My Mac version won’t open the PC version of my writing. I have tried the Scrivener method detailed on an easy to find Facebook page, tried from a backup but neither works. It looks as though this is difficult, I cannot figure out the words to search for to get an answer, so please could someone link to an answer or tell me how to get my PC file working on a Mac.
Thanks
What versions of Scrivener do you have on both systems?
On the PC, please use Scrivener’s File -> Backup -> Backup To command to save a copy of the project to the thumb drive.
Then, on the Mac, please drag it from the thumb drive to your local hard disk using Finder. (Opening projects directly from a thumb drive doesn’t work well.)
What happens if you then open the project from Mac Scrivener? Nothing? Error message? Something else?
Katherine
Thanks for the reply Katherine.
I have tried that method and get an error.
ON the Mac is 2.8
PC is 1.9.0.0
I have updated the pc version to 1.9.6.0 and gone through the whole procedure. Still error messages.
This is wasting a lot of time, surely it should be easier to do this?
Double clicking on the .scriv file gives
Scrivener attempted to restore the binder structure for this project but failed. Try restoring from a backup, or create a new project and use File > Import > Scrivener Project to retrieve work from this project (structure information will be lost).
importing project into blank file givesThe binder file for this project could not be opened. It may be corrupted, or you may be trying to import a project that was created on an earlier version of Scrivener and which has not been updated. If the latter, try updating the project before importing it. The binder file holds information about the project structure and document titles, so if you choose to continue the files from this project will be imported as a flat list without meta-data. Continue anyway?
This results in a lot of files, in an unusable alphabetical order of file title - yet it seems with not all of them there and with no graphics as used to differentiate each file either.
I hope that you can help me sort this out, thanks.
I still have this problem.
I have tried using dropbox. installed on both machines. saved to dropbox from PC. (which can re open it OK). But when I try to open it on the Mac I get an error message as attached.
Thanks for your help.
How did you copy the project from your PC to the thumb drive? What did you copy?
That error looks a lot like you just copied the .scrivx file out of the project’s .scriv folder. If so, then you should know that the .scrivx file is just an index of the content of your project, like the card catalog of a library. You need to copy over the entire .scriv folder.
Thank you trying to sort this.
I have tried many ways of copying. But it isn’t just one file that arrives on the Mac. When I right click on the package and ‘show contents’ I get the file structure in the image below.
Presumably that means it is the whole folder going across to the new computer.
I am also trying to get there via dropbox. I have the working file in dropbox but am unable to access it from the Mac.
Any more suggestions gratefully received.
username100, could you please confirm that this is what happens:
When on your PC, if you click on the scrivx file in the dropbox folder, the project opens successfully.
When on your Mac, if you click on the scrivx file in the dropbox folder, the project does not open successfully.
I am trying to confirm how and from where you are launching your projects, as this might point to a clue.
Hi Jim,
Yes that is the case.
I think this bit is normal - on the PC I have to click through to the innards of the package to click on the scriv file. On the Mac the file is immediately available.
Thanks for your help
J
Of the several ways to copy the project from Windows to the thumb drive, have you tried Scrivener’s “File->Save As” menu, and directed it to the thumb drive?
That may be a typo, but you wouldn’t normally see the .scrivx file without revealing the contents of the package in the Finder. Instead, if you can see the extension for a project, it will end in “.scriv” (no ‘x’ at the end) and the folder structure will be hidden.
The same project on the thumb drive, when plugged into a Windows computer, will look like a folder with files & folders in it. On the Mac, it will look like a single file.
No, not a typo, I am just an ignoramus when it comes to the Mac - never really used one.
This is a very odd situation. My original thought was, based on direction from Katherine in the 2nd post, that username100 was trying to open a backup project, i.e. zipped file. That scenario might behave this way (but I haven’t tested it). But if the dropbox file can be opened via the PC, then I cannot think of any reason why it couldn’t likewise be opened from the Mac.
Yes, I have just tried again. Using Save as onto the drive, the project can be reopened on the PC, but on the Mac get:
Scrivener attempted to restore the binder structure for this project but failed. Try restoring from a backup, or create a new project and use File > Import > Scrivener Project to retrieve work from this project (structure information will be lost).
How are going about when you try to open the project on the Mac? ‘Open’ from inside Scrivener or from Finder by double-clicking, and if the latter, what are you clicking? .scriv or .scrivx?
I’ve tried both. The files are .scriv
Thanks.
… and you give the thumbdrive time to write everything and then do a secure removal, releasing it first?
Thanks for the idea, but yes, I’ve given it time.
Could you send an email to our tech support address, please? We may need to do more digging than is possible via forum.
Also, does the Mac version open and create local projects successfully? That is, are you having problems with any project other than this one?
Katherine