---
title: "Obsidian Vault Recovery — Loading Cache Hang"
domain: troubleshooting
category: general
tags: [obsidian, troubleshooting, windows, majortwin]
status: published
created: 2026-03-11
updated: 2026-04-02
---
# Obsidian Vault Recovery — Loading Cache Hang

## Problem

Obsidian refused to open MajorVault, hanging indefinitely on "Loading cache" with no progress. The issue began with an `EACCES` permission error on a Python venv symlink inside the vault, then persisted even after the offending files were removed.

## Root Causes

Two compounding issues caused the hang:

1. **79GB of ML project files inside the vault.** The `20-Projects/MajorTwin` directory contained model weights, training artifacts, and venvs that Obsidian tried to index on every launch. Specifically:
   - `06-Models` — ~39GB of model weights
   - `09-Artifacts` — ~38GB of training artifacts
   - `10-Training` — ~1.8GB of training data
   - `11-Tools` — Python venvs and llama.cpp builds (with broken symlinks on Windows)

2. **Stale Electron app data.** After Obsidian attempted to index the 79GB, it wrote corrupt state into its global app data (`%APPDATA%\obsidian`). This persisted across vault config resets and caused the hang even after the large files were removed.

A secondary contributing factor was `"open": true` in `obsidian.json`, which forced Obsidian to resume the broken session on every launch.

## Resolution Steps

### 1. Remove large non-note directories from the vault

```powershell
Move-Item "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\20-Projects\MajorTwin\06-Models" "D:\MajorTwin\06-Models"
Move-Item "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\20-Projects\MajorTwin\09-Artifacts" "D:\MajorTwin\09-Artifacts"
Move-Item "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\20-Projects\MajorTwin\10-Training" "D:\MajorTwin\10-Training"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\20-Projects\MajorTwin\11-Tools\venv-unsloth"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\20-Projects\MajorTwin\11-Tools\llama.cpp"
```

### 2. Reset the vault config

```powershell
Rename-Item "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian" "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian.bak"
```

### 3. Fix the open flag in obsidian.json

```powershell
'{"vaults":{"9147b890194dceb0":{"path":"C:\\Users\\majli\\Documents\\MajorVault","ts":1773207898521,"open":false}}}' | Set-Content "$env:APPDATA\obsidian\obsidian.json"
```

### 4. Wipe Obsidian global app data (the key fix)

```powershell
Stop-Process -Name "Obsidian" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Rename-Item "$env:APPDATA\obsidian" "$env:APPDATA\obsidian.bak"
```

### 5. Launch Obsidian and reselect the vault

Obsidian will treat it as a fresh install. Select MajorVault — it should load cleanly.

### 6. Restore vault config and plugins

```powershell
Copy-Item "$env:APPDATA\obsidian.bak\obsidian.json" "$env:APPDATA\obsidian\obsidian.json"
Copy-Item "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian.bak\*.json" "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian\"
Copy-Item "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian.bak\plugins.bak" "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian\plugins" -Recurse
```

### 7. Clean up backups

```powershell
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:APPDATA\obsidian.bak"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault\.obsidian.bak"
```

## Prevention

### Add a .obsidianignore file to the vault root

```
20-Projects/MajorTwin/06-Models
20-Projects/MajorTwin/09-Artifacts
20-Projects/MajorTwin/10-Training
20-Projects/MajorTwin/11-Tools
```

### Add exclusions in Obsidian settings

Settings → Files & Links → Excluded files → add `20-Projects/MajorTwin/11-Tools`

### Keep ML project files off the vault entirely

Model weights, venvs, training artifacts, and datasets do not belong in Obsidian. Store them on D drive or in WSL2. WSL2 (Fedora43) can access D drive at `/mnt/d/MajorTwin/`.

## Key Diagnostic Commands

```powershell
# Check vault size by top-level directory
Get-ChildItem "C:\Users\majli\Documents\MajorVault" -Directory | ForEach-Object {
    $size = (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum
    [PSCustomObject]@{ Name = $_.Name; SizeMB = [math]::Round($size/1MB, 1) }
} | Sort-Object SizeMB -Descending

# Check obsidian.json vault state
Get-Content "$env:APPDATA\obsidian\obsidian.json"

# Check Obsidian log
Get-Content "$env:APPDATA\obsidian\obsidian.log" -Tail 50

# Check if Obsidian is running/frozen
Get-Process -Name "Obsidian" | Select-Object CPU, WorkingSet, PagedMemorySize
```