So today I spent 90 minutes trying to work out what on earth is going on between MacOS, Dropbox, and iOS. This software is great in parts but incredibly unfriendly in others.
Scrivener 3 asks me to save the project in a folder other than dropbox/apps/scrivener. But then when I link the iOS app I get nothing except an error message about the file type. I tried to create a new project and nothing links either. Can the iOS app use the .zip backups or does it have to have a .scriv file to work with. If it’s the latter then surely it is contradicting the advise from the MacOS app to store the project somewhere else?
Wondering why I ever paid good money to leave MS Word where things were so simple.
The message you got from Scrivener was probably that you should not save the project in the same folder where you have your backups. These are two different things. Keep them apart! You should not have your backups on Dropbox at all, in case something happens to the dropbox server or your account.
You can save your live project in any folder on Dropbox. Just tell iOS Scrivener where you have it.
In the project screen, tap Edit at the top and then the gear wheel at the bottom for settings, Dropbox settings, and choose the correct folder.
There are several major differences between Scrivener and Word, and one of them is safety. Scrivener automatically cretaes backups and autosaves the project you are working on.
Have you done the tutorials on your Mac and on your iOS device?
Your explanation really helped me, as I was getting a notification letting me know that I should save my backups elsewhere. I hadn’t put it together that “saving” a project and “backing it up” were two different things. Your message clarified that for me. So, now I have indicated that backups should be saved to the folder that scrivener created in Documents (Scrivener Scratch Pad Notes) and am saving my project in dropbox in a folder called Scrivener. In the back up, the project is saved as an rtf file; in the Scrivener dropbox folder, it is saved as a Scrivener file. Are these the correct file types that I should be seeing in these folders? Thanks in advance!
No, do not save your backups in the Scratch Pad folder. The Scratch Pad is a completely separate function, intended for – as the name implies – quick notes that are accessible across projects.
I would recommend creating a completely separate folder called Scrivener Backups. It can be wherever you like, either in your Documents folder or in a cloud service, although I would recommend not using Dropbox if you are storing your live projects there. (Too many eggs. Get a second basket.) The files in this folder should be either Scrivener projects or ZIP files, depending on what you’ve configured in the Scrivener -> Preferences -> Backups pane. That pane is also the place to specify the backup location, whatever it is.