Freezing/Crashing/Not Responding.

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

I have been using Scrivener for a few years and recently got a new computer. I installed Scrivener, opened up a new project and tried to import a word file. Scrivener keeps freezing/not responding/crashing every time I try to do this - and without success in importing. Suggestions? I tried restarting my computer and importing a different file and it still happens. It also crashes when I try to open up an old project.

2

Try to copy text from Word then set your font in Scrivener and use Paste and Match Style. See if that gets your text in.

3

Thanks. That does work to copy and paste, but this is a book length project that will require many types of document imports, and it’s baffling why a new scrivener download and a new computer would always be crashing.

4

The freezing is specifically tied to trying to import the file? A few things to try:

  • First, if you did not download a fresh copy of the installer to set up your new machine, double-check via Help > About Scrivener that you’re running 1.8.6. If it’s anything earlier, download the latest from here and install that. You can install over your existing copy, just make sure Scrivener is closed.

  • In Scrivener, go to Tools > Options… and click Import/Export then the “Import Converters…” button. From the drop-down on the left, select the file format of the files you’re trying to import (presumably DOC or DOCX), then choose the “Microsoft Office” option from the right if it is available. This will use Word’s libraries to convert the file to Scrivener’s native RTF format, and you may get better results.

  • Resave the file in Word as an RTF and see if that will import. You might also try saving a copy and then removing any complex styles–set the whole thing to “Normal”, for instance, and see if that helps the import.

  • If you have any security software running, check that it hasn’t flagged anything in Scrivener. We’ve had a few occasions of zealous software blocking the third-party converters used for import/export, and that could cause the process to hang.

5

Hi

I’m having a problem with scrivener on a computer running Windows. Whether I open the software itself or from a project, before I can see anything the screen freezes and a “Scrivener nor responding” message appears.

I have reinstalled the program, to no avail.

What should I do? What might the problem be?

I had been using the programme without any issues previously. This has been happening since yesterday, and it happens every time I open Scrivener, so effectively, I cannot carry on with my work.

Thanks,

giecker

6

What changed then? Did you install or update anti-virus? Windows Updates? Some new program?