At this point (v1.0.3), the set up should be:
- Install Obsidian on iOS/iPadOS from the App Store.
- On your Mac, look for Obsidian’s iCloud Drive app container (an app-specific folder created in your iCloud Drive directory). It will have the Obsidian logo.
- Drag and drop your Vault folder into the aforementioned iCloud Drive/Obsidian folder.
- On iPhone/iCloud, wait for it to sync. This part can be a little tricky. Obsidian needs your entire folder structure available to work: it uses the contents of every file inside to drive its functions. Unfortunately, Apple’s a bit paternalistic about whether or not iCloud Drive files should be downloaded. So, you need to trigger the download by launching Obsidian and opening the vault. That might take a little while, especially if the vault is big, because Obsidian is forcing iCloud Drive to download all of the files inside it. While this is happening, you can actually check progress by going to the Files app and looking at the vault in iCloud Drive/Obsidian. If it seems to get stuck, you can relaunch Obsidian to give iCloud Drive some encouragement.
Aside: The most frustrating thing about this process is that it’s really a bunch of workarounds that address Apple’s insistence that iOS/iPadOS not be a real operating system. Far as I can tell, users on Android had a much easier time because the file system is designed to be a lot easier to work with in these kinds of situations…
Cross-posting this to your thread on the Obsidian forum.