Hope someone can help.
I have linked Scrivener to my Dropbox account. But how to I import a changed file in Dropbox back into Scrivener? Have tried using the import option but this just gives me a duplicate file. Also, is there anyway to automatically sync from Dropbox back to Scrivener for Windows?
Thanks
Could you clarify what exactly you’re doing? Generally speaking there shouldn’t be anything you need to do here at all, other than ensuring that the project is only open on one computer at a time and that you always allow sufficient time for Dropbox to sync all the project files on each machine after closing and before opening the project. After working in Scrivener on one computer, when you open the project on another machine after the sync is complete, you should find it just as you left off on the first computer, with all your edits there appearing in the project. There’s no additional step required to bring those changes into the project; the Dropbox sync takes care of all that.
If you’re doing this and not seeing the changes from one computer to another, it sounds like the sync isn’t working properly, perhaps because one computer is losing the internet connection before all the changes are uploaded, or you’re opening the project too soon on the second computer before it’s had a chance to download the updates. Look through the KB article on working with Dropbox for more info on avoiding sync problems when working this way.
If you do have a project in Dropbox that isn’t syncing cleanly, make sure it’s closed on all your computers and that you have a backup, then pause Dropbox syncing and dig into the project’s .scriv folder to remove any files marked “conflicted”. Save them somewhere outside the project folder so you can take a look at them, particularly anything in the Files/Docs folder, since this is all your writing and you’ll likely want to compare it to the version that is appearing in the project so you can copy over any of your changes that got lost after you’ve cleaned up the folder. When all the conflicted files are removed, open the project in Scrivener and go through the conflicted text files to compare them with the versions in the project, copying over changes as necessary or importing the conflicted copy to deal with later, as you like (just give it a clear name so you remember what it is). Then close the project and resume Dropbox syncing, ensuring you allow all those changes to update on all the computers before opening the project on any of the other machines.
Thank you for the comprehensive reply. Sorry - I didn’t explain it too well. Can I explain the procedure I am following which might be clearer as to where I am going wrong.
I have a scrivener project on my laptop divided into chapters. The project is backed up to Dropbox when I shut the software down (both zipped and unzipped) and I also backup each of the separate rtf chapter files in Dropbox.
I am then trying to edit the documents on my ipad, using the word processing app textilus. Should I be trying to open the rtf files, or the project? I have tried editing the rtf files and the placing them back into Dropbox but when I enter scrivener again just the old files exist.
Is there an option I am missing that will manually update scrivener from Dropbox? Or should I be opening the project file in textilus? Or should I be using the import/export options in scrivener? Hope that this makes sense and you can help.
Thanks
The problem I have is that when I start Scrivener for Windows on my laptop and open a file (that I changed in Textilus on my Ipad) it is still the old file. I have checked that
Okay, so it sounds like you’re selecting files in Scrivener’s binder and using the File > Export feature to save a copy of the individual documents to a Dropbox folder, then editing those exported files? I’d been thinking you had the project directly in Dropbox and were trying to work with it on multiple computers syncing via Dropbox, but that wouldn’t work for the iPad since there’s no way to work with the project there. For that, exporting the files as you’re doing is the right way to go, but it does mean that you aren’t going to have them automatically updated in your project since the exported files are just copies of files in the project, not part of the project itself. Updating, deleting, moving or renaming them has no effect on the project.
For this, the best way to get your work back into the project after you’ve been editing files on the iPad is to open the project and the Dropbox folder side by side on your computer, then sort the files in Dropbox by their modified date so you can see which you need to update in the project. Then just copy and paste the revised text from the Dropbox files into the project documents. Any new documents you created while away you can just import completely.
Brilliant. Thank you so much.