Hi - I’m just checking I’m doing things in the way which makes my files most secure. I have a new computer and I’ve redownloaded Scrivener and opened my projects from my zipped Dropbox files. I have used Tools/Options/Backup to rechange the default back up to Dropbox again. But will this mean that I don’t have a local back up - ie stored on my new computer - just in case Dropbox should fail too?!
The way I transferred my projects was to make a folder within my local Documents folder called ‘Scrivener Projects’ and then downloaded the zipped files to there and unzipped them there. I then opened the projects from the Scrivx file that was in there. When I work on projects I tend to open up Scrivener and then select the file from the recent tab rather than opening it from a folder.
So my questions are: Should I be opening from a folder each time or is it OK just to open up Scrivener and work from the File: Recent Projects option? And then is Scrivener, as well as backing up to Dropbox, downloading a back up to the ‘Scrivener Projects’ folder on my local Documents on my computer. If so- where is this? I can’t see it.
Dropbox works by downloading files from its server and saving them to your computer. It also works by monitoring your files ceaselessly and uploading any changes you make to its server. This means that there is fundamentally no difference between being online and offline. If you had to be online to use the files in your Dropbox folder, it would be super slow and nobody would use it. The side-effect here is that if you make your own backups locally, since all Dropbox files are local, they are getting backed up as well.
In fact I would highly recommend doing that anyway, since Dropbox can and will change the files on your computer it is not in a strict sense of the term, a backup service.
I am not aware of any underlying technical distinction between these two procedures. Use whatever method you prefer.
No, it is only going to write backup copies to the folder you specify. It is entirely clueless as to the existence of Dropbox, and cannot “upload” or “download” anything. As mentioned above, all of that is handled by Dropbox, and the result of that is normal folders and files.