I was using Dropbox for several months. Had it all set up, and working fine. A month ago I had to change it because I was going to be where there was no internet. Now I’m trying to change it back and I keep getting an error message to the effect that I don’t have permission to save there.
Is this a Dropbox message? A Scrivener message? Or a Windows message? And more importantly, how do I go about getting back to my happy world?
Permissions would be a Windows thing; the message might be via Scrivener, but if it’s telling you that you can’t create a project in a certain location such as your Dropbox folder, it’s because the Windows user account you’re running Scrivener with does not have the necessary permissions to write to that folder. Right-clicking on the folder and choosing Properties will let you check the permissions (under the Security tab) and the potential read-only status (under General).
Beyond that, more information would be helpful. What is the message specifically, and what steps were you taking that triggered it? It’s not quite clear what you’re doing to change your settings back (or what settings those are) and how you’re using Scrivener and Dropbox together, whether you’re moving project folders, exporting, saving backups, etc.
Tools>Options>Manage>Save Preferences>Browse File>Dropbox
Message is
“C:\Program Files\Dropbox\Nor Gold.prefs
You don’t have permission to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission.
Would you like to save in Admin folder instead?”
It’s my own computer, and there are no security settings.
I’ve clicked off the “Read Only” on the files, but that doesn’t address the saving issue.
It definitely looks like a message Windows is relaying; Scrivener doesn’t do anything with permissions. Program Files is a protected area, so if you’re not running as an administrator account (or your Program Files has special privileges that would still bar this particular account), you won’t be able to save files there without additional prompts. Even if you are an admin it often still makes a fuss, depending on your UAC settings (which will also depend on what version of Windows you’re running). Putting your Dropbox folder in your user Documents directory is a good way to avoid that and to keep it specific to each user (though in your case it sounds like no one else is using the machine, so I understand that’s not an issue); Program Files is intended for programs you’ll install, whereas the Dropbox folder for your documents to sync is just a directory, not a program, and will house your personal documents, etc. which really are best not stored in Program Files.
I’m not sure what all you’re still trying to set up with your projects and Scrivener preferences, but it’s crucial that Scrivener always have write permissions to your projects; it won’t open them otherwise, since it needs to save the interface state and other changes you make just by flicking around through documents, even if you don’t edit anything. So even if you drag these to your Program Files\Dropbox\ location in Windows Explorer, they won’t open if Scrivener (via your account) doesn’t have access to freely write there.
Preference files like the one you’re saving are static, so if you have any already saved there from previously, you should be able to load them, even though you can’t save new ones to that location.