What causes "read Markdown [%s]: %w" in siyuan-note/siyuan?

Check the wrapped cause (%w) to see if it is a permission, not-exist, or source-changed error and fix that root cause

read Markdown [ ]

Error message

read Markdown [%s]: %w

What it means

SiYuan's Obsidian vault importer wraps any error that occurs while opening/reading a source Markdown file with this message, carrying the file's vault-relative path and the underlying cause. newObsidianReadUserError maps the cause to localized user-facing message 345 (or 346 when the file changed mid-import via errObsidianSourceChanged). It is thrown so users see which specific file could not be read rather than a bare OS error.

Solutions

Check the wrapped cause (%w) to see if it is a permission, not-exist, or source-changed error and fix that root cause
Verify the file exists and is readable at the reported path; re-sync cloud placeholders so the real content is local
Close Obsidian / pause sync clients, then retry the import
If errObsidianSourceChanged is the cause, re-run the import so the analysis is redone against the current file state

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if _, err := os.Stat(absPath); err != nil { /* file missing/unreadable before import */ }
if info, err := os.Stat(absPath); err == nil && info.IsDir() { /* skip non-files */ }

Try / catch

if err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, errObsidianSourceChanged) { /* re-run import */ }
    if os.IsNotExist(errors.Unwrap(err)) { /* restore/resync the file */ }
    if os.IsPermission(errors.Unwrap(err)) { /* fix permissions */ }
}

Prevention

Keep the vault on local disk, not cloud placeholder folders
Close Obsidian and pause sync clients before importing
Verify all files are readable by the SiYuan process user

When it happens

Trigger: os.Open(file.AbsPath) or subsequent reads fail during importObsidianVault processing — e.g. the file was deleted between vault scan and read, permissions deny access, the path is too long, or a read race detected as errObsidianSourceChanged.

Common situations: Vault lives on a network/Cloud drive that dropped; file is locked by Obsidian or a sync client (iCloud/OneDrive placeholder files); OS permission changes; file removed by another sync tool during import.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/643a139bcc4bfae9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/import_obsidian.go:953

	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	after, err := os.Stat(file.AbsPath)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if before.Size() != after.Size() || !before.ModTime().Equal(after.ModTime()) {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w while reading", errObsidianSourceChanged)
	}
	return data, nil
}

func newObsidianReadUserError(file *obsidianSourceFile, err error) error {
	language := 345
	if errors.Is(err, errObsidianSourceChanged) {
		language = 346
	}
	return newObsidianUserError(language, file.RelPath, fmt.Errorf("read Markdown [%s]: %w", file.RelPath, err))
}

func validateObsidianReadableFile(file *obsidianSourceFile) error {
	opened, err := os.Open(file.AbsPath)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer opened.Close()
	buffer := make([]byte, 1)
	_, err = opened.Read(buffer)
	if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, io.EOF) {
		return err
	}
	return validateObsidianSourceMetadata(file)
}

func buildObsidianHeadingIndex(doc *obsidianDocPlan, tree *parse.Tree) {
	stack := make([]string, 6)

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