I am about to start a small sized research project and wanted to do a quick test run by saving my .scriv project file directly on my iDisk as I use my iDisk for virtually everything. I work on three Mac’s constantly.
Syncing the project is the problem. When I make a change on my MacBook, save the file (wish there was a way to turn off the auto save feature), and my Mac sync’s the file. Sometimes the file syncs and sometimes it fails to sync.
Very weird. I know people say to zip up your file and move it that way but seems like a waste of time and remembering which computer holds the recent file.
Anyone else have the sync’ing problem I have (not related to speed as my speed seems fine when it works)?
Not sure if you can disable it completely, but you can set the autosave interval to something absurdly high in the preferences, high enough that it will never actually reach that interval.
Is it a waste of time if it means you know, with absolute certainty, that your file is saved (and won’t corrupt because you’re working directly off a remote disk)? Is the work you’ve done more valuable than the time you expend pressing a few keys and waiting a minute for it to upload? I suspect it is.
But you don’t have to remember that. The zipped version on your remote disk is always the latest version, so just download that version to whichever computer you’re on before you start working.
That’s the whole point of the “zip and save it to a remote disk” method - so long as you have access to the internet (and you remember to upload the latest version every time you finish a work session) you can always access the latest version and be confident you’re not working on an older version.
If you are using the Scrivener command, File: Backup Project To… then your ZIP file will show a date and time stamp. That way, you will always know the latest version, even if working on three computers. And the ZIP action takes but a few seconds, which results in a fast and secure upload to your iDisk. So it’s not a waste of time at all, but a savings. If you try this method for a while, you should have no regrets.
Thanks for the replies. It seems when you work with database type informational storage, zip’ing the file is the preferred way of storing on the iDisk. I still think it is weird that sync’ing a .scriv package doesn’t seem to translate all the changes made inside the project file.
However, now finding the Backup To Location command, I am good to go. Maybe we can get a “Restore to Location” command to make move, unzip, and deletion of the zip file a simpler and quicker process.
These tasks are really a job for the Finder—and Automator. It shouldn’t take but a few minutes to set up a workflow that does that, and you are good to go.
