Help! Did the Scriv upgrade wipe out all my work?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
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(note: The answer to my problem may very well be encoded in the other posts about .scriv packages and backup tricks and such, but I can’t seem to piece it together. Sorry).

I believe I might have wiped out all my work. Or maybe Scrivener did. I can’t quite tell.

In brief: When I first started with Scriv, I imported what I’d already written of my book project from Word (multiple files). Easy enough and no big deal.

Here’s the snag: In my idiocy, I believe I imported all my nascent chapters and clippings directly into Tutorial.scriv (which I had open at the time).

By the time I realized it, I was well underway and had written a lot more, and since it appeared I’d already overwritten/screwed up many tutorial files as well as the Binder structure, I just swore heavily (I really needed that tutorial!) and kept going, not bothering to export all i’d done and create a new project properly. In other words, Tutorial.scriv became my book.

All well and good and everything worked beautifully… until I installed the Scrivener upgrade, and now, all my work is gone. The structure is still intact in the Binder, my chapter titles are still there and the files appear to be there as normal, but they’re either blank, or now have the old Tutorial info back on them. My work has, apparently, vanished. Same goes for the contents of the various research folders I’d created.

I use Leopard/Time Machine. I figured an old backup copy or an old version of Tutorial.scriv, (which, again, was my book) must be in there, pre-upgrade. It’s not. Or I should say, I can’t find even a wisp of its existence. I know Scrivener saves projects as packages (not that I fully understand how that works), but I can find no trace of anything named Tutorial.scriv, past, present, or anywhere.

I’ve checked the Trash. I’ve scoured “old” versions of my Hard Drive via Time Machine. Have I ruined my work? Is an old Tutorial file buried somewhere? Or am I idiot of the week and learned my lesson the hard way, even though I’m not quite sure what that lesson is?

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I don’t know about Time Machine - that should restore your work - but what about other backups? Did you make any?

The tutorial is contained inside the Scrivener application itself, so if you overwrite Scrivener with an upgraded version, the tutorial gets overwritten too. You should never store valuable info in the tutorial project.

You need to try to backup to an earlier version of Scrivener itself on Time Machine. The trouble is, I doubt Time Machine makes copies of earlier versions of applications - and Scrivener itself stores the tutorial .scriv file. Perhaps someone who uses Time Machine (I never use it as I make backups manually) can help you out.

Mind you, you said that the binder structure still indicates the changes you made. That is weird - if the tutorial project was truly overwritten, then that should be gone, too.

The thing to remember is that Tutorial.scriv is inside Scrivener, so to get to it, in the Finder you need to ctrl-click on Scrivener and select “Show Package Contents”. You will find Tutorial.scriv in there. Perhaps that will help you locate a backed up version? I hope so.

Best,
Keith

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Success! Thank you, Keith, for your quick response.

Turns out Time Machine (God bless it) DOES back up “old” versions of software. I dug into the Resources fork/folder in the “Show Package Contents” of Scrivener as it was the day before I upgraded – copied out (and renamed) Tutorial.scriv, and voila. It’s all there, just as I left it.

Today’s Lessons (for me, anyway):

  1. Don’t fuck with the Tutorial
  2. Use Scrivener’s Backup function (not just Time Machine)
  3. Time Machine is pretty damn great regardlesss
  4. Keith rules for responding/helping so quickly

My current Scriv tutorial’s still mangled (and clearly, I could use it – is there a way to get a “clean” copy of the current Tutorial.scriv?) but at least I got my work back. Thanks again!

Salud, write on

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I thought I was a bit slow! :open_mouth: But jeeezz!!! Get y feckin act together! Yve got my soddin stomache muscles tied in a knot!!!

Glad y` got sorted though :wink:

PM us for the next instalment, so I dont miss it!! :wink:
vic

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Hmm. Looks like a spoke a bit too soon. These recovered files (or rather, the old Tutorial.scriv I dug out which contained my book, just before the upgrade wiped it out), while very helpful, is not the most recent version of my work.

Maybe a month old? Two? Hard to tell exactly, seems slightly convoluted. Perfectly fine and i’m wildly grateful to have this much back. But just FYI, i was unable to recover the most recent version.

Lessons learned, indeed