CompareFacts checked 2026-09
Using MindMax with an Obsidian vault
This is not a page about switching. An Obsidian vault is a folder of Markdown files, and a folder of Markdown files is exactly what MindMax opens — nothing imported, nothing converted, both apps on the same files. What it adds is the half a vault has always been missing: the PDFs and books your notes are about.
- Obsidian
- Your notes: links, daily notes, a plugin for every habit, on every device. Keep it.
- MindMax
- The documents in the same folder: read whole, annotated, quoted back to the page, and written from.
Keep Obsidian, add MindMax, or both
Stay in Obsidian alone if
- What you want is notes: linking, daily notes, a plugin for every habit.
- You read and capture on your phone.
Add MindMax if
- The PDFs and EPUBs in your vault are dead weight — you have two hundred of them and your notes are about them.
- No amount of plugin configuration makes them readable, quotable or answerable.
Use both if
- You write in whichever is nearer and want the same files either way. That is the normal case, and it is what opening the folder in place is for.
What carries over, and what does not
Facts you can check on your own vault in about ten minutes. Each row says how.
| Topic | In MindMax | How to check for yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Carries over | ||
| Opening the vault | The folder opens directly — no import, no conversion, no second copy. Your folder, opened in place → | Open the vault, then look at the folder in Finder or Explorer: same files, same names. |
| [[Wiki links]] | Resolved against the files in the folder, as before. | Open a note full of links and click one. |
| Backlinks | Computed from the files themselves, not from a stored index. | Add a link in one note, check the target's backlinks. |
| Front matter, folders, file names | Preserved and untouched. | Compare a note's raw text before and after. |
| Daily notes | MindMax keeps today's note at daily-notes/YYYY-MM-DD.md, and quick notes are filed into it. Set Obsidian's daily notes folder to daily-notes and both apps write the same file. AI quick notes → | Jot a quick note in MindMax, then open today's note in Obsidian. |
| PDFs and EPUBs in the vault | Read, annotated, searched and quoted in place. The PDF reader → | Ask a question about a PDF that has been in your attachments folder for a year. |
| Canvas files | Both apps use JSON Canvas. A canvas made in Obsidian opens here, and a MindMax canvas opens in Obsidian — branching and AI follow-up only work in MindMax. | Open an existing .canvas file in MindMax, then open a MindMax canvas in Obsidian. |
| Running both at once | Fine, on the same folder — just not editing the same note simultaneously. | Edit note A in one app and note B in the other. |
| Does not carry over | ||
| Community plugins | Not loaded in this version — they keep working in Obsidian on the same folder. | Open the vault in both apps; your plugins are still there in Obsidian. |
| Obsidian Sync and Publish | Not supported. | — |
| Themes and CSS snippets | Not supported. | — |
Compatibility surface last checked 2026-09 against the shipped release. If a row here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
The half your vault has always been missing
Your notes, and the two hundred PDFs you read to write them, sit in one folder — where a single AI works across both. Tools you would otherwise stitch together each hold one half of that.
- It is an attachment — something a link points at.
- You open it in something else to read it.
- Your notes about it live in one place; the document lives in another.
You end withNotes that are well served, about documents that are not.
- Read whole rather than chunked, and annotated in the margin.
- Searched word for word across the vault, and answerable when you ask.
- Quoted in your notes with a click back to the page.
You end withThe documents become material for the notes, in the same folder, on the same files.
Where Obsidian is genuinely better
- Mobile.
There are Obsidian apps for your phone and tablet. MindMax is macOS and Windows only, so if you read and capture on the move, that gap is permanent and it matters more than anything on this page.
- The plugin ecosystem.
A decade of community extensions, and people who have built their whole practice on four of them. MindMax does not load them in this version — they keep running in Obsidian, on the same folder.
- Sync and Publish.
First-party, paid-for, and they work. MindMax has nothing equivalent — files in a folder, carried by whatever sync service you already use.
- Themes and appearance.
If you have tuned your vault to look a particular way, that tuning does not travel.
Questions people ask
Do I have to stop using Obsidian?
No. Both applications read and write the same Markdown files in the same folder. Keep Obsidian installed and use whichever suits the task — just avoid editing the same note in both at the same moment, the same as with any two editors.
Will my plugins work?
Not inside MindMax. This version does not load Obsidian plugins, and Sync, Publish, themes and CSS snippets are not supported either. Your plugins keep working in Obsidian itself, because both apps read the same folder, so the usual answer is to do plugin-dependent work there.
What happens to my vault if I uninstall MindMax?
It is what it was. MindMax adds a hidden working directory to the folder and otherwise writes only files you asked for, so removing the app takes nothing with it.
Starting without giving anything up
Open the vault. Nothing is imported, nothing is rewritten, and Obsidian can stay exactly where it is. If MindMax does not earn its place in a week, delete it — the folder is what it was, minus one hidden working directory. That is not a generous trial policy; it is a consequence of the file format. There is no database to escape from.
Last verified: 2026-09. Found something inaccurate? Tell us — we would rather fix it than leave it.
Obsidian is a trademark of Dynalist Inc., used here for identification only. MindMax is not affiliated with Obsidian.