I am brand new to Scrivener and thought I set up everything correctly but I keep getting this message when I try to open my Manuscript on my MacOS or iPhone after syncing:
The document “It’s You, Not Me in Scrivener for Dropbox-1 COPY-bak-2023-04-23T11-02_bak-2023-04-23T14-34-bak-2023-04-23T14-49-bak-2023-05-04T15-51.scriv” could not be opened.
The project at “/Users/Debbie/Dropbox/SCRIVENER/SYNC FOLDER/It’s You, Not Me in Scrivener for Dropbox-1 COPY-bak-2023-04-23T11-02_bak-2023-04-23T14-34-bak-2023-04-23T14-49-bak-2023-05-04T15-51.scriv” seems to be of an older format, but no binder.scrivproj file could be found inside it. It may be missing or corrupt, possibly because of a problem with the device on which it is stored, or because of a synchronisation problem.
I also need to sync to my laptop ASAP so I need help ASAP too.
Are you using macOS 12 Monterey or macOS 13 Ventura?
If so, then the issue you’ve encountered is one we’ve had reported via the help desk as well as elsewhere on the users forum. One forum thread on this topic is here.
You’ll need to change the Dropbox settings on your Mac so that your Scrivener projects are not stored in an “online-only” setting. This Dropbox Support page has the settings to change so your projects are available offline.
Yes, please check out the Dropbox Support link and follow its steps to change the Dropbox settings on your Mac. That should resolve the syncing errors you’re seeing.
Also, Apple have macOS 12.6.5 out. It was released 10 April 2023. I’d recommend installing it to ensure that your Mac has the most recent updates and security patches.
We also have an update to Scrivener, which takes it to version 3.3.1 (15588). Installing that update could also be wise to ensure you have the latest patches from us as well.
It’s not relevant to this specific issue, but it looks like you’re transferring backup versions back and forth between the two computers, leading to the very complicated project names you’re seeing. That can ultimately make it difficult to determine which version is “current,” making it hard to find your work. At some point you might want to rethink your naming convention.
A prime example of backups of backups.
The maximum character length of filenames is 255, so you’re eventually going to run into duplicate filename problems as the length grows exponentially and, after a few saves, names are truncated.