Before anyone get’s antsy, I’m NOT suggesting Sync as a Scrivener project syncing service (though my tests with it appear fine on test projects). I Use Sync for secondary backup and syncing other content. I’ve always found it reliable.
Gotta love the Canadians. I got this email today.
Love the dig at their Southern neighbour. (The MAGA Republic of Trumpistan)
More secure than Dropbox and not hosted in America (Or England - their latest backdoor
access demands are draconian)
I’ve just upgraded to 6TB as we’ve just sold our house and will be doing a strip and renovate on a cottage near the lake (what sane 73 yr old with half a brain decides to undertake such a project after 6 heart attacks?.) which will see us in our motorhome for 6-10 months and no access to my trusty NAS.
Sounds good. I use Google drive (not for live Scrivener Projects) for all my zip backups and Scrivener customizations (themes, compile formats, name lists, templates, layouts, research pdf’s, book images, etc.) but get 100 gigs for 2 dollars a month. Much cheaper than the 2 terabyte Dropbox paid plan.
“We store your personal information on our servers which are located in Canada.” Source: Sync
There’s no such thing as a government loving your privacy. Even if one does, that won’t last. Left, right, center, diagonal – doesn’t matter. Source: Life experience.
I’ve been using GoogleDrive as well. I haven’t tested it yet, but all I am doing is dragging the Scrivener files (,scriv) into a folder. Is that enough?
The project folder with the .scrivx file should NOT be on google drive. I store all my zip backups so I can access from more than one computer and have a backup option. I also set this to store files offline and in the cloud. I have an article on cloud backups and other backup articles on my website. Start with this one and I hope it helps, If it does sign up for my news letter as I add more stuff. (have not started yet, but will shortly) Overview on Cloud Backups — My Writing Journey
Besides the issues with Google Drive specifically, this is a terrible approach to backups. It guarantees that the time you need the backup will be right after you got distracted and forgot.
The best backup strategy is the one you can’t forget.
Start with Scrivener’s automatic backups. Check the options to make sure they match the way you work. Point the backup folder to a cloud service if you want, but if you also share projects between devices maybe use a different service from that.
Configure some sort of full disk backup. On the Mac, Time Machine is easy to configure and easy to use.
If you want an online backup, set up a backup service, not a sync service. The difference is that a backup is a static archive at a particular date and can’t be changed. A sync service, by design, makes all copies identical. The difference matters a lot when you accidentally delete an entire folder and the deletion propagates to all your devices at internet speed.
