I don’t know what to do. I started my MacBook and got a notice from Dropbox that things had changed and gotten moved around in DropBox. When I opened my Scrivener and went to recent files there were 0 files. Usually there are two files there I can open. I went to Open and the file I am looking for is nowhere to be found. The other file that is usually in the recent files is there. I went to Dropbox and I did a search for the other file and it appears but as .scriv and cannot be opened. This is what I see. OK not allowed to share the screenshot so it says All Files/Apps/Scrivener and then the tile is Revision.scriv (the file I am missing is titled Revision) and then it lists folders: files, QuickLook, Settings, Snapshots and then a document ending in .scriv with the name of my file.
But an openable file isn’t anywhere and there is nothing in Dropbox. I don’t know what to do. I wrote an email to HELP but it could take 48 hours to get a response and I am really in a panic. I guess I will call Dropbox support but doubt they can do anything.
It sounds to me like your problem is this: i) you are relying entirely on the Recents Menu to access your project, ii) you have no idea where you have stored your project files on your harddrive, and iii) now Recents Menu has failed you. (BTW, Recents menu is a MacOS thing, not a Scriv thing.)
Your Scrivener project itself lives on your harddrive. (Scrivener on MacOS does not open projects files directly “from the cloud”, it opens project files from your harddrive (though you also may be using DropBox to have such files synced to the cloud)). You should know where your project file lives on your harddrive.
You need to get to the Finder and locate your scrivener project (Revision.scriv, presumably) on your harddrive (ignore any backup files of that project you might find, we are looking for your master project file). Open your master project directly from the Finder. While you have it open, you might want to favorite that project on Scriv’s Favorites menu – and open it that way in future.
You say you “went to DropBox” and by this I am assuming you mean you used your browser to see into your DropBox account. BUT this is not what you should be doing. We have no reason to think your project file is not on your harddrive which is where it lives. You should be looking for it there FIRST. ((Side note: You saw your project file (.scriv!) listed on DropBox, but did not recognize it as such. Of course you could not open that in your browser – neither DropBox nor your browser knows how to parse a scrivener project file.))
On your Macbook, Dropbox places a dropbox menu among the utility menus in the upper right of your display. One of the things you can quickly do with that menu is have it open the blessed DropBox folder (wherever it may be) on your harddrive. There is, evidently a subfolder in there which contains your Scrivener project. Look there.
(If that doesn’t turn it up, do a Find (cmd-F) in the Finder and search for a file with the name ‘Revision.scriv’ (or whatever your project file is called).
[[This post should be classified under Scriv for MacOS.]]
Yes I have used Scrivener for 10 years and don’t understand how it works technically and never had an issue until today. I also did numerous searches in a panic and sometimes it was in the Scrivener files but not openable and sometimes it was not even in the list of files. Until a search yielded a file i could open but was told dire things could happen if I opened it and certain conditions I can’t remember were not met. And so I opted for make a copy of it. That worked but the resolution is as mysterious to me as the original problem. At any rate now I have copied and pasted all the chapters into a Word doc on my computer and into a Google doc and will probably not use Scrivener again because my takeaway is I do not have the smarts for it or the emotional capacity for these mishaps.
I realise you have decided to abandon your use of Scrivener due to Dropbox issues … but did you need to put your files in a folder on your computer that Dropbox syncs? Do you have an iOS device running Scrivener for iOS? You don’t mention anything about that. If not, seems like there is no reason to use Dropbox. Just wondering. @gr’s advice is spot on.
Meantime, please be careful with Word and its sometimes-insistent use of OneDrive, Microsoft’s sync service.
Don’t abandon Scrivener. First let the program show you where your project is on your computer. File > Show Project in File Explorer (Windows here) but assume similar entry under the File Menu Command. Second look at preferences > Backup and set a location you remember for a zip backup. Now once all your current projects are backed up, use Time Machine, or another program to backup this folder with your saves to an external drive. Doing this will give you assurance your backups are safe. Don’t give up on the program, because you did not have a proper backup plan. Set one up and go forward with confidence.
As noted, Scrivener’s Recent Projects menu is not reliable. You can locate all projects on your computer by searching for .scriv files in Finder. You can also configure a smart folder in Finder to do the same.
