Thank you, comrade. I guess we are back into the ol’ “Damn if you do, damn if you don’t” scenario!
Hello. I am using a MacBook Air running Ventura 13.1. I sync to my iPad 10th generation and iPhone XR on iOS 17.4.1 with Dropbox. Sync had been working fine. But for the last couple of days, I haven’t been able to get the most recent version of my project on my iPad or iPhone. My iPad and iPhone performed a sync but has a previous version. Everything is up to date on my laptop.
What would be the best option for me to get my devices in sync again?
(In general, my problems using Scrivener seem to have started when Dropbox moved all my files offline.)
See the material at
https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/ios
The default for online/offline for Dropbox is “online”, e.g. files kept online at Dropbox. That does not work with Scrivener. Must be “offline” and Dropbox will not do that to or for you. You have to change the setting
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As @rms said, tell it not to do that.
Hi!
I save my scrivener files on dropbox. After I transferred them via migration assistant from my old Macbook Pro to a 2024 Macbook Air (Sonoma 14.2.), I can’t open them there, and get the following message: “The project appears to be in an older format, but no binder.scrivproj file could be found in it. It may be missing or corrupt, perhaps due to a problem with the device it is stored on or a syncing issue.”
On my iPad and old MacBook everything is normal.
Any suggestions?
I use scrivener 3.4
Greetings Gesine
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I guess it is a dropbox sync problem, so I am probably in the wrong forum here, but any suggestions would be welcome anyways
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Symptoms suggest an incomplete sync or perhaps incomplete initial load to Dropbox from old machine. You have to tell Dropbox to keep files “offline”.
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The most common cause of this error is incomplete synchronization. Dropbox (or another service) “helpfully” “optimizes” your disk so that part of the project is stored exclusively on their server, where Scrivener can’t access it.
More information and what to do next can be found here:
https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/cloud-syncing/errors-opening-projects-stored-on-dropbox
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Hello,
I have my Scrivener project stored on Dropbox, which I use on my laptop, phone, and iPad. I recently got a new laptop. I’ve installed Scrivener on my new laptop, but the Scrivener project on Dropbox will not open on my laptop.
I get the message:
The project at “/Users/smlee4/Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener/Unsettling Claims.scriv” seems to be of an older format, but no binder.scrivproj file could be found inside it. It may be missing or corrupt, possibly because of a problem with the device on which it is stored, or because of a synchronisation problem.
Try ctrl-clicking on the project in the Finder and selecting “Show Package Contents”, then look for a file entitled ‘binder.scrivproj’. Ensure it has not been renamed by a backup routine. If it does not exist, try restoring from a backup.
I do not see a binder.scrivproj file. But the project still opens fine on my iPad so I assume the binder.scrivproj file is there on Dropbox. Dropbox on my laptop is set up as “available offline” so the file should be available on my laptop.
I no longer have my old laptop at my disposal. Beyond the Scrivener files on Dropbox, I also have a slightly out of date backup on Google Drive. I would appreciate advice on the best means to get my Scrivener project working on my laptop without causing any further synchronization issues.
Thank you!
You need to set the Dropbox Scrivener folder to Make available offline. In all new installations Dropbox have that turned off thinking it helpful to keep your stuff on their server… doesn’t work with Scrivener.
Mark
Thanks Mark. I do have Dropbox set as “available offline,” and I still get the error message. Dropbox also says that my files are up to date.
Have you given it enough time to download the projects fully? That “no .scrivproj” alert usually means some file or files have failed to download.
.scrivproj doesn’t exist in a Scrivener 3 project. If it opens on your iPad, I’d email yourself a zipped copy from there and open that on your new Mac, unzip it and open it. If that works, you can sort out the Dropbox problem afterwards.
Mark
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Ok. Thank you. I will try that. I appreciate your help.
I found an old piece of work in Dropbox but when I downloaded it and Scrivener said that “this is an old format and will be updated”, The file now opens to what appears to be corkboad cards but I can not open text view so it appears that all the text has gone. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.