This is my third question in 2 days - I’m really not doing well and am about to give up and go back to Word! Everywhere I look it says DropBox is the default place that Scrivener backs up to. Mine backs up to OneDrive. I’ve been getting on well with OneDrive but again, EVERYWHERE says don’t use OneDrive with Scrivener. So I’m trying to back-up to DropBox instead like a good girl. But DropBox is nowhere to be seen in locations when I try and change the default back-up. I’m sure I’m doing or not doing something obvious. But at the moment I need to ask a question every time I click on something! Is there a simple solution? Where is DropBox?
Go to dropbox.com, sign up for an account and download the Dropbox app. It will create a Dropbox folder om your PC.
You can use OneDrive for your zipped backups (see Tools -> Options -> Backup) but don’t use for your live project, the one you are working on. If you don’t use Scrivener on several devices, only use it on one PC you don’t need Dropbox.
Thank you lunk for your reply! I have a DropBox account but cannot for the life of me find it anywhere when I’m browsing from Scrivener to choose a backup location! I might do as you suggest and backup to zip files in OneDrive instead. Thank you.
Creating a dropbox account at dropbox.com doesn’t create a location for you to save files on your PC. You have to log on to dropbox.com and download their application, then install it and sign in with your dropbox account & password. At that time, it will create a “Dropbox” folder, where you can move files that will then automatically synchronize with drobox.com’s servers.
If you’re not syncronizing with the iOS version of Scrivener (a separate purchase), or with other computers running Scrivener, then you won’t need Dropbox.
It’s too bad that it sounds like there is a lot of misinformation out there. We cannot assume everyone uses Dropbox, nor would we be so callous as to assume everyone wants their personal (maybe even confidential) material to be automatically uploaded to the Internet!
The default backup location is actually in your personal user folder, within the hidden AppData folder. It is intentionally hidden by default to keep it from being misused.
The easiest way to locate your backup folder is to go into the Tools ▸ Options… menu, click on the Backup tab, and there you will find a button that opens the folder. This is also where you can change the location if you prefer something more visible. Just be aware that you want to keep that absolutely separate from your working projects. It should only be opened if you need to recover from a recently made mistake.