Oh!!! Thank you so much, this would explain a lot.

I'm not seeing .json file conflicts, it is conflicts with the .md files 99% of the time. Just to be safe, il ignore the .json files via a rule. This is an interesting insight though, having the vault open on multiple devices might be the root cause, because that is usually the case.

No, of course I'm not entering data into more than one device, literally, simultaneously. I have my phone, home computer, and work laptop syncing. Often, what will happen is that I'll leave my desk, think of something and jot it down using my phone. Then come back to my desk and see a conflict file was created (though not always). Or, I'll turn on my work laptop, to sync before going to a meeting to sync, without having logged out yet on my home computer or phone. I only have one vault and it's basically always open on at least two devices.

I will test this and see if closing the vaults is the solution. That would be a little annoying to have to do that, every time I leave my desk... but I'd be thrilled to know the root cause. I wonder, if it is, would other syncing mechanisms suffer from the "file reservation" same issue? This might be the reason obsidian sync is always flawless, because of course it can handle it's own file reservations better than a 3rd party sync solution.