Hi all,
I’m using a Mac, and 8 / 10 times that I ‘CMD W’ when I finish working, Scrivener crashes. I have reported the problem at least three times. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is it just me?
It doesn’t result in any lost work, but my confidence in the product is dented.
Thanks
Paul
What versions of macOS and Scrivener are you using? If you are using macOS Big Sur make sure you’re using the latest version of Scrivener (which is 3.2.2).
Stephen
Hi Stephen_C
I’m using BigSur 11.4 and Scriv. 3.2.2.
Paul
Instead of using CMD-W, use Menu’s to close the window (Menu: File/Close Window), or close Project, or Quit Scrivener. Any difference?
If you haven’t already, please open a support ticket, here:
Include a copy of the crash report, if possible.
There are some longstanding issues with the Apple development environment that can cause crashing when closing a project window. It may be this is what you’re seeing, and if so, the risks to your data are extremely low, as the crash actually happens after all of Scrivener’s code is done working, and all that is happening is routine Apple clean-up stuff, to clear the memory of your window and so forth.
Aside from that, what I’ve found myself is that I tend to see this happening more often if I close a window before it has a chance to finish saving the last changes I made. You can tell this is the case by the black dot in the red “close” button in the title bar. If I just wait the two seconds it takes for that to go away, and then press ⌘W, I don’t think I’ve ever had a crash on close, whereas it can happen one or two times per day if I’m closing and opening a lot of projects, quickly.
I see all good advice. It does happen after I close a project and I do hard Saves just in case; knock on wood I haven’t lost anything. I also noticed the first time it happened was when I was demonstrating to a person and opening and closing frequently. So, note to self: Be careful save often, 
I use the Menu to Close and still get some crashing; I too, was losing some confidence. I do see that Apple platform isn’t so amenable to the app. I hate that I have to convert Pages to text to be able to import into Scrivener. Oh well, I love the organizational aspect. It has motivated me to write.
Well like I say, if this is the crash I’m thinking of, there is no risk to your data. Save often if you wish, but by the time it crashes your project window doesn’t even exist anymore, and any connection to your data was severed several centuries ago (in computing years).
I hate that I have to convert Pages to text to be able to import into Scrivener.
Yeah, it has always frustrated me that Apple never saw fit to publish their file format, or provide converters for other developers to use. They are in an obsolete mindset here, of their format being “private property”, like Microsoft was acting back in the '90s, and made all the more ludicrous by the fact that it’s just a basic free word processor.
I try to stick with software that works in open formats that are publicly documented, whenever I have the choice.
I’ve just installed Scrivener on a new (old) Mac, saving to Dropbox just as I did on my old Mac. The new Dropbox setup is all locally saved without auto optimisation (AFAIK).
Scrivener seems to operate perfectly well, but every time I open it, I get a crash report from the previous session. I can’t tell what’s wrong. All my files are opening as normal and saving fine, but I’m concerned there’s an underlying problem that will bite me at the worst moment.
The report appears both when I close Scrivener and restart it in the same desktop session. and when I’ve restarted my Mac.
My details: MacBook Pro (Mid 2014, 2.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16GB), MacOS 11.7.1, Scrivener 3.2.3