Dropbox is making me nervous. When I sync, it shows the file size increasing, which means my writing is there I suppose. It’s just that when I go into Dropbox, my files are grayed out and I can’t access them. So, if I lose my iPad, I’m not sure if I could ever get my Dropbox files open. Am I supposed to be able to open the file and view them in Dropbox, because it does nothing. The file text is just gray.
This is what I was told in a Dropbox forum. “ The reason that the file preview is failing here is that the file type isn’t supported for previewing since it’s file type is .scriv. For this, there isn’t much I could suggest as it’s expected that the file can’t be previewed I’m afraid.”
Anyone with any ideas to help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Dropbox doesn’t have the application “Scrivener” available to view the files. Hence previewing on their website doesn’t work. And by peeking into the files, you need to be fully aware of Scrivener’s algorightm for the folders.
If you open a Scrivener project from the Dropbox folder on your Mac, does it work? If so, what’s the problem?
If concerned, look at the files via Finder in the Dropbox folder on your Mac. It is this folder that Dropbox syncs for your. Scrivener is not doing the sync. Dropbox’s app does it.
I guess I don’t necessarily need to look at my files in Dropbox. I just want to know my work is there. So, if I open a project in Scrivener that says Dropbox in the bottom right corner, this is the text that is currently in that Dropbox file? Sorry, technology is not my thing. I just need assurance so I don’t loose anything. Thanks.
Basically, Dropbox is just aware enough of what a “.scriv” folder is to know that it is something it should treat as a “file”, like it gets treated on your Mac. I suspect they probably programmed that into their system manually, as they probably do for any such popular formats that use this convention.
It is a folder though, in reality, with lots of smaller files in it. And as you develop your project, more of those files will be created, which is probably what you are observing as increased sync processing.
I do believe that if you go to the Dropbox website itself rather than the app, it lets you browse the contents. But there isn’t a whole lot of reason to do that. Dropbox (and the Mac) hide the contents of this folder for a good reason: it’s all internal stuff you aren’t meant to mess with on a regular basis.
For peace of mind though, I definitely recommend reading this article on backing up your work! It’s simple and easy to do, you should do it a couple of times a day if you’re working a lot.
So, if I drop my iPad into the sea and I purchase a new one. I guess I would load Scrivener and Dropbox then sync. Would what I have in Dropbox now back in my Projects folder in Scrivener?
Yes and No. When you change things in the project (e.g. edit text), only IOs Scriv has the now-uptodate version of your project, until you let those changes sync back to the copy of your project on dropbox.
If you edited your project on another machine, you would likewise need to let ios Scriv sync its connected projects with dropbox in order for the copy on your ios device to be uptodate.