FAQ
Quick answers, with links to the full story. For symptom-driven help, see troubleshooting.
Does MetaEdit work on mobile?
Section titled “Does MetaEdit work on mobile?”Yes, fully. There are no desktop-only features - the property picker, native widgets, Auto Properties, bulk edit, and both automators all work on phones and tablets. The plugin requires Obsidian 1.12.7 or newer on every platform.
Why is there no ribbon icon?
Section titled “Why is there no ribbon icon?”By design. MetaEdit is built around one command and the right-click menu: run “MetaEdit: Run” from the command palette (or bind it to a hotkey under Settings, “Hotkeys”), or right-click a note and choose “Edit Meta”. See commands and menus.
Can MetaEdit rename a tag across my whole vault?
Section titled “Can MetaEdit rename a tag across my whole vault?”No, deliberately. MetaEdit renames one #tag occurrence in one note, precisely. Vault-wide renames are Obsidian’s job - use the Tag pane, exactly as the picker’s footer says: “#tag - rename in this note · vault-wide: Tag pane”. See edit tags.
Do I need Dataview installed?
Section titled “Do I need Dataview installed?”No. Inline key:: value fields are plain text in your notes, and MetaEdit reads and writes them directly. The Dataview plugin is what queries and renders those fields - useful alongside MetaEdit, but never required. See how metadata works in Obsidian.
Can bulk edit change inline fields or delete properties?
Section titled “Can bulk edit change inline fields or delete properties?”No. Bulk edit adds or updates one YAML frontmatter property across many notes - nothing else. It never touches inline Dataview fields and cannot delete a property. For deletes, transforms, and inline fields, use the per-note actions in the picker. See bulk edit and delete and transform.
Can I undo a bulk edit?
Section titled “Can I undo a bulk edit?”Not with Ctrl+Z - bulk edits are real file writes across many notes, and the “Overwrite existing values” confirmation modal warns you about exactly this. Back up first, or lean on Obsidian’s File Recovery core plugin to restore individual notes. Choosing “Skip notes that already have it” or “Merge into a list” limits the blast radius. See bulk edit.
Which Obsidian version do I need?
Section titled “Which Obsidian version do I need?”MetaEdit 1.9.0 requires Obsidian 1.12.7 or newer. On older Obsidian versions the community plugin browser automatically serves you MetaEdit 1.8.4, the newest compatible release. See the changelog.
What’s the difference between “New YAML property” and “New Dataview field”?
Section titled “What’s the difference between “New YAML property” and “New Dataview field”?”“New YAML property” creates a property in the note’s frontmatter block through the type-aware creation modal, so the value gets a real type (number, date, list, checkbox) and shows up in Obsidian’s Properties view. “New Dataview field” appends a plain-text key:: value line to the note body - untyped, but visible in the note itself and queryable by Dataview. Frontmatter is the better default for structured data; inline fields shine for values you want to read in context. See how metadata works in Obsidian and create new properties.
Why can’t I create a property called __proto__?
Section titled “Why can’t I create a property called __proto__?”__proto__, constructor, and prototype are reserved. They collide with JavaScript’s object machinery, so writing them as frontmatter keys could be silently dropped or corrupt data while appearing to succeed. MetaEdit refuses them on every YAML write path. See how MetaEdit writes to your notes.
Are property and Auto Property name matches case-sensitive?
Section titled “Are property and Auto Property name matches case-sensitive?”Yes. Everywhere MetaEdit matches names - Auto Properties, “Edit Meta menu” hidden properties, “Some Multi” lists, Progress Properties, Kanban properties - the match is exact and case-sensitive. Status and status are different keys.
Where are MetaEdit’s settings stored?
Section titled “Where are MetaEdit’s settings stored?”In your vault at .obsidian/plugins/metaedit/data.json. Settings sync with the vault if you sync that folder. The settings reference documents every field.
Why does a warning say “(ERROR)”?
Section titled “Why does a warning say “(ERROR)”?”A known logging quirk: MetaEdit’s warnings are routed through the error channel, so warning notices read MetaEdit: (ERROR) .... Judge the message by its text, not the label - a warning like the Kanban helper’s “property not found” notice does not mean data was lost. See the notices reference.
Where did the body-tag delete and transform actions go?
Section titled “Where did the body-tag delete and transform actions go?”Removed in 1.9.0. Body tags have no key: line, so those two actions could not target the right text safely. Renaming a tag and editing the last segment of a nested tag remain, and frontmatter tags editing is unaffected. See what’s new in 1.9.0 and edit tags.