Photo from iPhone

Take a photo on your iPhone and insert it at the cursor in your Obsidian note, for example when taking notes during a lecture. Press ⌘J, take the photo, and tap Use Photo. You can also choose Take photo from iPhone from the editor's right-click menu or the command palette.

For Mac only. Requires Obsidian 1.13.7 or later and Continuity Camera working in Finder. No iPhone app is needed.

Setup

After enabling the plugin:

1. Download the camera helper.
2. Unzip it and drag ContinuityPhoto.app into Applications.
3. Open a note, place your cursor, and press ⌘J (Command–J).

The helper is signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple. It runs while you're taking a photo, then quits, without a window or Dock icon. Install it once; the plugin finds it automatically.

To change the shortcut, open Settings → Hotkeys and search for Photo from iPhone. ⌘P still opens Obsidian's command palette.

If you keep the helper somewhere else, enter its full .app path in Settings → Photo from iPhone. Helper installation and updates are manual; the plugin's download button opens the ZIP in your browser.

Photos in your notes

Photos save as PNGs in an iPhone Photos subfolder beside the note. The plugin creates the folder when needed and reuses it for notes in the same folder.

Selected text is replaced by the photo. Undo removes the whole embed; Redo brings it back. The image file stays in your vault, as with other attachments.

You can keep typing while the camera is open. To cancel, tap Cancel on your iPhone, press the shortcut again, or choose Cancel iPhone photo from the right-click menu.

Compatibility and privacy

The helper uses a private macOS camera interface, so a macOS update may require a helper update. If you have several devices, it uses the first one macOS reports. See compatibility and known limitations before installing.

There are no uploads or telemetry. The plugin runs the helper from Applications or the location you choose, and saves captures in a temporary folder outside your vault before importing them. Your clipboard is unchanged. The download button opens GitHub; macOS handles the connection to your iPhone.

Temporary photos are deleted after saving or cancellation. If saving fails, the photo is kept and a notice shows where to recover it.

Report a problem · Manual installation

Released under the MIT license.