I’m using Scrivener 3.3.6 (build 16304) on a 2024 15" MacBook Air running macOS Sequoia 15.0.1. My Scrivener file and the original backups directory are both on Dropbox.
When I open the app, I’m prompted to select the backup folder. When I click the “Choose…” button in that dialog and attempt to open the backup directory /Dropbox/Scrivener/Backups, which I can see has a bunch of old backups in it from my old MacBook, I get an error from Scrivener saying “The file couldn’t be opened.”
The cursor changes to an insertion marker when I mouse over the “Backup location:” field in the Backup settings section, but I can’t type the path into that field.
The permissions on the “Scrivener Backups” folder are “read & write” for my user account and “read only” for “staff” and “everyone”. I verified the folder permissions in the Terminal app using the command “ls -ld ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener\ Backups”, which shows me a permissions set of “drwxr-xr-x@”. I can “touch” files in that directory in the Terminal as well. There are no obvious Finder-level permissions problems here.
I have also tried to create new directories in other paths, including on an external disk, with no success. I get the same error every time.
I’ve never seen that message on opening Scrivener. Do you see that message as soon as the app is opened without pressing any buttons?
Is there a Cancel button you can press, then go into Scrivener Settings to confirm where the backup folder exists and is working? In that Backup dialog box in settings, what happens when you press “Open Backup Folder” (which should open Finder in that folder? Does it go where you expect?
I’m wondering if the Dropbox sync folder you are now expecting to use for backups is set in Dropbox to be “offline” or “online”. If “online”, then it could be files are being deleted by Dropbox on your local drive to make this “online”. Just a hunch. If this the case, change Dropbox to “offline”. Dropbox Help has articles on this.
Nothing to do with Scrivener other than Scrivener expects project files to on the local disk. I’m not sure about the Scrivener’s expectations on backup folder to be “offline”, but I would set it that anyway–if I was using Dropbox sync for backup, which I am not doing.
As an aside, can I please suggest putting backup files Dropbox sync folder is not necessarily a good idea. These files a synced and any flaw (or mistaken deletion) on local disk get synched relatively immediately. Also you are putting your projects and backups on the same service. If you lose that service for any reason, you lose both?
My folder structure is:
~/Dropbox/Scrivener for all Scrivener projects so that I can sync with iOS devices
~/Backups/Scrivener for all Scrivener backups, all “zips”.
Both these folders part of system backups by TimeMachine, Carbon Copy Capture for automated backup of really important stuff (which includes Scrivener Projects), and Backblaze for offsite backup. I backup nothing to Dropbox sync service. Dropbox does have a new backup service which I am testing on my Synology NAS as a remote backup for that device. Test going well.
Edit: I didn’t search, but this issue might have been covered in past posts. If you have not already looked, you might want to do that.
I do get the message immediately on opening Scrivener.
I have been unable to create any folder anywhere, on the local Mac filesystem, in a Cloud Storage folder like Dropbox or iCloud, whether set to offline or online storage mode, or on either of the two external drives mounted on my MacBook Air. Every single time I get the message “The file couldn’t be opened.”
I am using Dropbox to be able to edit the Scrivener documents from my iPad as well as from one of my two Macs. Both Macs also have local Time Machine backups so I’m not concerned about losing anything permanently. I also periodically copy my home directory as a compressed tar file to a Synology NAS. Backblaze is installed on the MacBook where I’m having the problem (it’s a work machine) but it’s not enabled at the moment, as it’s a trial account, and I’m currently working in a place with limited network bandwidth and don’t want to drive my host’s network bill up.
Is there an enhanced logging mode or some message I can look for in the Console app to further debug this?
Very weird. Perhaps make a new user account and try Scrivener from there. that might help point to some sort of corruption on the user account in use now.
Your setup looks good, by the way.
Edit: And, shut-down and re-boot into “safe” mode and check out the disk. And by simply doing “safe” mode then another start-up might make a difference. I’d at least try it.
Is the issue just with configuring Scrivener’s Backup folder, or are you also unable to create new projects?
What security software is running on your system? Often if Scrivener is unable to open files it’s because the local security software doesn’t trust it.
Did you get Scrivener directly from us, or from the Apple App Store? If you got it from the App Store, you may need to enable folder access for the desired location.
I am aware. The problem is that no directory appears to work, no matter where I try to define it. Tomorrow I’m going to try using it under a different user account, and if that fails, deleting and reinstalling the app. I’ve been using it for many years without any problems. It could also be that this account is managed by my company’s IT department; there might be some arcane restrictions imposed by their remote management software.
I don’t suppose there’s a startup option to enable verbose logging to a file that could reveal the cause?
The first step would be to enable the Mac OS Console app and see what it has to say. There is an option to show internal errors, but this is probably a system-level, rather than a Scrivener error. (Scrivener → Settings → General → Warnings if you want to try it.)
This problem appears to have “gone away” after upgrading to macOS Sequoia 15.1. I was careful to make sure all of the Dropbox folders were made available for offline use, which has caused some “open file” timeouts in the past. This time, I looked at the path in the settings dialog for the backup folder and it actually showed up, unlike every other time. When I made my edits and closed the project, the backup was generated. Looks like I’m in the clear! Thanks for your ideas and assistance.