ll do:

Create a new shortcut on your desktop 

Right-click anywhere on the desktop> New> Shortcut.

Add the Obsidian URL scheme

It’ll open the window to add the location of the item. Here you can simply add the Obsidian URL.

Here’s how the URL format will be: obsidian://open-vault?vault=some-vault-name

You can also get it another way. 

Go to your vault. Open a note. Click on the three dots for more options. In the end, you’ll find the option to ‘Copy Obsidian URL’.

This will copy the Obsidian URL for the note. Erase everything after your vault’s name. 

Adding an Obsidian URL only will cause one problem. You can’t pin that shortcut to the taskbar. So here’s what we need to do.

  • Locate the installation path of the Obsidian app. 

  • Copy the path

  • Add the app path. Then add the Obsidian URL Scheme with a space. 

Here’s what the location looks like for me:

C:\Users\Praka\AppData\Local\Obsidian\Obsidian.exe obsidian://open?vault=Second-Brain

Once you have done that, click on next to create a shortcut. 

You can follow a similar method for creating shortcuts for all of your vaults. They all will have similar icons. You can change that by downloading ‘ico’ format icons. 

Go to the browser and search for distinctive icons. If you can’t find ico formats, you can convert them using online converters as well. 

OR

You can also use Obsidian’s own icon creator to generate personalized icons.

Once you have done all of this, drag the icons to the taskbar. And you’re set. 

You can access all of your vaults from the taskbar. Without ever touching the vault switcher again. 

References:

Thank you for reading. You’ll love more tips like this from Obsidian Ninja.