Hi,
I’m still pretty new to Scrivener and I’ve just discoverd I’ve lost an entire chapter. Pervious posts about lost content–at least those I’ve seen–are all really old versions of scrivener (2014-2019). I went into the back up settings and discovered that it was set to default of saving only up to the last 5 days. It was 6 days ago that I read that content….is it gone for ever, or can it be recovered?
Hi
It is not days, but backups.
If you don’t have automatic backups turned on on quit or other, and/or haven’t loaded your project each day, possibly one of those older backups have your document intact.
Go to the Options / Backups and click “Open Backup Folder”. Create a new folder in there and name it something like “Safety” and duplicate your backups of the problematic project in this new folder – before you do anything else (including quitting Scrivener).
Also, if you used snapshots, you might have a previous version in your current version of the project. It is the camera icon in the inspector panel.
Thanks for your reply Vincent….I had the default Scrivener backup checked when I went in to see if the older version was there….is there any chance it’s hiding somewhere in the back ups even if the default setting of only the last 5 days was cheched?
It is not 5 days. It is the 5 most recent backups, that are kept. If you haven’t loaded your project daily, follow my instructions in the previous post. (You should, whichever way. Whether you did or not load your project daily. If there is a slight chance… it is worth it.)
Once you’ve secured your backups, have a close look at your binder, and see if there are other documents showing a blank icon – a sheet of paper, but with nothing scribbled on it.
Like the bottom one :
Perhaps you fell victim to the infamous OneDrive. (In which case your files are for sure recoverable. – But it will happen again if not properly attended.)
. . . . . . .
If your missing document is the only one, one thing to try is to click in the editor, then select all text (Ctrl-A). If there is a selection, a visible blue “selection” highlight, that would mean that you inadvertently made your text white (or black, in a dark theme). All you’d then have to do is to set it back to the default color. (It is far fetched, but very possible.) – The icon in the binder, would be a tell, too.
Ok, I’m sort of following you….I did read in older posts about lost content that one drive could be a problem, but a pc repair guy turned it off a couple of years ago so I don’t think it’s backed up there….however, I did just try to restore one drive from the last 3 weeks and a bunch of files populated. I individually selected any that were titled current draft, but I’m not sure where they went when I “restored’“ them….there are a bunch of blank docs in the scriv. binder, but that’s because I used their title as a content placeholder. Have I made this such a mess that’s it’s a lost cause? I would be immensely grateful if I could get the content back with your help.
They would have went back on your HD, where they belong, on their own.
If that didn’t fix your project, that wasn’t it.
(Although perhaps a restart of Srivener could prove otherwise. BUT: do not quit Scrivener or close your project if you have the backup function (in the options) set to auto-backup on quit, and still yet haven’t secured your backups.)
. . . . . . . . .
Did you open your backups to see if the missing file is in there, or did you just assume it was long gone ? (Past 5 days)
Could you explain this differently?–it is the only missing document that I’m aware of.
Seeing your new reply. I did go into backups and did not find the missing content. It’s embedded inside a document called Scrolling Draft in the binder. Which was the only way I could find to create a continuous draft. This Scrolling Draft is the document I’ve been working in each day. And when I go into backups and open the last Scrolling Drafts, it’s not in any of them. But there is also a very apparent gap in dates in the backups and the gap is where this missing content was produced.
Select the faulty document in the binder.
Click in the editor.
Ctrl-A
If there is a visible selection, your issue is the font color.
I understand now. You created a big document.
That rules out OneDrive and the font color.
(It is the wrong way to go about it, btw. Scrivener has a built in “continuous view” – Scrivening view – just for that.)
At this point you may want to contact support. But I would say your chances of recovering your missing content are extremely thin. Sorry.
Ok, thank you…I’m sure you can tell I’m pretty tech-unsavvy. I tried to use the continuous view but it didnt show all the content from the binder. I have contacted support and am just waiting to hear back. I think it’s gone. I appreciate all your help.
You are welcome. I wish the outcome be different.
I just found it….I think it was in the One Drive restored files because that entire list showed up in the Scrivener backup list
Yay.
Go in the options and make the backups retain more than 5. And/or secure that backup file. OneDrive perhaps saved you (from itself, maybe). But now if the backup gets overwritten, it won’t a second time.