Live folder sync: mirror a local Markdown folder into your notes

If you already keep Markdown on disk - an Obsidian vault, a folder synced by Syncthing or Dropbox, notes dropped in by a script - you should not have to re-import it by hand every time it changes. Folder sync links a local directory to Reborn Notes and keeps your encrypted notes refreshed from it automatically.

One thing to be clear about from the start, because “sync” can mean different things: this is a one-way mirror, from disk into the app. Your disk is the source of truth; Reborn Notes follows it. Edits you make inside the app are not written back out to the files. If you want a two-way arrangement, this is not that - and the rest of this post explains exactly what it is instead.

What it does

You pick a folder of .md files once. From then on, Reborn Notes re-scans it and re-imports any file that is new or has changed since the last scan, recreating the folder’s full nested structure as folders in your notes. Subfolders become subfolders, however deep they go.

Under the hood it is the same import engine as Import folder (see import and export), just automated and kept running. Every imported file is encrypted the instant it lands in your notes, exactly like a manual import.

One-way, and what that means

A mirror has a direction, and being clear about it saves surprises:

The disk wins. If a note differs between the file and the app, the next sync overwrites the app’s copy with the file’s content. Tags you added inside the app are merged in rather than dropped.
In-app edits are not written to disk. You can read and search synced notes in Reborn Notes, but if you edit one there, that change lives only in the app until the file changes again on disk - at which point the file’s version takes over.
Sync never deletes notes. Delete or rename a file on disk and the note you already imported stays put; a renamed file simply imports again under its new name. Nothing you have is quietly removed.
Existence follows the disk. Delete a synced note inside the app while its source file still sits on disk, and the next scan will bring it back. To remove a synced note for good, delete the file or unlink the folder.

This is deliberate. A mirror that silently deleted your notes because a drive was momentarily unmounted would be dangerous; a mirror that quietly pushed half-finished in-app edits back onto your carefully managed Obsidian vault would be worse. One clear direction keeps both sides predictable.

Subfolders, renames, and where notes land

When you link a folder you also choose a destination inside Reborn Notes - and it can be a nested path like Projects/Docs. The on-disk tree is recreated underneath it: folders are matched case-insensitively and reused, so re-runs refresh in place instead of piling up duplicates.

Because the link is tracked by a stable identity rather than a name, you can rename or move the destination folder later - in the tree or in the sync settings - without breaking anything. Hidden directories (anything starting with a dot, like .obsidian/) are skipped, and nesting is followed up to 20 levels deep.

When it syncs

Two ways, and you are in control of both:

Manually. Each linked folder has a Sync now button, and a synced folder in the sidebar offers the same from its menu.
Automatically (opt-in per folder, on by default). With auto-sync on, Reborn Notes re-scans when you open or return to the app, and every 5 minutes while the tab stays open. A no-op scan writes nothing - if nothing changed on disk, nothing is re-encrypted or synced.

There is no operating-system-level file watcher, by design on the web: syncing happens while the app is open and in front of you, not silently in the background. (A real-time watcher is a natural fit for a future desktop build, where the platform allows it.)

Where it runs

Folder sync is live today on the web in Chromium browsers - Chrome and Edge - which is where the browser exposes the File System Access API it needs. In Safari and Firefox the feature is simply hidden, because the underlying capability is not available there. If a browser restart drops the folder permission, a Re-authorize button restores it in one click.

The same feature is built for the upcoming native iOS and Android apps (using each platform’s secure folder-access mechanism) and ships with them when they land in the stores.

How it stays Zero Knowledge

The folder on your disk holds plaintext Markdown - that is the whole point, so tools like Obsidian can read and write the same files. Here is how that squares with a zero-knowledge app:

The plaintext lives on your own device, by your own choice. Zero Knowledge protects your data in transit and on our server; what you keep in a folder on your own machine is yours to manage.
Nothing new reaches the server. Folder sync reads plaintext from disk and encrypts it on the way in. Only ciphertext is ever synced, exactly as with any note.
The folder link is device-local. The handle that lets Reborn Notes read your folder is stored locally in your browser, never uploaded, and wiped when you log out - so it can never leak to another account on the same device.
It is entirely opt-in. Nothing is mirrored until you pick a folder, and a standing safety note in the settings spells out exactly how the one-way behavior works.

For clarity: the browser only ever hands the app the one folder you pick. That is a technical boundary of how folder access works, not a privacy feature we are claiming credit for.

Setting it up

Go to Settings -> Folder sync and click Add folder.
Pick the directory of Markdown files in the system dialog.
Choose a destination folder in Reborn Notes (use a slash to nest, e.g. Projects/Docs; an existing folder or path is merged into). Optionally turn on Convert links between notes to turn links between your Markdown files into internal note links.
Click Link folder. The first full import runs immediately, and from then on the folder stays mirrored.

You can link up to five folders, edit a folder’s destination or its auto-sync toggle later, and unlink at any time - unlinking keeps everything already imported.

New to Reborn Apps? Try them on the public instance - free, zero-knowledge, no email required. Or self-host your own.