I have to be in the mood to understand which means that when I’m not even the simplest thing can take a while to sink in!
(As for being interested, when i’m not even the simplest thing washes over me.)
After playing around with the sync via Dropbox (so I can strain my eyesight using S on my iphone), and reading the manual and discovering that what I’d been trying to do doesn’t work, I think I’ve finally got the hang of part one of the sync procedure.
Instead of keeping project files in a folder in Documents and opening/closing the projects thence, I realise I should put and keep them in Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener so I can also download from that Dropbox folder onto my iphone.
Which brings me to the whereabouts of back-up files, etc.
Q1:. In Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener is it ok to put all the project files in that folder or would be better to have sub-folders for each project? My project files names are MY, LHS, SI: can they all go in the one folder or would it be better to have a. sub-folder for each one? (Repeating my question, i know!)
For example: either
Dropbox/Scrivener/Apps
MY
LHS
SI
or
Dropbox/Scrivener/Apps
/MY
/LHS
/SI
Q2: I note that the back-up files include two Scrivener generated sub-folders; Draft and Trash. I have discovered that I cannot put each back-up file in the one same folder because (presumably?) Draft (and Trash) folders contain the .rtf files so there is a conflict if I try. Instead, I have created a separate sub-folder for each project. The question is where best to keep the back-up folders? Is it advisable to create a new folder on Dropbox (but not in Apps/Scrivener) for each project back up, or could I put all the back-up files in the same separate folder on D?
Well, first of all it is better to think of the iOS sync folder as a place for storing the things you’re actively working on and might want access to, rather than building an elaborate archive for long-term storage. Everything you add to that folder is going to slow down each sync operation: it all has to be scanned every single time because there is no way for the software to know what might have changed.
That said, sure, go ahead and use subfolders to organise things. That won’t hurt anything. There are no should or shouldn’ts, there.
I don’t really understand the premise being your second question. There are no backup files that would be constructed the way you describe, with Draft and Trash folders containing RTF files (are you maybe talking about external sync? That most certainly should not be relied upon as a backup—it is a two-way sync tool).
That aside, Scrivener’s backups are easy to find, just go into the Backup preference pane and click the button there to load the backup folder. Backups are stored by default as zipped copies of the entire project. There are no backup folders, and one definitely does not need to manage them to the great level of detail you are describing. In general they should be left alone to do their thing automatically.
I would also advise putting them nowhere near any kind of “cloud” thing if you’re choosing to store your active work in a volatile location like the cloud. The default location where Scrivener stores backups is surely fine. I’d only consider changing it if you were working the other way around: projects stored local and offline, backups stored online. Eggs, baskets, etc.
Noted, thank you.
Having continued experimenting, I realise now that the draft and trash folders are a product of having used (erroneously) external sync. In which I might as well delete those folders now that I am not using external sync.
Please confirm I understand correctly:
1.0 To use S on my iphone, each project file goes into Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener. Each file can be in a subfolder but not essential.
1.1 If I don’t want to use S on my iphone (or a future ipad), each project file goes into Documents/‘subfoldername’
2.0 For backup, I choose a back up folder and use it for all backups of all projects regardless.
2.1 In Preferences, I choose the (main) back-up folder for automatic back-ups of all projects, regardless.
2.2 Where I don’t want back-up files for a particular project to go into the main back-up folder, in Project Settings, I can use a Custom folder for the particular project and enter the name of the particular custom folder in the backup location.
2.3. Whether to use the back-up folder in Dropbox or on the Mac is up to me: that depends upon whether I want the backup folder in the cloud.
2.4. And whether to keep the backup folder as a separate folder in Dropbox or in Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener is up to me.
While’ve got you, so to speak, on the iphone, is there a limit to the number of project files in Dropbox that are displayed on the home screen.
Yup, and removing those folders will automatically shut down the feature in the projects they came from, so that’s a good way of disabling the whole operation.
There isn’t a limit—or if there is it is far higher than what would be a practical limit of how much scrolling we as humans would tolerate putting up with. It is surely in the tens of thousands if anything.
Yeah the only clarification I would make there is to avoid putting automatically generated backups in the iOS sync folder itself—they aren’t going to be of any benefit to the iOS version of Scrivener, and so all they will be doing is bloating your sync time.
As to the rest, it sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.
