Hi,
could someone help me? I just lost all my work. I tried to change the file name in documents library and now it can’t find my work. I typed back the original name but it’s no good.
I’m not clear what you mean by having lost the work, so this may be off track. If you mean that you renamed the project’s .scriv folder and now cannot load it in Scrivener via the Recent Projects menu (or it’s not automatically loading when you launch), it’s just because you changed the path to the project, so Scrivener doesn’t know where to look for it now. You just need to use File > Open… (or Open Recent Projects from the New Project window) and locate the project by its new name in the file browser. Alternatively, you can just open it directly from Windows Explorer by double-clicking the project’s .scrivx file. Once you’ve opened it in Scrivener, it will reappear in the Recent Projects list.
Hello,
Thanks. I got it back. I just panicked and went a bit mad. I don’t even remember how I got it back, but I pushed something right. Between the ‘new’ second hand laptop, which is doing everything different to my old one, and trying to learn Scrivener, it’s getting frustrating. I can’t afford a new laptop yet. I wish I could. This one is barley up to the task. And I’m having trouble backing up my work. Incidentally, I still can’t open the help manual for any assistance. I have downloaded adobe acrobat PDF to the laptop, but the manual still doesn’t read. (I hate this laptop now; I just don’t trust it) Any idea what I might be doing wrong as regards the software for opening the help manual?
Many thanks for answering me.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to leave that hanging. Try downloading the Windows manual PDF from the support webpage and see if opening that directly works better for you.
Glad you’ve got your project back!
Thank you. I’ll let you know how I get on. I’ll Just go and have a cuppa first for courage. I love the way Scrivener works and the way you can check your chapters so quickly in the binder and the synopsis cards. I know I still only understand about maybe 20 percent off all it can do. But the deeper I go and the harder I work, the more I have to loose if anything goes wrong. But I guess that’s the case with everyone.
I’ll let you know how I get on. Again, many thanks.
Although you certainly don’t need to know everything about Scrivener to start using it–or to go on using it successfully–I do recommend learning about backups before you get far in your project. 
No sense in not having a robust backup system for any work you’re going to do, in any program. Scrivener by default will make a zipped backup of your project every time you close it and save the most recent five, but it definitely is worth getting acquainted with the automatic and manual backup options so you can refine this to something that works well for you.
Section 7.8 of the user manual goes into detail about the backup system, so once you’re able to get that open, I recommend reading that.
Hello,
Sorry I didn’t get back to my work last night. I followed your advice and I have now saved a copy of the help manual in my documents library. (Well, I came straight here after downloading it, but even if I didn’t get it I know where to go back to). I was able to clearly read the manual in A4 PDF while on the site.
As regards saving my work, when you say back up the material, you mean, I believe, backing it up to a remote hard drive. There’s no point backing it up in the laptop, because if that breaks down, then you have lost all. I will read the section on backing up very carefully as you suggest. I have a Verbatim 320 GB remote memory drive but my laptop (unlike my previous one) asks me so many questions before it does anything. It’s confusing and seems to require a level of knowledge that my previous Acer didn’t need. It just got on with it. But that’s my problem, obviously. Anyway, I think, thanks to your kind help, that I’m over the worst of it. I keep disconnecting my remote hard drive, maybe I should just leave it connected to the computer all the time?
So, thank you so much. I really appreciate the help you’ve given me And my adventure with Scrivener continues.
As a new user of Scrivener, I am concerned about backup as well. I have a HP PC desktop computer and a Lenova Tablet Laptop Combo. Can I backup my projects in Cloud because, although I use windows and PCs, not mac, I have a mac account that includes iCloud. Also, can projects be backed up on a flash drive or USB? Thank you! I thought I would just jump in here instead of starting a new thread.