I recently upgraded to the latest version of Scrivener. Today I’ve hit a problem which I don’t understand, but which I think may be related to this. Please forgive my stupidity.
When I try and open the project on which I’m working at present, I get a message saying “The project you are trying to load uses an older format and cannot be opened”. I’m not sure about the “older format”. But in any case I’m then offered the opportunity to update the project. If I do this, I don’t seem to be able to open the file. Nothing opens in Scrivener. All that seems to have happened as I’ve gone through this process repeatedly is that I’ve ended with backups of backups of backups, none of which will open.
Which version of Scrivener were you using before this? It it was a particularly old version - pre-1.10 - there was a nasty bug where it couldn’t tell whether or not a file was created in a newer or older version of Scrivener. This could lead to problems when updating.
The first thing to do is use Spotlight and search for “Scrivener” to see how many copies of Scrivener you have on your machine. My guess is that you have more than one. Delete them all, then reinstall to make sure that you have the latest copy of Scrivener.
Make sure that all of those backups are one your computer, not in the Trash folder. Make sure there are no other Scrivener files in the Trash folder that may need restoring.
Then empty the Trash.
Now open Scrivener. Check it is version 1.5 using Scrivener > About.
Now try opening the very first backup that was made during the update project process. This should be a copy of the original project. If that doesn’t work, try going through all the versions of the project that are on the disk.
There was only one version of Scrivener installed on my computer, and, having established this and that I am running the latest version (I am), I followed the instructions as per the previous post.
I tried opening the earliest backup without success. I’ve now gone through subsequent backups, and with each backup, Scrivener insists I update the file. If I do so it goes from being a file of around 624 KB to one of 36 KB, which I can then open in Scrivener, but which contains no text.
Wait… This suggests a corrupted file. It sounds as though certain vital files are missing inside the project directory, making Scrivener think it is an older file format.
What happened (other than updating Scrivener - that doesn’t touch your files) leading up to this? Could you zip up the original file and send it to support AT literatureandlatte DOT com?