I typically use Scrivener on either my macBook Air (away) or my macMini (office). On a few occasions I have received a warning that the file might be open elsewhere, despite it not actually being open elsewhere (I checked after the fact). Since I originally received this warning last week, I have diligently closed the app every time I pause working.
Today I purchased “ProWritingAid” and tried their desktop app before seeing that it has been discontinued and should be using the “everywhere” app directly inside of Scrivener. I have no idea if this is related, but it is a detail that might be useful.
I should also tell you that I have my files saved to iCloud drive so that I can work on both my laptop and desktop.
I was editing some previous chapters this afternoon and closed the app at dinner. I reopened the file, edited some more, then noticed that the chapter I wrote today was missing. I panicked.
I opened the file from the iCloud folder directly (instead from within Scrivener), and was presented with FOUR versions of the file. I chose to save all. Thankfully, one had my missing chapter.
At this point I don’t know what to do. Have I done something wrong? How should I proceed?
Sounds like an incomplete sync or the other possibility, have you set for iCloud to maximize storage (keep documents on the cloud rather than local). You must have you Scrivener project saved to a local directory that syncs.
Thanks RuffPub. I don’t think that “maximize storage” was the issue (it is supposed to only offload documents when space gets low… I have 250 GB free on macBook; 2 TB free on macMini), but have now turned that off in any case.
It’s impossible to say how you ended up with four copies, but two common causes would be:
Conflicts made by editing the same content in two or more places without fully syncing the machines together first.
Use of the Save As command to create copies for some purpose.
I don’t think iCloud actually makes conflict copies automatically like that, but rather presents a somewhat useless “A or B” choice in a dialogue box. There is a button in that that would create copies right then and there, though. Maybe that was clicked at some point?
I’m suspecting it is the former, since you don’t mention doing the latter, and you do mention having received red flags that the project isn’t fully synced, before—when you got the warning about the project already being open. Just because you closed it on the other computer doesn’t mean the project is actually closed on the current computer, yet. That is why it is important to always make sure syncing is complete on both ends before actually switching. In fact, if you shut down the other computer before it uploaded all of the changes to your project, including the fact that it is now closed, it might never be fully closed, until you return to the original machine that is still waiting to upload the rest of the changes.
IMHO, No. Use Scrivener’s automatic backup method to backup your projects. Save-as designed for other purposes. I set to backup to Zip file on close and keep 25 copies on local disk. I rely on TimeMachine to backup those backups so I don’t put the backups into any cloud server.
And, as @RuffPub and @AmberV have already said, I also am pretty sure your issue related to incomplete Apple iCloud synch. Apple provides little to no control on when, how often, or notice of incomplete syncs. All hidden and for many people unreliable—especially when they prematurely close down a computer before the sync completes. Even with a running computer iCloud only syncs when it wants to.
I’m not trying to dump on iCloud. Just relaying what I notice happening to me and others. I rely on Dropbox to synch my two macOS and two iOS devices for Scrivener.
Exactly, iCloud does show status, but you have to be paying attention to Finder more. Even better is to look at the icon of the thing you are editing, as it puts a status marker on it directly.
Whatever the case, and however you monitor it, that’s what needs to happen to avoid what happened. The missing section was probably written into a version that wasn’t fully uploaded or downloaded.
It’s the main weakness of cloud sync in my opinion, the lack of wires. Nobody would yank a hard drive out of the socket halfway through copying stuff, but that’s what countless people do every day with sync.
That depends on the sync service, the speed of your connection, and the number of files that need to sync. iCloud in particular is somewhat infamous for taking its own sweet time actually synchronizing files.
That is not the time interval to worry about. What you need to be concerned about is the time between closing the project and halting the computer’s net connection (by sleeping/loggingout/shuttingdown). Because this is when the last of your changed project file data would sync with the cloud.
(I guess maybe there is a secondary interval to think about, namely, the time between bringing up your other computer and opening the project – it is during that interval that your computer would be syncing (downloading) any changes to the project from the cloud.)
My use of “backup” above was simply meant as a way to make sure I didn’t end up opening up an earlier version of the file and losing data.
I do not know anything about Scrivner’s “backup.” That is certainly something I would want to learn about. Where is that stored? How does it work?
In the meantime, I have started using “save as.” That may not be ideal, but I can’t afford to lose data.
My current naming scheme is FILENAME MONTH.DAY.SAVENUMBER, which would look like this: Book Title 04.06.01
The “save number” is used if I am switching back and forth between devices multiple times in a day. I am about to head out with my laptop, so I will save the file, use “Save As” to create a new file, and amend it with “.02” (replacing the “.01”)
At some point, I will go back through and delete earlier copies of the file.
Well, see Menu: Settings → Tab:Backup for how to set it up. Mine set to backup to ~/backups/scrivener, 25 copies, zip, on close. I rely on my system backups (3-2-1 regime) to backup the backups. See the Scrivener Manual for full details.
I think it less than ideal and based on experience seen here, sometimes people “forget” what is the current version … the saved as copy, or something else.
See the Scrivener Manual to learn more about Save As.
With the automatic backup method that Scrivener does for me, I don’t ever find the need for such complexity in file names. If what I wanted from older versions not available (never happened, but if it did…), I would go back to a prior version of a backup or the Scrivener Project to restore as copy (copy, not over-write) from my TimeMachine backups.
I would recommend using the File → Backup → Backup To command instead, with the same naming scheme and the option to ZIP the backup.
The reason is that after you use the Save As command, Scrivener continues working in the new version you just created. (Which will also be the “last opened project” that reopens when you restart Scrivener.) This can result in work being “lost” (actually just misplaced) because the original version (before the Save As command) doesn’t have it.
