Have you personally tested this?
Katherine
I’m unable to do so as I have a paid Dropbox account, and I also make use of the Dropbox application on my devices for automated uploads.
I can confirm. I just have the free account. I de-authorized my iphone, and then was able to successfully sync using Scrivener. There’s a separate section for authorized apps, which are not subject to the 3-device limit, that lists Scrivener as authorized.
Probably this means I can’t use the Dropbox app on my iphone, but I have rarely bothered doing that. Since it’s not needed, I’ll probably delete that and authorize my work PC again. Hooray!
Just a note to the Scrivener Admins on this subject - I love your product! Its amazing!
But - Please, please, please, please, please, please, please add iCloud support for syncing between Mac OS and IOS Scrivener versions.
I use MAC/IOS and iCloud - A LOT - and for large files - I’ve never had a sync problem. Ever!
I’m also frustrated that I’d have to pay for Dropbox - nearly £10 a month - for some of my larger projects. I don’t even pay that for my author website and domain name.
The lack of iCloud support for MAC users frankly tarnishes a superb product.
I use an iMAc and MacBook and Scriver syncs perfectly between the two of them using iCloud - So it works. The only caveat is that I always close a project before opening it on the other device.
I’m sure the Scrivener MAC customer base would appreciate iCloud support being added (I’m not asking for DropBox to be removed, just a feature added). I’ve worked in software development and I know that under the covers things might be as straightforward as they seem to ‘users’. However, I also know that most software problems can be resolved and you might make more profit. For example: I know of writers who don’t use Scrivener because:
a) Don’t want their work in DropBox for various reasons.
b) Like me, refuse to pay for Dropbox when there is a perfectly good native sync solution (iCloud) for free/or already paid for. Personally I pay for iCloud extra storage, but I don’t want to have to pay again for DropBox.
Please consider this in a future release - you’d have one happy customer! - Rant over.
You haven’t read through this thread, have you? The reason why iCloud isn’t supported has been explained soooo many times. Now go back to the start and read.
Yes, I’ve read the info, but I’m still not convinced:
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I can drop files into my iCloud folder, or subfolder and it appears (syncs) to my other devices - two IOS (iPhone and IPad) and two MAC OS (iMac and Macbook Air) - almost instantly. I’ve tested this with small, large files and using IOS and MAC OS as the source - All works (syncs) perfectly.
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I’ve tested Scrivener sharing a project (one at a time), via iCloud, on two MAC OS devices - Guess what it works.
Caveat: I close one before I open the other, because I’ve not aware of Scrivener using lock files/technology in this configuration. However, this is how I’d operate anyway, i.e. work at home on my iMac, close Scrivener, open the same project in the coffee shop on my iPad., go home, repeat, etc
I’m guessing the real reason (from my SW development experience) is that time and effort has been put into developing a syncing solution using DropBox - probably before iCloud matured, as it wasn’t always so stable. So I understand the developers don’t want to spend more time reinventing the wheel .
… which shows you haven’t read the whole thread, or haven’t understood what you read. Only Dropbox have provided a sufficiently detailed API to allow a third party developer like L&L to handle syncing of such a complex project structure that a Scrivener project is. Apple hasn’t provided that to developers.
Why don’t you contact Apple and demand that they provide a detailed API so L&L can do what you want? And do publish the answer you get in here.
There is a potential way round it without using the iCloud API, but much more basic so probably not a good idea. I’d need to know more about the code. Are there any details on the specific API calls involved in the issue?
I trust that Keith knows what he is doing and that other sync alternatives will be added when it can be done.
FWIW, Keith has had extensive conversations with Apple’s developer support group. We’re not ignoring the question by any means. But – as has been explained at length – the combination of things that Scrivener does is fairly unique.
Katherine
Which is not acceptable, because not using the API means it WILL BREAK when Apple changes things, which they do all the time.
Well, this whole thread bodes ill for any of us who don’t want to go through the process of yet another Username-password service joining just for one single app.
I tried Dropbox once and hated the “integration” that it forced on me. I don’t really want to use much of my time for a service that I’m just gonna use for one app.
Maybe contact Affinity (serif) for clues how they did such a good job creating a pair of iOS versions of their Photo and Designer apps – practically every single feature on the desktop is there on the iOS version. And their documents can be opened by any other affinity app (i.e photo can open a Designer doc that was made using the Desktop and saved to the iCloud and then the Publisher app on the desktop can then open it and so on…) It seems to me that Affinity understands that they are building an Ecosystem, where each part needs to work together on a variety of platforms – both computing and synching. I feel that isn’t how L&L approached things. But I’m just a lowly comic artist, not a programmer. 
So maybe this is heretical but I don’t think the iOS version is anything really special compared to the desktop, its like a pale shadow of the desktop version. I’ve used the iOS version maybe a dozen times and each time left it frustrated and disappointed that I basically wasted the money for it.
At least I have Storyist and Pages. I wish that the restrictive syching was mentioned upfront when I bought it. If so, I wouldn’t have.
And the comment that we users should contact companies on L&L benefit is more like “your privilege is showing” than me not wanting to use a service that, for my needs, I would have to pay for as my scrivener files contains graphics for comic layouts. Besides, I’m already shelling out bucks for iCloud and I can’t afford yet another sub, to paraphrase a asian quote “A death from a thousand subs.”
To be clear, I’m not angry, just disappointed. Mostly in myself for letting the hype over the iOS version overtake common sense of waiting to see if it would work. I didn’t and there’s another app joining the graveyard of the “almost, but not quite” deleted apps.
Hi M!ke,
I find the stripped down iOS version perfect for heads down first draft writing–less distractions. But I realize others might prefer to have all the tools of the desktop version at hand.
From the App store Scrivener page:
[b]Work Anywhere
• Use Dropbox to sync between devices and with the macOS and Windows versions of Scrivener*
• Copy projects between devices via iTunes
- Requires a Dropbox account (not compatible with iCloud).[/b]
It’s certainly possible those bullets weren’t there when you bought iOS Scrivener, but they’re there now.
Best,
Jim
I wouldn’t phrase it quite that way, but iOS Scrivener has never claimed to duplicate the full functionality of desktop Scrivener. The platform simply doesn’t support it.
Katherine
It takes a few minutes to set up Dropbox and then you spend zero time on it.
You just have to remember to sync on the iOS device which is as simple as tapping the icon. I have 8 books synched on DB including two that are extremely image heavy. What I did was check around for friends who might have a storage need for backups, their writing etc and sent the BD invite and ended up with 7+ GB of free storage.
Other than the recent Apple induced synch failures which seem resolved with the latest iOS release it’s worked fine for pretty much all users since the first release of iOS Scrivener .
As for
,
if you read the threads on this subject (pretty much everything you say has been said and answered dozens of times over) you will see that L&L have tried providing feedback to Apple and pretty much the last option is for a groundswell of user feedback to Apple to hopefully convince them of the need. I think that’s a totally reasonable suggestion, nothing to do with “your privilege is showing” .
Of course you can always use the L&L documented iTunes synch process if you REALLY don’t want to use Dropbox, and there have been a few posts on other possible ways (with warnings) to use other cloud options, but you’d have to take the time to read those previous threads. Probably hundreds of times longer that it takes to set up and implement Dropbox.
iOS Scrivener was never meant to be as full featured as the desktop apps due to the restrictions imposed by iOS.
After finally getting Dropbox to not give me the Invalid Project alert, I worked on it for a while, went to work on my Mac, came back to test the iOS version again, and when I hit the Sync button, my project disappeared. I had to Re-Link to Dropbox to get it to show up again.
I guess my zero is bigger than your zero.
So far, the iOS version of Scrivener has been a waste of my time & money.
This suggests that the folder your iOS Scriv was linked to didn’t contain the project.
And I’m obviously not very bright by implication.
I verified it was there on the Mac. I Re-Linked Dropbox on my iPad and it appeared again. Worked for a while, then came back later, hit sync, and it disappeared again. Re-Linked, appeared, synced, disappeared. A total of four times.
It’s not always the users fault.
I cannot recall a verified case of Dropbox killing projects as you describe. Certainly not 4 times.
- Did you make use of this extensive resource? scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/ … g-with-ios
- Did you reach out to L&L or Dropbox tech support?
Not being nasty, but it USUALLY is the user’s fault in my experience.
Just linking/re-linking iOS Scrivener to Dropbox doesn’t do anything. You have to tap the sync icon for anything to happen. So the project can neither appear or disappear by simply linking.
It would be interesting with screen shots that showed exactly what you mean is happening.