When I open a project I’m getting a pop-up warning that says:
“Project not in a recommended save location. Project is stored inside its own automatic backups folder. This could potentially result in data loss in the even of an automatic backup trying to overwrite the current project file. It is therefore strongly recommended that you close the project and move it to a different location.”
I have a folder called “Scrivener Backups Dropbox” set as my backups folder (in Scrivener preferences). Said folder was contained in my dropbox. Because of the warning I moved said folder to the documents folder on my hard drive and made sure the path to it in the Scrivener Backup preference was correct. However I am still getting the same warning message when I open a project.
Any advice on how I can resolve this and feel confident that my work is saving properly? Ideally I want to cloud save into Dropbox and have things available locally as well as I am often required to work in locations without wifi. I admit the whole cloud-saving business causes me great confusion.
The Backup is not the same as your live project, and they should not be in the same location.
The “live project” is what you are working on. If you only work on it on one machine, then there is no point in putting it on Dropbox (though you should regularly use Time Machine or some other method to take a complete backup of your hard drive). Using Dropbox to enable you to access your project on more than one device—Mac, iPad, iPhone, Windows device—is ‘synchronising’, not ‘backing up’. While you are working on your project, each time you pause (default 2 seconds), Scrivener saves any changes to the live project.
A “Backup” is a complete instance of the whole project. If your live project is on Dropbox, set your Backups folder to your hard drive or to iCloud or other online storage. also, set it so that the Backups are zipped which reduces the risk of corruption. By default Scrivener saves 5 backup copies, though most of us would advise making that at least 10, even 25—Your data is more pricy than drive-space! I have it set that Scrivener automatically backs up on close, and I close the program and shut down every day. If you’re someone who leaves everything running for long periods, get in the habit of using the “Save Backup Now” or whatever its called under the File Menu.
If you’re using Dropbox or contemplating using any other online system to synchronise your project between devices, do, for Heaven’s sake, read the relevant advisory on the Literature and Latte website: scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … c-services
Mark,
Thanks for your response. Your pointing out that the live file and the back-up file are different files is helpful. I was imagining a single file that just kept updating with new saves. Hopefully I can get it all sorted out.
I don’t use the app daily, and sometimes once or twice a quarter, but often get this error with the following:
“The project “Thesis Journal 2.scriv” is stored inside its own automatic backups folder. This could potentially result in data loss in the event of an automatic backup trying to overwrite the current project file. It is therefore strongly recommended that you close the project and move it to a different location.”
Where does the project need to be? Where do backups need to be?
Thanks!
The project folder and backup folder MUST be different. Hence the error message you have.
Unless you are using Dropbox to synch with iOS device(s), then my suggestion is:
Project folder: ~/Documents/Scrivener/
Backup Folder: ~/Backups/Scrivener (I don’t put into the default location as I want the backup folder to be not as buried into the ~/Library … just me)
Then check your TimeMachine backup to make sure it’s running routinely and automatically … the above folders will be picked up.
