First, forgive me for not attaching the crash log. I’ve looked in my library and it’s nowhere to be found. My Scrivener on MacOS (just updated my macOS) continues prompting me to sync with mobile devices. All devices have been synced but the moment I start typing in macOS Scrivener it freaks out and prompts me multiple times eventually causing it to crash. My mobile devices behave similarly, but not quite as frantic as macOS. I can’t find this topic anywhere on the forum.
I write on my MacBook primarily, iPad second, and iPhone rarely. I’ve been more in the flow lately so I’ve been using Scrivener across all devices. Yay me! I triple check that each device has synced before closing it but I’m still getting this crash out.
Hi, I think I’m getting the same issue as you, or possibly related? Made a change on iOS a few days ago, now I’m stuck in some sort of sync loop. When I open Scrivener on MacOS it warns me of sync conflicts, so I perform the sync and Scrivener does its thing. Then I begin writing and it warns me it needs to sync again (different error message) and seems to loop.
Yup! Exactly the same thing and you did a much better job of describing it. It’s still happening and driving my neurodivergent brain nuts, ha ha. Sorry you are dealing with it too.
Could you tell me which version of Scrivener you have, please, and with which version of Mac OS? We’ve seen a lot of reports like this lately, and it appears to derive from an issue on the Dropbox side of things. If you’re sure that the project on the Mac is up to date, the short term answer might be to temporarily pause Dropbox syncing.
Hello. I’m running macOS 3.5.2. The iOS version I have is up to date, as well. Please let me know if you need any other information and thanks for looking into this.
I am having the same problem. All versions of my project on iPad (iPadOS 27) and Mac (OS26.7) are up-to-date and were working properly yesterday. I’ve tried using a backup version on Mac and also tried giving it a different name using the ‘save as’ command. When loading Scrivener detects a conflict with the mobile version, asks to sync, backsup (takes ages), then repeats the process continually. Is there a way to actually just get my document out of the loop to avoid this?
With more information, we’ve determined that this appears to be an issue between Dropbox and the Mac OS File Provider. iOS Scrivener puts its changes in a “Mobile” folder within the project. Mac Scrivener incorporates those changes into the main body of the project and removes the Mobile folder. But, for whatever reason, Dropbox appears to fail to update that change back to the server. It then reports an error because the server has a Mobile folder and the local project does not.
In some cases, allowing Scrivener to fix the error – the “Continue” button in the error message – makes it go away.
If it recurs, you can pause synchronization while you’re working, provided you remember to turn it back on when you’re done.
Or, you can disable Dropbox’s File Provider integration. Their instructions can be found here:
Yes and no. You can use the Files app to transfer projects to/from the device without using Dropbox, but that’s more of a “copy” operation than a “synchronization.” Less vulnerable to issues, but also less convenient.
I switched my Dropbox folder back from the file provider location as in the linked article and hallelujah, the dreaded sync conflict loop has been cured.
Rather annoyingly, in its preferences, the Dropbox app suggests that putting the folder within the file provider location is required by the version of MacOS being used. Which clearly isn’t the case, if it can be switched back.