Can't save or back up

Recently, Scrivener has been unable to save anything. I have my backup and main save file go through Dropbox as I work on my novel when at work. It’s just more convenient with the cloud storage and not rely on a USB.

On my most recent session it saved to Dropbox as usual on my laptop before leaving work. But when I went to open it the next day on my desktop at home, the Dropbox file had failed to sync. Did some troubleshooting and even tried GoogleDrive and OneDrive but Scrivener refused to save the backups to any of these. Even a USB it would say “Cannot create backup within a project folder. Cannot create backup within a project folder: G:/OneDrive” Or, if I try to just save the file manually, “You cannot save within the folder of the current project.” Which in turn I can save manually by only switching drives all together. But that completely defeats the purpose of using the cloud or a USB to save projects.

Been at this for over an hour at the time of writing this and ready to pull my hair out lol. I have no idea why Dropbox failed to sync or why this is suddenly a problem. I can open my project via Dropbox perfectly fine on my laptop, but it can’t/won’t sync.

I have saved the project in it’s current state to a USB just in case. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Don’t want to lose 5 years of work.

To add, Dropbox saves correctly on my laptop and I can open it just fine there. If I remember correctly, from an hour ago lol, I was able to change the backup location on my laptop, but not my desktop.

Place your backups in C:/Users/Username/Documents/Scrivener Backups. Away from your Project.

Scrivener saves your work every two idle seconds, so you’re safe. You can set Scrivener to back up with each manual Save, apart from the Automatic backup on application close.

The backup folder is in File > Options > Backup

Ok, that seemed to work. But why would it save my backups and main files in Dropbox in essentially the same location, but not for OneDrive or Google Drive? Unless there was an update to the software. I want to have my main file on the cloud for the convenience of it and one less moving part. I lost my USB during finals week in high school and never trusted a USB again.

Saving manually to Google Drive (lost confidence in Dropbox) gives me this error. I hit retry but still comes up with this message.

https://imgur.com/enothMH

When saving manually to One Drive, I get this error when trying to open the .scrivx file. The required folders are there.

https://imgur.com/LYwKScw

After a few minutes, it appears to work with One Drive. It does open, but not sure why it doesn’t before hand.

We do not recommend using Google Drive for live Scrivener projects. Here’s why:
https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/cloud-syncing/google-drive-advisory

Probably because the OneDrive files are exclusively in the cloud, and are being downloaded on demand. Which takes time. We recommend ensuring that all “cloud” services are configured to make Scrivener projects “available offline.”

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Right-click the folder with Scrivener Projects, and choose “Available offline” in the Context menu.

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Got that set now, but when I save it, I get this error.

https://imgur.com/toeL43u

I am saving from the file saved on the USB to OneDrive. The USB is plugged in and when I try to his “Retry” nothing happens and just pops the error up again.

What if you try the same operation using Windows Explorer?

I am using Windows Explorer. Do you mean save the file from the USB else where and then save to OneDrive? Because that doesn’t work either. I get the same error as above. In said location, it shows the files, but It says it can’t open the file, but the file it is referring too doesn’t exist. As I removed the file all together.

ttps://imgur.com/4O7AnJC (won’t allow me to post the link for some reason now. Just add an h to the beginning of the link.

This location and file name doesn’t exist at all. I am attempting to save it through a different drive and naming it a different name.

It appears to be flagging the links. They are just screenshots of the errors I am seeing.

I’ve set your account so you can post screenshots normally now (just drag them into the composition area). You ran afoul of the spam protection, which checks for new users repeatedly posting links to the same domain. I’ve restored your posts.

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Much appreciated. I figured it had something to do with that. Just wasn’t sure how else to post screenshots.

Did the project on the USB drive work correctly when it was saved to the USB drive?

Does it work correctly if dragged to a location other than OneDrive?

If so, then the problem is with OneDrive, not Scrivener or the project.

If you haven’t already done so, please check to make sure that all of the relevant locations are approved by your security software and that Scrivener itself is whitelisted. Security software is a very common cause of mysterious data access errors.

Yes, I can open the project just fine from the USB.

Doesn’t matter where I drag and drop the project, it will not open and gives the same error as mentioned above.

I added Scrivener to my exclusion list, but still doesn’t work.

Can you create brand new projects on the local drive?

That appears to work. Maybe my current file is corrupted in some way? Is there a way to repair it, or just copy everything over to a new project?