Dropbox fatality or not?

Scrivener Newcomer Central
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        I'm going through  deep dive first time user learning curves- I've written around 30k words and *now* I'm trying to backup my project. I was able to upload to Dropbox I think BUT after uploading I tried to open my project to see if it was all there and got: 
                                  The document could not be opened. "My Project" is the main structure file for a project, but other required files could not be found:
 the /Files/Data and /Settings FOLDERS are missing.
            Note that I had my project open in Scrivener on my laptop while trying to open it from Dropbox Also, I still have my whole manuscript on/in my Scrivener. I still want to backup my files two other ways and I'm working on figuring that out also. I know these are all simple tasks but not for a first timer.
                           Thanks
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Hello warren.

The error you’ve described sounds like you only uploaded your project’s .scrivx file to Dropbox rather than the entire .scriv project folder.

A Scrivener project is actually a folder, with subfolders and potentially hundreds of component files. The .scrivx file is the master index used to build the Binder. And, none of the project can be correctly opened and accessed if the .scrivx file is separated from the subfolders.

You’ll want to navigate up a level from that .scrivx file to the project folder and move it. And, you’ll definitely want to close the project on your computer before moving the project folder.

In the Scrivener manual, Section 5.1.5 discusses how to safely move an entire project.

You might find Section 5.2 helpful as well, since it discusses backing projects up and accessing them. Using the File > Back Up > Back Up To command might be a better way to make a copy on your Dropbox folder.

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I also wonder how you are interacting with Dropbox. The way you stated this makes me wonder if you were trying to upload using their web interface or some such.

If you are new to Dropbox, perhaps it is worth saying that syncing files to Dropbox is a passive operation — you don’t do anything to make it happen once it is set up. The installed Dropbox app/engine treats a particular folder on your hard drive as ‘to be synced’. So, everything you put in that folder gets automatically synced to the Dropbox server. For example, dropping a zipped copy/backup of a scrivener project into that blessed folder will cause a (synced) copy to be made on a Dropbox server.

(I understand you may know all this perfectly well, but I put it here just in case it might help.)

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Don’t upload the project anywhere. Put it in a Dropbox folder on your hard drive. If it isn’t there already, move it there.

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