If I purchase v3 on a new laptop with a discount from v1, will v1 on my old laptop stop working?

Hi co-writers,

If I were to trial the latest Scrivener version 3 on a separate newer device, and then purchase it with the discount using my old serial number from v1 on an older device, will this make my old serial number / v1 Scrivener redundant/not working anymore?

Or will I still be able to use Scrivener v1 on my old device and Scrivener v3 on the newer device?

I can’t figure out of it’s replacing the license by buying the newer one as an upgrade and I need to know if I need to export ALL my old v1 projects first

Any help very much appreciated, thanks

I’m not a Literature and Latte employee, but the answer is almost certainly ‘no’. Buying a discounted license because you already paid for an older version’s license doesn’t invalidate that old license.

But also, you don’t have to do any “export” of your v1 projects. You should be sure you know where they are (in general, it’s good to know how to find them without relying on Scrivener to keep track… it won’t always do so). V1 projects can be upgraded in Scrivener 3.

Also, your v3 license will allow you to install v3 on multiple computers (assuming they’re both Windows or both Mac computers).

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I can confirm this is accurate.

@SecretQuill , what I did was similar to what you are planning to do, although I run both versions on the same PC.

I hold a license for v1, which I used to get a discount on a v3 license. I currently run both licensed versions on my PC. There are two separate licenses. You should already have an email with v1 registration info, from when you purchased v1. When you buy the v3 license, you’ll be emailed the v3 registration info. You should keep the info from both of these emails somewhere safe in case you ever need to install your Scrivener versions on another PC.

However, as @Rdale says, your v3 license will allow you to run v3 on both of your PCs. While it’s certainly handy to keep v1 around, if you’re working on a project on both machines, you’ll find it far more convenient to edit it using the same version, otherwise you’ll be continually converting it.

To help with the v3 learning curve, you might want to have a look at L&L’s v3 upgrade guide:

Scrivener 3: A Guide for Scrivener 1 Users

Best,
Jim

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Scrivener licenses do not expire. I routinely run multiple versions for support purposes.

@JimRac’s advice is good. Once you’re comfortable with version 3, you’ll find it far more convenient to run the same version on both machines.

@kewms

he can run v1 and v3 but the projects can’t cross versions, correct?

So, if the plan is that I" will work on the same project using whatever machine I have handy" that won’t work unless he is using the same version of Scrivener on both computers.

But if he’s got different projects and he doesn’t plan to “cross the streams” (old movie quote), then all is good!

Correct. Scrivener 3 can export Scrivener 1 projects, but doing that every time you wanted to switch machines would get annoying quickly.

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Thank you very much Robert @JimRac @kewms for the sound advice and MG_Martin for the apt question.

From what I gather I can purchase a v3 license with a discount from my v1 license, then install v3 on both devices. Once my old Scrivener v1 projects have been converted (I assume I just open them in v3 without having to zip and unzip?!) I can then work on the projects across both old and new devices mainly using version 3 for ease

This is correct, but just want to point out that you can install the v3 trial on both of your devices now. Once you’ve purchased and applied your v3 license, the trial becomes licensed. No need to reinstall the software.

Exactly. No need to zip or unzip. The first time you open a v1 project using the v3 software, v3 will pop up a message stating that it will update the project to v3. As part of that process, v3 will make a backup of your v1 project for safekeeping. So for MyProject.scriv, v3 will create a v1 backup called MyProject - Backup (or something like that, I don’t recall the exact formatting of the v1 backup name). Your original project MyProject.scriv will them be converted to v3 format, and you would continue working with that in v3.

Yes. If you are considering using a cloud service for keeping the projects synchronized across machines, have a look at the L&L Knowledge Base for cloud services, particularly the article on Using Syncing Services with Scrivener.

One important point to remember is that a Scrivener project consists of all the folders and files within the MyProject.scriv folder. If you start moving projects around, be sure to move the entire folder. (We’ve seen a lot of posts lately from folks who move files out of their project folder, which will break the project.) :pouting_cat:

Best,
Jim

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And to this point, ZIPing the folder is a good way to make sure that all the components of the project stay together. If you’re using a cloud service, a physical wire, or some other direct transfer method, you shouldn’t need to do this. But if you’re emailing the project to yourself (or someone else) you probably should.

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