Developer-Mike
The nodes within the group disappeared when in a collapsed state
Hi Mike,
I installed the plugin yesterday and I'm really impressed with the great work you've done. However, I've run into a major issue. I grouped some nodes and collapsed the group, but when I reopened it after a few hours, all the nodes inside the group had disappeared.
I was puzzled, so I ran a few tests under the same conditions, and the test nodes vanished again. Upon checking the source file, I found that the node data was also missing.
I'd really like to understand why this is happening. Could it be due to conflicts between different plugins? I have 3-4 other plugins related to canvas installed.
System: macOS 14.6.1
Obsidian version: 1.6.7
Other canvas-related plugins installed:
- Canvas Mindmap
- Simple CanvasSearch
- Enchanted Canvas
Thanks!
This behavior is nearly impossible with the current implementation of the collapsing groups featrue. Please make sure this isn't caused by another plugin like you suspect. Let me know what the outcome is and if it's caused by Advanced Canvas alone, this gets treated as a critical bug and will be fixed asap.
I've had the same issue. Testing right now how I can duplicate the behaviour. I just started using Obsidian so still quite new to it all. I'm curious though whether using iCloud and it saving correctly might be an issue.
@Developer-Mike Not using any other Canvas plugins btw @pont1992 Do you use iCloud for your vaults as well?
UPDATE: I did notice that, if 2 groups overlap, that if you add a card in the uncollapsed group (a), BUT at the point where the two groups overlap, then the collapsed group (b) will change the behaviour of that card. So after adding the card and collapsing and uncollapsing group a, the card won't be visible unless group b is also collapsed. This behaviour might or might not indirectly contribute to the bug we're seeing right now
UPDATE 2: No clear errors after this. Since I'm using this for work I'm a little more careful to make sure groups don't overlap. Haven't had issues since. The test below didn't reproduce the error. Most likely explanation I have is the overlapping groups and moving these around a lot in some way. I'm glad that I didn't encounter any errors again, but still hopeful that there will be a satisfying explanation.
This is the test I'm running. Will report back if these also vanish.
Also had the same issue, I did some testing and managed to get a somewhat consistent condition for the bug. Generally it's like this:
Have any open group -> Close them -> Move/Add/Paste-in/Type-in an Element -> Undo(Note: the groups still needs to be closed) -> End
If you open it now the contents will be deleted; that is unless you keep undo-ing till the group is open. Basically if you do an action with the group still being closed and undo it, when opening the group again it'll have nothing.
This is me Closing -> Move -> Undo -> Opening it
"Any" closed group gets affected by this, and also when I said "generally" before this condition doesn't look like it's consistent with every action.
This is me making a node and movin it. and the content's still there
And this's me deleting the node instead, and it's gone
Thank you for your detailed report. I was able to reproduce this issue. Now, I just need to fix it 🥲
i still experienced this issue under ver. 3.1.3
lost some stuff under a collapsed group, only found out days after, though it's unimportant stuff, so i'm not going to bother with recovering it. it's worth noticing that this bug may have not been fixed entirely in the new version
@Developer-Mike thanks
Experienced same issue again as well unfortunately. Just letting you know that it's still out there. Good luck fixing it!
@yuboWw and @ITvStefan
Was this data loss caused by copying and pasting collapsed nodes?
If yes, this issue got resolved in version 3.2.0
thank you for the update @Developer-Mike
the data i lost under v3.1.3 didn’t involve copying and pasting. it was all in a group that i collapsed after i was done working on it. then i moved on working on other stuff on the canvas; never uncollapsed that group, until days later i went back, uncollapsed it, found that it was empty.
i will report back if i run into this issue again
@jiangaq Obsidian & Plugin Version?
Obsidian 1.8.9+Advanced canvas 4.0.2
Group nodes then click Minus icon to collapse, then click plus to expand, all nodes disappeared. But I just tried to disable all community plugins then turn on all plugins again, it seems work as of now, I don't know why happened.
This is console log for your reference:
Would like to second that the Obsidian Plugin version still has the problem. No idea what I did to trigger the wipe, but had large text groups in canvas all erase themselves while collapsed.
This also just happened to me, I managed to recover the contents with Obsidian's file recovery, but I think it can be pretty frustrating - I disabled the "Collapsible Groups" setting to prevent it from happening for now, although the functionality is pretty neat. Maybe disable it by default until it gets fixed to prevent data loss by future users?
I wasn't able to reproduce this issue ever since the initial cause was fixed. As soon as someone can give me specific steps to reproduce it, I will fix it ASAP.
I can't for the life of me figure out what's causing it. The only pattern that seemed to emerge for me was that the boards it happened on were absolutely massive. I haven't had it occur on a small canvas board-- though I can't say for certain that's the correlate.
On Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 11:44 AM mika.dev @.***> wrote:
Developer-Mike left a comment (Developer-Mike/obsidian-advanced-canvas#102) https://github.com/Developer-Mike/obsidian-advanced-canvas/issues/102#issuecomment-2985350711
I wasn't able to reproduce this issue ever since the initial cause was fixed. As soon as someone can give me specific steps to reproduce it, I will fix it ASAP.
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For me this is still occurring, specifically when I collapse the group, go to a different note, and go back to the canvas. I am on version 5.2.0 of advanced canvas and on version 1.8.10 of obsidian.
For me this is still occurring, specifically when I collapse the group, go to a different note, and go back to the canvas. I am on version 5.2.0 of advanced canvas and on version 1.8.10 of obsidian.
This is also happening to me.
I’m experiencing the same issue. I use this feature extensively to present complex topics, and quite often, the content of collapsed groups is missing the next day.
This may not be the actual error, but perhaps a clue: When I duplicate a canvas – which I do as a backup in case something gets lost – I’ve noticed that collapsed groups immediately lose their content in the duplicate.
From a developer’s perspective, I assumed the underlying file is simply copied. If that’s the case, why is the information lost? I also observed that the file size is significantly smaller when this happens, which made me think the XML might be corrupted. Initially, I thought it was just a display issue when expanding groups again, but the content is completely gone.
Is there some process that parses the XML structure and removes elements that aren’t well-formed? For example, if an XML tag is incorrectly nested or appears outside its expected context, could it be automatically deleted? That’s just my assumption, of course.
I really hope this can be fixed. Let me know if I can support the investigation in any way.
Best regards
I also have had this happen multiple times recently. If there's any testing I can do, let me know.
Out of curiosity, @DonDavici @Hassibi501 @Timo0707 , do any of you also use the Custom Attachment Location plugin?
Found the issue! Fixed in >5.3.1. If it persists, please inform me ASAP.
I also have had this happen multiple times recently. If there's any testing I can do, let me know.
Out of curiosity, @DonDavici @Hassibi501 @Timo0707 , do any of you also use the Custom Attachment Location plugin? I am not using the plugin you mentioned. :-)
I haven't been able to reproduce the missing node symptoms lately, so I'm not sure if the underlying issue still exists, or if an Obsidian update made it go away, or what. Thanks for looking into this, though.
I think as long as the bug isn't confirmed while definitely using the newest versions and no other plugins, the issue should remain closed.
Was an unfortunate victim of this bug. i have now installed backup software and backup plugin. Thanks for fixing!
