HI, I have been saving my scrivener files to an external drive for several years, and it has been working fine. All of a sudden it says file can’t be saved. I checked and the drive has room. I even tried with a different drive that is huge and same thing. I did some fiddling and at one point was able to save a file, but then it wouldn’t open from the external drive ! I have been saving my project as a document on my computer, and it automatically updates to dropbox when I close, but I like to save to three places. I can open from my computer or dropbox but not from external drive. I assume there must be a setting that has changed. If anyone can solve this please share. Thanks!
This is the window that pops up when I try to save:
There was a problem saving a copy of the project. Check that you have enough free disk space and the correct permissions to save to the chosen location. Files that could be recovered have been saved to /Users/Andrea/Documents/22_JHL_DRAFT_2_NF_YA_8_20_2026.scriv Recovered-1. The project will now close.” Annoying as it closes the project! I think it’s permissions because as I said there is lots of room on the drives.
This is the window that pops up when trying to open from ext. drive: “One or more of the /Files, /Files/Data or /Settings folders could not be found inside the project package. Try restoring from a backup, or create a new project and use File > Import > Scrivener Project to retrieve work from this project (structure information will be lost).”
Scrivener relies on the file system for operations like this, so that’s the place to look.
Are you able to save ordinary text files to the external drive?
Are you able to create a brand new project on the external drive, and then reopen it later?
This is also the kind of issue that might happen if the external drive were disconnected while the project was open.
Also, double-check your backup location in the Scrivener → Settings → Backups pane. Inability to save a backup could cause a very similar error.
Exactly how are you saving the project to the external drive? If you’re using the Save As command, be aware that the external drive will then be the “current version” of the project, which can cause problems if you try to connect a different external drive.
Finally, since Dropbox is involved, make sure it is configured to keep your projects available offline. More information can be found here: The most common cause of this error is incomplete synchronization. Dropbox (or another service) “helpfully” “optimizes” your disk so that part of the project is stored exclusively on their server, where Scrivener can’t access it.
More information and what to do next can be found here:
Thanks, still trying to figure out here are answers to your questions: yes, I can save to and open other kinds of files like a word doc on my ext. drive. yes, I can create a new project and save to the ext drive and then open it. Yes, I am manually saving to the external drive with “save as”, and automatically saving to dropbox on closing project. I thought I should save to online dropbox because I already manuallysave to my computer. Question about your dropbox instructions: shouldn’t I have an online place to save if my computer dies? that’s why have the settings to save dropbox online. I think I might make a new project and try to copy all of my project to the new one, but it would be nice to figure out so this doesn’t happen again if you have further suggestions? On my computer, I changed my dropbox to “available offline” but when I tried the to prevent directions says to open dropbox from mac taskbar menu and go to prefernences. I cannot find preferences. but anyway, scriveners is saving to dropbox. thanks.
HI again, I thought that maybe I could start a new project save to the ext drive and then move my files from the old project to the new one, but it doesn’t want to let me move the whole doc over at once. Is there a way to do that? otherwise I guess, I would have to move chapter by chapter?
Dropbox’s instructions for making files available offline are here:
If a file is “available offline,” that means it is stored both locally and on the Dropbox server. If you’re only using Dropbox as a backup, though, I would recommend using a true backup service instead of a “synchronization” service. The reason is that synchronization makes the local copy and the online copy identical, meaning that any damage to one copy is replicated to all other copies at internet speeds. A true backup copy is a static copy taken at a particular time and does not change if the source material changes.
What version of Mac OS do you have? Apple has been changing iCloud settings recently, making it possible for a project to be accessed by both iCloud and Dropbox. That’s pretty much guaranteed to cause problems.
If you are using the “Save As” command then, as noted above, you are effectively moving the working copy to the external drive. So it’s not clear to me exactly where the problem project is stored. If it were me, I would locate all copies of the problem project, both on the local disk/Dropbox and on any external drives. Make sure that you have a full working copy on the local drive.
Then, once you figure that out, use the File → Backup → Backup To command (NOT “Save As”) to save a backup to the external drive. Does that work correctly?
Edit because you posted at the same time I did: How big is the problem project? And how much space is free on the external drive?