I open my MacBook to continue working on my Obsidian note, [The Deep Life Stack V2](https://notes.johnmavrick.com/The+Deep+Life+Stack+V2). But when I revisit the note, I'm perplexed to see the following missing quote:  I freeze in disbelief. *Did it not save my changes from my last note-making session?* For the past few weeks, I've spent hours collecting ideas from various books, articles, and podcasts to learn about discipline, the first level of the deep life stack. Surely it should all still be in my Obsidian vault? I open up the quick-switcher to search for the note, but after typing the entire title, no results were found. *Did this note not sync properly?* Panic sets in. I check out the other discipline-related inputs I consumed throughout the past week—they all also vanish from the search results. *Is there something wrong with Obsidian Sync?* As a last resort, I check the folder containing my input notes. Everything is deleted. My notes on articles, books, podcasts, and even anime 😱 I am horrified by the sudden chasm in my second brain. I've [restarted my vault before](https://youtu.be/PYUxloab14U?si=2OaIgSddsoqd8Etn) , but those notes are still in my computer so I can still revisit them if needed. But now, all that effort reading and processing my highlights disappeared. My notes are littered with the same missing quotes, rendering them useless without the foundation. But not all hope is lost. I realize my main computer should still have the old version with the missing notes, so I switch from my computer and carefully open Obsidian. After opening the quick switcher and searching for the same note, they were there! But after a few seconds, the note disappears. It treated my MacBook's vault version with the deleted notes to be the most updated version, so the same thing happens to my computer. Checking the folder again, I see them disappearing one by one. I sit there in shock, in denial of what had just happened. But I have one last chance—I have my work laptop left. As soon as I turn it on, I turn off the wifi and make a copy on my desktop. With a sigh of relief, I finally secure a copy of the vault with the missing files. So I re-enable sync and let the notes delete before I re-import them with the copied version… Only for them to disappear again. For some reason, Obsidian Sync still views the version of my vault with the deleted notes as the most up-to-date version. Long story short, I was able to do some more trial and error and finally was able to get my notes synced again, but that sense of relief was overshadowed by a greater feeling of vulnerability. At that moment, the fragility of my notes became painfully clear. I took my notes for granted, assuming they would always be available upon launching Obsidian. But in reality, I was one backup away from losing all the time and effort poured into capturing insights and ideas. **To make our second brain last a lifetime, we need to preserve it.** Just as we maintain our primary brain through learning, diet, and sleep, we shouldn't overlook the importance of maintaining our notes. A second brain is our tool to manage the emerging digital landscape. Taking care of it safeguards our primary brain from information overload by storing excessive data until future use, freeing our primary brain to focus on higher-level cognitive functions like critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. And from this experience, I learned the first step to doing so is backing up your notes. Obsidian Sync does already give you 1-year restoration timeframe for deleted files, but it seemed also the reason why my notes were deleted so I feel it's smart to seek further security. A common backup strategy is to do the 3-2-1 backup method: - Have 3 copies (including the original) - Store them in 2 different places (two devices/drives) - Keep 1 offsite (ex. in the cloud or in another physical location) Following this advice, I have a vault backup practice during my weekly reviews. First, I check my Obsidian Sync changes to make sure nothing important got deleted. I set the "File recovery" history length option to 8 days of backup so if something were to hypothetically be modified right after I did the weekly review I would still be able to retrieve it during the next one.  But sometimes, a note's content can randomly get replaced with the default note template. I think it might be related to syncing with a mobile device but I'm not entirely sure. To be cautious of this, I use a global search and replace app like VSCode to check whether any of my notes unexpectedly have characteristics that are part of the default note template. In mine, I have the Templater variable that lets you jump the cursor, which gets removed once I start typing in the note, so I can search for this to look for notes that were replaced with the template.  Then in VSCode, I exclude the folders that don't matter like the `.obsidian` folder and `My Templates` folder. Now I can search for it and see the results like so:  As for backing up the vault, my three copies are stored in: - Obsidian Sync which controls the version on my three devices (device one) - An external hard drive (device two) - Google Drive cloud storage (offsite) Now I rest easy knowing that for future mass deletions or crucial notes disappearing, I've preserved my second brain. # Notes [[Preserving our second brain]]