How To Use Obsidian: The MOST USEFUL Feature You're Not Using Right

Obsidian attachments become dramatically easier to find when they’re treated like part of your note network—not just files dumped into a folder. By changing where new attachments land and then embedding those attachments inside richly described notes, users can search by context (people, dates, projects, tags, modified time) instead of relying on file names or hunting through Finder/File Explorer.

Out of the box, new attachments typically go into the vault’s top-level folder, which quickly turns into a cluttered “where did I put that?” problem. The transcript walks through the fix: open Obsidian settings, go to Files & Links, and adjust “Default location for new attachments.” One approach is to create a dedicated attachments folder (e.g., “attachments”) and set Obsidian to always store new attachments there. The result is predictable storage—no matter how many PDFs, images, or other files accumulate—while still keeping the vault tidy.

For users who prefer more structure than a single catch-all folder, the same setting can be configured to place attachments alongside the current note’s folder, or inside a subfolder under it. That subfolder name can be customized (for example, “assets,” “working files,” or “attachments”), letting each project keep its own related media. The key point is that Obsidian can preserve your preferred folder conventions without forcing you to rename files or pre-plan perfect directory layouts.

The real payoff comes when attachments are embedded into notes that act as “context containers.” The transcript gives examples: a meeting note with a Todo item for “had a meeting with Jonathan,” plus an embedded image created with an AI image tool. Later, searching doesn’t require remembering the image’s filename (“colorful illustration with flat shading PNG”) or where it was downloaded. Instead, the user can find the attachment by following links, using linked mentions, sorting by modified time, or searching for terms like “rain,” “AI image,” or the project name (“Project AI image”). Because the attachment is connected to surrounding metadata—what it represents, when it was created, which project it supports, and why it matters—ideas become as searchable as the files themselves.

The transcript also highlights a workflow for creating new “attachment hubs”: make a new note with a descriptive title, embed the attachment, and then write everything you might want to remember under that note (meaning, palette, purpose, rules, or game/session details). From there, the attachment can be embedded into other notes as needed, while the underlying file remains in the attachments location. Even if the attachment lives in a central folder, Obsidian’s linking and metadata turn it into a flexible, context-rich object that can be retrieved in multiple ways—matching how people actually think, not how file systems demand organization.