Hi! I use Scrivener on my laptop and desktop computers to work on the same project. It usually updates between the two and works well. A few days ago I did a lot of writing on my desktop and saved it, and closed out the app, and then did some more on my laptop and saved it – only to realize that the laptop version didn’t have the chapters I wrote the other day on the desktop! I tried the backup instructions I found in another post here, but the only backups I see in the file are from 2018! Please help me find my backups from last week!
Hi.
Go to the options File / Options (Ctrl+,) – Windows
Or the preferences on Mac
Then, Backup tab, Backup location : That’s where your backups are.
(There is even a button to go to and open that folder directly from within Scrivener.)
Else, bad news, if the backup you are looking for isn’t there, I am afraid your work will indeed be lost… Sorry. (I sympathize. And highly recommend, no matter the outcome, that you improve the way you go about backups. – Plenty on the topic, here, on the forum.)
If your backups go to a cloud, with a little luck there might be hope that your cloud provider has some history of versions. … (?)
Or that thing, (I just saw you are on Mac), that Macs have, “time-something”. @Kewms @xiamenese
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Time Machine. The easiest (FREE!) backup system for Macs. I use additional backup options to be ultra sure.
To the OP - just a suggestion, if not already done, when you’re on that backup tab, select 25 - gives you far more chance of recovery from a creeping error.
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How do you share projects between computers?
If you use a cloud service, is it configured to keep Scrivener projects downloaded on both systems?
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If have the save on the desktop of your project, why not open on the desktop and do File > Save as to create a new project and use copy or some other added name to title. Now back this up. Save the backup on a shared cloud folder or usb key. Extract the project on your labtop and open it and compare to the original copy of the laptop and drag the missing chapters over and save this in the labtop version of the project. In theory this should recover the lost files.
Thank you all for your responses! Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a backup. Argh! About 10,000 words totally lost… The TimeMachine suggestion was a great one – but my TimeMachine backups only cover the last 24 hours. Not sure why…trying to sort that one out, too. I’ve been able to switch between laptop and desktop by using iCloud. So (I think?) what happens is that when I open the project on each machine, it connects to iCloud and updates to the latest version — so I don’t have a hard copy saved on either machine, it’s only in the cloud. A hard lesson learned.
Did you check to see if your cloud has a version history ?
(I know nothing about icloud specifically, but I figured it is worth asking.)
More like that if you work on a version that hasn’t properly synced first, you’ll overwrite what should’ve been when saving this incomplete version. (It is the modified date that rules.)
Rewrite it better. (It sucks, and I sympathize.)
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Scrivener always saves to and opens from the local machine.
ICloud may very well be whisking your projects away to their server in order to “save space.” You can and should tell it not to do that.
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