I saved my Scrivener project on my old laptop to Dropbox. Then I installed Dropbox & Scrivener on my new laptop. Then I tried to import my project to Scriveners on my new laptop from the dropbox, but I cannot make it work. I can see the project file in my dropbox, but I am unable to import it into Scrivener on my new laptop. When I attempt to import it from dropbox in Windows by clicking on the project file, the file opens into a whole bunch of individual files and won’t let me import the project as a whole. Surely I don’t have to save 50 separate pieces of the project separately. I’ve tried repeatedly. I’ve saved the project from my old computer different ways, as a zip file and not in a zip file. It won’t import. I tried to figure out if there is a way I can drag the project file from the drop box into Scriveners, but I can’t find a way to do that either. I think I must be doing something basic incorrectly, either with saving it to dropbox in the first place or with importing it into Scrivener on my new machine.
Just so ya know, I am not a Dropbox user.
But, don’t you simply need to Open the project as in File>Open?
I think Import is for bringing stuff into an existing project.
When I try to do that, it opens up in windows, where I can select my dropbox files. Then, when I click on the project file, it splits into all the little sections I’ve split my draft into instead of letting me select the draft manuscript/project as a whole. I don’t know if I’m saving it incorrectly, though it doesn’t appear as though I could.
Do you think it could be a problem with how I’m saving the project to dropbox on my old computer. I see that my dropbox folder is under a weird folder called “Roaming”? I have no idea how it ended up there. I’m wondering if I made an error in installing dropbox, though it seemed so simple I have no idea what I could have done wrong. I’m re-installing on my old computer. Probably a mistake. Sigh.
I think, from reading this several times, that there is a basic misunderstanding of what a project is and how to open a project from disk.
To open a Scrivener project lets say that, for example, you have a project named ProjectX. That means you have a folder named ProjectX.scriv. The project is everything in that folder.
To open project ProjectX you would do this:
In Windows Explorer, where you see your folder hierarchy and file names, navigate to where you see the folder ProjectX.scriv and single click the name ProjectX.scriv. That will cause the contents of the folder to be displayed. You’ll see several additional folders and a file named project.scrivx. Next, double click the file project.scrivx that is in the project folder. That will start Scrivener with ProjectX. Once you’ve done this once (and depending on your Scrivener options) ProjectX will be the current project when you start Scrivener. Alternatively, in the future, you can open ProjectX from Scrivener’s Recent Projects list but note that the Recent Projects does not show the project path so if you have both local and remote (Dropbox) projects with the same name you could easily choose the wrong one.
It appears to me that most people using Dropbox simply put their projects “out there” in the Dropbox space and then do backups (zipped or not) to a local storage device (hard disk, flash drive, etc). You may want to search these forums for how others use Dropbox, the problems they’ve had and how to overcome those problems. Syncing appears to be major issue because it takes a while and some people don’t wait for it to complete.
Can you go, step-by-step, into what you do to “save your project to dropbox”? Include which menu items you use, for instance. It kind of sounds to me like you’re using File->Backup->Backup to…, but then you should just be able to do as others have explained, and find the project.scrivx file and double-click on that.
Also, a description of the steps and menu options you use to try and open it on your new computer would be helpful.
Here’s an example:
Open the project in Scrivener on my old machine.
Select File->Save As and select my dropbox folder, using the same name for my original project.
Close Scrivener on the old computer and let Dropbox sync up to the server.
Go to new computer, wait for Dropbox to sync down to the new computer.
Open Scrivener and choose the “Open an Existing FIle…” button from the template chooser window that pops up when I don’t have a different project open already.
Navigate to the Dropbox folder, and choose the project.scrivx file in the folder named for my project.
Thanks so much! I’m new to drop box, fairly new to Scrivener, AND I have a new laptop–not a good combination for someone like me. 
I have a techie friend, who is not a writer, coming over to help me later today, so I may wait til he gets here. I’ll let you know. Thanks again!
Margaret
Success! My biggest problem was that my project was saving into dropbox as a zip file. When I saved it not as a zip file it would open with a list of 3 or 4 items, & I didn’t know to double click on the last item labeled “Project.” When I clicked on the first ones, I came up empty.
I now know to never save my project as a zip file–and to look for the checkbox for that–and then to click on the project file with the “.scriv” at the end.
Thank you!
Actually the .zip file is a very useful function, I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely. You just have to remember when you get to the other machine to double-click on it and then drag the “Project.sciv” folder out of the zip file. Zip is nice for transferring over the Internet because it packs the project into a single file (mature projects can have hundreds if not thousands of files in them) and compresses it, meaning it will jump around the planet more quickly from one computer to another.
If you have to use the Internet to copy files from one computer to another, Zip files are a nice way to do it.
Thx. For now I’m just happy to see my project show up on Scrivener on my new computer, but I may revisit the zip file in the future…
It’s also nice for backups, as you can’t accidentally open them in Scrivener, thinking that they’re the original project missing your most recent work. That can be confusing and can make a mess of any project.
I cannot say this enough. If you are using DropBox with Scrivener projects do not use the web interface.
Use the native DropBox client.
Using the DropBox web interface will take far longer and put your projects at far greater risk of corruption or data loss.