aliases:
  - Local vaults
  - remote vaults
  - remote vault
  - local vault
description: This page describes the differences between local and remote vaults.
mobile: true
permalink: sync/vault-types
publish: true

Local and remote vaults

Obsidian saves your notes in a local vault on your computer or device. A local vault is simply a folder that holds your notes.

C:\Users\Obsidian\Vaults\Help is the folder location for a local vault called Help.

If you want to use your notes on different devices, you need to share your local vault with those devices.

Obsidian Sync is one solution that helps you do this by connecting your local vault to a remote vault. A remote vault is a copy of your vault stored on Obsidian's servers.

Through creating a new remote vault, I create a remote vault named Docs.

You can connect one or more local vaults on your devices to a remote vault. When you make changes to a local vault, the changes are saved to the remote vault. Then, the updated content is synced to all other local vaults connected to the same remote vault.

Understanding local versus remote in practice

A remote vault helps you share and sync your notes between different devices.

I have a local vault named Help stored at C:\Users\Obsidian\Vaults\Help.
I created a remote vault called Docs and connected my Help vault to it.
Later, I created another local vault called Help-two, stored at C:\Users\Obsidian\Vaults\Help-two.
I connected this Help-two vault to the same remote vault Docs.
Now, any changes I make in either Help or Help-two will sync through the remote vault Docs.