Without more information, it’s hard to say what might have happened, but “smart sync” issues are by a wide margin the most common cloud-related issue. Best practices for using Scrivener with cloud services can be found here:
If things were “changed and moved around in Dropbox” without your active participation, that’s a strong indication that either your account was hacked or (probably more likely) some other piece of software was meddling in the Dropbox folder. Since you’re using a Mac, I would strongly recommend checking your iCloud settings. If iCloud is “helpfully” “optimizing” files that you believe are managed by Dropbox, that could cause all kinds of issues.
Hello! Thanks for the kind and patient responses during the midst of my panic attack and meltdown. I am back because I am quite confused. As you know I mysteriously located the Scrivener file on my Mac. Here is the message I get when I try to click on the file I want to work with:
The project “Revision.scriv” seems to have been copied from another project while it was open and in use on MacBook-Air at path ‘/Users/Judy1/Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener/Revision.scriv’. Scrivener will rebuild its search indexes before opening the project.
Before continuing, please ensure that this project is not open anywhere else, otherwise data could be lost. If you are not sure, you can choose ‘Make a Copy’ to work from a copy.
I did make a copy and titled it Revision1. I can open and use it fine. But what does that message about the original file mean? I am wary of running into a similar issue in the future.
More to the point: What did I do wrong that caused this error?
I am not currently working on the project on both a MacBook Air and an iPad. BUT I had done that at one point and hence the DropBox use. However, I stopped doing that years ago and only work on my MacBook. I do however still have the Scrivener app on my iPad. Should I remove it?
How do I remove DropBox from the equation entirely? Is this advised?
Can I pay someone to walk me through this virtually? I am serious!
I started to watch the most basic Scrivener 101 tutorial but it seems to start with everything being set up and showing you how to start a new project on Scrivener. Can someone point me to a 101 on where to store and save on your Mac and maybe I don’t need someone to walk me through it?
I hope this makes sense. I am just trying to get a handle on things so I can continue using Scrivener safely as in many other respects it works well for my fiction project.
Ok now I see a resource shared with me that gets to some of my questions in my latest post. Sorry I missed this! I will take a dive into it now. Thank you for sharing.
How do I remove DropBox from the equation entirely? Is this advised?
Move your project(s) out of the Dropbox folder while Scrivener is closed. Reset Scrivener’s Recent Projects menu so it won’t point to the old locations. Done.
The message you saw can happen if Scrivener fails to clear the “lock” file that indicates a project is in use. That most commonly happens after a crash, but might also happen if you interrupted Dropbox’s sync after closing the project – for instance if you immediately closed the lid and put your Macbook to sleep.
Sorry another question. Is it okay to just delete it from my Dropbox as opposed to “moving it out”? In other words if I have it on my actual computer I can just delete from Dropbox as long as Scrivener is closed and nothing terrible will happen, right?
Wrong. The Dropbox folder on your computer is on your computer. That’s the whole point. If you delete it from there, it’s just as gone as anything else you might delete.
Wow I am so completely confused. I have a Scrivener folder on my Macbook hard drive. And a Dropbox folder with my Scrivener in it. I have not done anything with the Scrivener files in Dropbox but I have no idea how I have used Scrivener for over a decade and am more confused than I have ever been.
Scrivener saves projects wherever you tell it to when the project is created. And that’s where they stay forever unless you move them.
It also creates backup files in the location specified in the Scrivener → Settings → Backups pane. And that’s where they stay forever unless you move them.
Installing the Dropbox software creates a special folder on your Mac. Items in this folder are saved on the Mac and uploaded to the Dropbox server. Items deleted from this folder are deleted from the Mac and deleted from the Dropbox server.
This error message indicates that the project responsible for the message is stored in the Dropbox folder on your Mac. There might be backups or other copies elsewhere on the Mac, but the live project that you were working on when you received the message is in the Dropbox folder. Which is why I suggested moving it, rather than deleting it.
If it were me, I would advise using Finder to locate all Scrivener projects on your Mac. Then you can decide which ones are important and which ones aren’t. But blindly deleting something from Dropbox (or anywhere else) without knowing what it is is a recipe for disaster.