Time Machine
Browse, compare, and restore previous versions of your notes using Obsidian’s built-in file-recovery snapshots and git commits.
Key features
- Timeline slider to scrub through snapshots of your notes
- Colored diff view showing exactly what changed between a snapshot and your current file
- Selective restore – restore an entire version or just individual changes (hunks)
- Git integration – git commits appear alongside File Recovery snapshots on the same timeline (desktop only)
- Source indicators – each snapshot shows its origin (File Recovery or git commit with hash and message)
- Smart deduplication – identical snapshots across sources are merged, keeping only the most recent
- On-demand snapshots – force-create a File Recovery snapshot at any time via command
- Auto-updates when you switch files – no manual refresh needed
- Works on desktop and mobile (git features are desktop-only)
Quick start
- Make sure the File Recovery core plugin is enabled in Settings -> Core plugins
- Install and enable Time Machine
- Open the command palette and run Time Machine: Open view
- The sidebar panel shows snapshots for the active file – use the slider to browse them
If your vault is a git repository, git commits will automatically appear on the timeline alongside File Recovery snapshots.
Snapshot sources
Time Machine reads from two sources:
- File Recovery – Obsidian’s built-in core plugin that automatically saves snapshots at a configurable interval (default: every 2 minutes). Works on all platforms.
- Git – If your vault is inside a git repository and you’re on desktop, Time Machine fetches the commit history for each file. This is read-only; Time Machine never creates commits or modifies the repository.
If File Recovery is disabled, Time Machine will show a notice but still work if git is available. If neither source has data for a file, an empty state message is shown.
About
Created by Sebastien Dubois.
Buy me a coffee to support development.
My other Obsidian plugins
| Plugin | What it does |
|---|---|
| Agentic Resource Discovery Server | Local-first Agentic Resource Discovery publisher and registry that serves your AI skills and tools to agents over a local HTTP and MCP server |
| Book Exporter | Export books (one manifest note + linked chapter notes) to EPUB and PDF via Pandoc |
| Bookshelf Base | Display your notes as a visual bookshelf via a custom Bases view |
| Dataview Serializer | Serialize Dataview queries to Markdown, and keep the Markdown representation up to date |
| Expander | Replace variables across your vault using HTML comment markers. Supports static values and dynamic functions |
| Ghost Publish | Publish your vault notes to a Ghost blog with configurable presets for tags, newsletters, and frontmatter conventions |
| Graph Explorer Base View | A custom Bases view that renders notes as an interactive force-directed graph with explored/unexplored tracking |
| Hidden Folders Access | Index hidden root-level folders (e.g. .claude) so they appear in the file tree, metadata cache, and Bases |
| Journal Bases | Custom Base views for journaling and periodic reviews |
| Kanban Action Planner | Render your notes as configurable Kanban boards and calendars inside Bases, with statuses, ordering, relationships, and scheduling |
| Life Tracker | Capture and visualize the data that matters in your life |
| Note Village | A 2D pixel art village where your notes become villagers you can explore and chat with using AI |
| Obsidian Starter Kit | Adds strong typing support and powerful automation support for notes |
| Remarkable Synchronizer | Connect to the reMarkable cloud, list, download, and sync notebook pages as images |
| Replicate | Use AI models with ease via the Replicate.com integration |
| REST and MCP server | Exposes CLI commands as RESTful API endpoints and an MCP server for AI tool integration |
| Transcriber | Transcribe images to markdown using Ollama vision models |
| Typefully | Publish social media posts with ease using the Typefully integration |
| Update Time | Automatically update front matter to include creation and last update times |
Everything I build is documented in my newsletter and on my YouTube channel.
News & support
To stay up to date about this plugin, Obsidian in general, Personal Knowledge Management and note-taking:
- Subscribe to my newsletter
- Subscribe to my YouTube channel
- Join the Knowii community and learn to organize your notes and put your knowledge to work, together with fellow knowledge workers
If this plugin is useful to you, here are the best ways to support my work ❤️: