Entire chapter lost!

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

I’ve been writing all morning (almost 2 hours) and suddenly my computer went black. When I turned it back on and reopened Scrivener, all my work from this morning is gone. That chapter is blank, and the next one I started is gone, too. I actually started the chapter last night. I went to backup and extracted the files from the most recent save (this morning) and it still opens to a blank chapter! :imp:

2

Okay, I’m replying to myself in case it helps anyone. I’d already looked in my “recent projects” folder on scrivener, but when I looked again and checked out the bottom of the list rather than the top, I found my most recent chapter so that I wound up losing only a paragraph of the next chapter. Whew! So, if this happens to you, try File, then Recent Projects. :smiley:

3

So do you have multiple copies of your project? I ask because it seems like you may be using “File->Save As” to create backups before you make new changes.

This can lead to confusion, because when that copy is made, the most recent version of the project becomes that backup copy, and you might accidentally edit it instead of the ‘main’ version of the project. I find that using File->Back Up->Back Up To… with the .zip compression option turned on leads to less confusion; you can’t accidentally open those zip file backups in Scrivener (you have to extract the contents of the archive file first), and you end up keeping the main project open in Scrivener.

Hope that helps keep you on track!

4

And remember, Scrivener automatically saves any recent changes to the project every time you stop writing for a few seconds, so there is no general need to save all the time, like you have to do in e.g. Word.

5

Okay, so can you tell me the best way to make sure you have your work in case the computer stops working all together?

And can you tell me how to set it back to save to Scrivener zip? Thank you for your help!

6
  1. Check the settings to make sure that auto-save is set to only a few seconds of inactivity.
  2. Pause for a few seconds every now and then while writing, so Scrivener gets a chance to autosave.
  3. Check the settings to make sure that Scrivener makes a zip:ed backup when you close the project.
  4. Set the number of saved backups to more than just a few.
  5. Close the project when you are done for the day. (this is a good routine especially in case you plan to use the iOS version as well)