Downloading the new Scrivener deleted all my Style settings. 😣

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
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I installed Scrivener on my new Windows laptop and imported all my projects.

This particular project is nonfiction so it has a lot of subheaders. I was very careful to use the drop down menus in scrivener to set the paragraph styles, so that it would be consistent and easy for readers to follow.

Now when I opened it on the new computer, I believe it asked me if it wanted to “convert” the project to the new Scrivener. I didn’t think this would be an issue, but now all my carefully set styles are just formatted text! That is, rather than being set to “Heading 2” the text is just Bold and bigger. Also the styles provided are not the ones I created for the document (e.g. wrong fonts and sizes).

This is a big problem because I need to be able to copy-paste this text onto web pages, where those headings matter. So even if I compile it “as is” I still need those headings set.

Is there any way to get this formatting back? How far back do I need to roll back Scrivener versions to get to a version that will have all my previous style info? Would it help to open the document in Scrivener for Mac (I also have access to a macbook)?

I’ve been using Scrivener for a decade but for once I wish I made this project in LibreOffice. Creating those headings was so tedious; I’d hate to have to do it again. :tired_face:

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Hello DareToEatAPeach, and welcome to the forum.

I’d recommend opening the Scrivener 3 for Windows manual and reviewing §5.1.6. You can access a PDF of it from Scrivener 3’s Help menu. In that section of the manual, you’ll find the following passage:

The first action that will be taken is to create a complete backup of the project
in its current state in the same folder where the project is presently located. If you
have a project called “My Thesis.scriv” in your Documents folder, then a backup
project called “My Thesis Backup.scriv” will be placed in your Documents folder
prior to attempting the upgrade. This is your first layer of protection as that copy
will be precisely the same as it was before starting the upgrade.

Next, your project will be updated to the new format. At the conclusion of the
process, the project will open.

That copy of this project should still be compatible with Scrivener 1 and retain all your carefully crafted styles. You can use Scrivener 1’s File > Open command to navigate to that backup copy and open it.

If you try double-clicking that backup copy’s .scrivx file, your PC will likely attempt to upgrade the project again using Scrivener 3. That’s why you’ll need to navigate with Scrivener 1 to the backup copy.

Since this project is so dependent on these styles, you may find that seeing it to its conclusion in Scrivener 1 is the better approach.

We also have this Upgrade Guide for Scrivener 1 users. It’s a Scrivener 1 project that we expect users will open with Scrivener 3. It demonstrates how your existing Scrivener projects will have their formatting updated to work with Scrivener 3.

I recommend working through it before you attempt to upgrade any other projects in Scrivener 3. That way, you’ll have some additional context for what might occur in other projects before you take them through that process.

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Note that “Styles,” as Scrivener 3 (or Word) defines them, did not exist in Scrivener 1. Scrivener 1 had named formatting presets, but did not have the ability to label text as “this is a header” or whatever. So the formatting should carry over to Scrivener 3, but the labels will not, as they were never there in the first place.

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I see this is old, but I have a number of 1.9 projects I haven’t yet brought into v.3 and a new win11 computer.

Question for @kewms @RuthS

Out of curiosity, does the end result of an “import” differ from the procedure outlined for upgrading projects, and if so how?

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You would have to ask the OP, since it’s not clear to me exactly what they did.

When a Scrivener 1.9 project is opened in Scrivener 3, the expected result is that Scrivener 3 makes a backup, then converts the project to Scrivener 3 format. See the upgrade guide Ruth linked for details of exactly how various Scrivener 1.9 features are handled.

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I guess my question is, if you (inadvertantly) imported an old project built in 1.9, would you be prompted to upgrade?

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I’m not sure I understand what sequence of events you are envisioning.

As you have Scrivener 1.9 projects handy and I don’t, my suggestion would be that you test (with backups, of course) whatever scenario you have in mind and report back.

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If you use File ▸ Import ▸ Scrivener Project... and target a v1 project, that will work fairly well. I wouldn’t generally recommend doing that over opening it directly and letting it upgrade though. To my mind, that approach would be more of a fall back option in case a standard upgrade does not work for some rare reason. Off the top of my head there may be some things that don’t translate, like the original compile settings, and you’d have to shuffle things back into the core Draft/Research/Trash folders.

Either way, there isn’t anything to be worried about, as both routes preserve the original v1 project. Importing of course only reads the original passively, while upgrading creates the aforementioned backup. So either way, you’d be able to change your mind and use the other method.

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