Sync issue with multiple devices

[almogtzabari]

Hi,
I realized that changing notes direction from multiple devices does not work well with sync.
According to the Obsidian sync discord channel, the plugin is detecting/updating changes only when Obsidian restarts, and it might not be enough to always receive the latest version of each file.

Here's what I experienced:

1. Create a new note on my PC Note A.md.
2. Change Note A to RTL. This will add an entry "Note A.md": "rtl" to .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-rtl/data.json.
3. On my phone, create a note Note B.md.
4. Change Note B.md to RTL. This SHOULD add an entry "Note B.md": "rtl" to data.json AFTER the line "Note A.md": "rtl", but what happens is that the line "Note A.md": "rtl" disappears, and the line "Note B.md": "rtl" is added.

[esm7]

Seems like there's an inherent issue of Obsidian Sync changing plugin settings files, without the plugins having any clue that the settings need to be reloaded. So when you change the direction of a file, the plugin writes its in-memory settings to disk together with the change, which might overwrite a change that was done elsewhere.
One thing that can easily be done is to reload the settings before modifying and saving them, and I'll add this to the next release of the plugin.
It will solve the problem of one instance rewriting the changes of another, but not the problem of the changes not being updated. Do you think this justifies reloading the settings every time a note is opened?

[almogtzabari]

I think the most important issue is the data lost. If I change direction for many notes, and then another devices simply wipes it entirely because of a change it made, then it's a bummer...

One thing that can easily be done is to reload the settings before modifying and saving them

So, if I understand you, this problem will be fixed with what you suggest, right?

... but not the problem of the changes not being updated.

By that you mean that we will have to reload Obsidian to see changes made by another device? If yes, I think it's reasonable.

Do you think this justifies reloading the settings every time a note is opened?

I am not a JavaScript/TypeScript developer, and I have no experience with developing plugins for Obsidian, so I'm not sure what is the overhead of that. Ideally, it would be nice to see the changes "instantly" (on note open), but on the other hand, it sounds like it's going to add a lot of overhead. What do you think? (Returning the question to you 😂)