I’m not sure if this is related, but it’s happened three times in a row just now.
I am dragging images into the research section from a saved folder. As I drag the images in, the entire Scrivener file automatically syncs (saves) with Dropbox in the background. My computer freezes entirely and has to be manually restarted. I can sometimes get an image or two in (and saved) before it freezes. It could be a problem with Dropbox, but I haven’t encountered any freezing issues when using it on a daily basis without Scrivener. Today is the first day I have decided to use Scrivener for a prolonged period.
I’m running Windows Vista and, obviously, Beta 1.6.
I retraced my actions with the Dropbox syncing paused and completely closed. I was able to import numerous photos and did not run into any issues. However, as soon as I opened Dropbox and began syncing the Scrivener file again, the computer froze. There is something about the Scrivener files that Dropbox really doesn’t like. Word docs, web pages, and images are fine on their own, as I have synced several to the server already without issues.
Now I’m not sure if this is something that Scrivener can address and hopefully fix, if it is just something wrong with my system, or if I need to go directly to Dropbox personnel. But it is a “make-or-break” issue for me because I always back up all of my novel pieces to the Dropbox server. I hope that there is a way to resolve it.
Scrivener saves to hard disk every 2 seconds by default. I can only imagine how difficult this would be for a http sync service to cope.
In the Options>General tab you can set Scrivener to save less frequently. I’d suggest every 300 seconds or 5 minutes.
If this continues to be a problem for dropbox users, we could look at placing an option to not automatically save at all. However, during a beta I would not recommend this and would not want to be responsible for loss of work upon a crash.
Lee
