Obsidian 1.14 is out: what changes when you manage client projects

What does Obsidian 1.14 bring to client work?

Six changes in the desktop release notes and the mobile release notes of October 5, 2026 matter for someone who tracks clients, projects and invoices in a vaultvaultIn Obsidian, a vault is a folder on your computer that Obsidian opens: your notes, their attachments and your settings. Brievora is a ready-made vault.help.obsidian.md. The public build is numbered 1.14.4; versions 1.14.0 to 1.14.4 went to early access (Catalyst) between September 2 and October 1.

The release also fixes input lag in large vaults and improves how dates and times show in group headers and in the Cards and Kanban layouts. The color code in the feedback row is our suggestion; ObsidianObsidianA free note-taking app for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android. Your notes stay as Markdown files on your own computer. Brievora is a vault, a folder of notes and views that you open in Obsidian.obsidian.md gives the six colors no meaning.

What does the Kanban view replace, and what can’t it do yet?

The Kanban view replaces the community Kanban plugin for boards built on notes: each card is a note, and dragging it to another column rewrites the property the board is grouped by. The Kanban view help page states that it requires Obsidian 1.14 or later. If your boards live in the old plugin, the guide moving from the Kanban plugin to Bases walks through the migration, and the free Kanban to Bases plugin converts a board for you.

Five limits to know before you plan your week on it:

• A view groups by one property only, so there are no swimlanes such as one row per client.
• Cards follow the sort of the view. You can’t drag a card to the top of its column.
• Grouped by a formula, or by a file property other than file.folder, the board is read-only: no moving cards, no new notes from a column.
• A column counts its cards but shows no sum, so revenue totals stay in a table view.
• Bases still has no calendar layout. The documented layouts are table, cards, list, Kanban and map.

For five tested boards with their YAML, see five Obsidian Kanban boards for client work.

How does the Group menu change your table views?

The Group menu works in every BasesBasesThe database feature built into Obsidian: tables, cards and Kanban boards made from the properties of your notes. No plugin to install.help.obsidian.md view, tables included. You pick one property to group by, then an automatic order or Manual. In Manual, the Views help page lists what you can do:

• check or uncheck a group to show or hide it, or use Show all and Hide all;
• drag groups into the order you want;
• add an empty group with Add group, which creates no note and changes none.

Groups also fold. In a table of projects grouped by client, click a client’s heading to collapse it; its notes stay as they are. For a Monday review across eight clients, collapse the ones with nothing due and read the rest.

In Manual order, a value you leave out of the list is hidden with all its notes, without any warning. If a project goes missing from a view after the update, open the Group menu: hidden values are listed there, unchecked.

Which desktop changes help with files from clients?

Two changes help on desktop: opening a MarkdownMarkdownA plain-text format: a # makes a heading, asterisks make text bold. Any text editor opens these files, with or without Obsidian.markdownguide.org file that lives outside the vault, and a better search in the File explorer.

A new command (“Open file from outside the vault…” in English) opens any Markdown file in the current window. Obsidian also appears in the system’s Open with menu, can become the default app for .md files, and resolves images and links relative to the file’s own folder. A developer’s handoff README or a client’s notes open with their outline, without polluting the vault. The release notes warn that this feature needs the latest installer, so download it from obsidian.md and reinstall; an in-app update is not enough.

The File explorer search now matches full paths and keeps the contents of a matching folder visible. A term with a minus sign, such as -Archive, hides matching folders and their contents. If you archive finished projects in a folder, as described in archiving a year of projects in Obsidian, you can now leave them out of a search in the explorer.

What changes on your phone?

On iOS 26, Quick Capture creates a note from the Lock Screen, Control Center, a Home Screen widget or Shortcuts, without waiting for the vault to load. It can write to a new note, today’s daily note, a bookmarked note or any note you pick, with an optional template. A bookmarked note called “Client calls” with a short template (client, date, decisions) turns a hallway call into a note in a few seconds.

On Android, the Open Note widget now shows the note’s name, and the Insert attachment button can take a photo directly, handy for a whiteboard at a client workshop. On both systems, text follows the system text size, and in Bases the Group menu sits inside the Display menu of the toolbar. CSV export of a Bases view works again on mobile.

What should you check before updating?

Update in this order if the vault holds live client work:

• Copy the vault folder to a backup before the update.
• Update every device that opens the vault, including your colleagues’ in a studio: the Kanban view requires 1.14.
• Reinstall from the download page if you want to open outside Markdown files. Settings, General shows a notice when a newer installer exists.
• Keep the community Kanban plugin until each board is migrated and checked.
• Open each view and compare its result count with the day before: a missing value in a manual group order hides notes.
• Check the font size on each device: it is now stored per device and no longer syncs through Obsidian Sync.

If you are new to Bases, the Obsidian Bases tutorial covers filters, formulas and views before you build a board, and Bases or Dataview helps if older queries still run your vault.