I’m writing a novel in Scrivener on a Mac. I’m using folders as sections and documents within them as chapters. Chapters keep disappearing. I can find them in a search but they don’t show in the novel. I’ve been copy/pasting them into a new doc/chapter to replace them in the novel but I’d like to figure out why this is happening so I can prevent it. Thanks.
When you have a document visible in the search results, right-click/cmd-click on it, and use the “reveal in binder” option.
That worked! Thank you. Can you tell me why they keep disappearing?
Docs and chapters don’t move themselves, so you will need to say more about what you discovered upon re-finding one of the “missing” spans of text.
When you chose Reveal in Binder, where did it show the document to be in the Binder? Now this is a hunch, but my guess is it did not reveal your document to be “elsewhere” at all, but highlighted the Chapter folder right where the text had seemed to go missing.
So, million-dollar question, did that function highlight an item in the binder which is a Folder rather than a document? If so, then you are typing some of your text directly into the text-body area of the folder itself (as opposed to into the text-body area of one of the documents inside the folder). In Scrivener folders themselves can have their own body text, but it does not show in the editor by default — so you could end up having the unsettling experience you describe.
If that is what is happening to you: If you turn on Scrivenings mode and click on a Chapter folder in the Binder that has subdocuments, you will see in the editor pane the combined body texts of all those items — including that of the containing folder. The body texts between docs are separated by a dashed line. The area at the very top of the editor — above the very first dashed line — is showing you the body text area of the containing folder itself. If you have text up there, you have probably typed it in there without realizing it. You can just cut it and paste it into the beginning of the first doc below it to correct that.
(Folders which have text typed into their body text area show a variant icon in the Binder, so you can in that way actually see by inspection wherher a folder has text typed directly into it.)
-gr
P.S. In your original post you suggested that whole chapters were disappearing. I am assuming that you do not mean that the chapter folder is disappearing, but rather that the text of the chapter is eluding you.
Other thing to look at is font color did color change to match editor background ie. disappearing
Unfortunately, I didn’t see where the found document was coming from when I used the Reveal in Binder function. I’m using documents as chapters. I use the folders as a break in sections. I haven’t typed directly into a folder, though I do pull documents into them (maybe that was the issue?). The two chapters/documents that went missing recently were the ones I’ve been writing in the most. They were not in the trash and not showing in the binder at all.
Might even consider new project and drag files/ folders in in case a project specific setting causing the issue
This puzzles me exceedingly. All Reveal in Binder does is highlight the doc in question in the Binder (it does not move anything). So, when you chose Reveal in Binder, you looked at the Binder to see the result (b/c that is the whole point of Reveal in Binder). There you saw your document that you had been looking for. And now you either dragged that document to its rightful place that it belonged in the Binder or you left it where it was, because it was already in its right position in the Binder.
So, I can’t quite understand how you could not have seen where it showed up — and made that judgement about whether you needed to move it to get it where it ought to be.
So, there is definitely something going on here I don’t get. But maybe someone else will see more clearly a way to help.
—gr
P.S. Another possible diagnosis I thought of (and I will just throw this out there): the Binder area has a number of different states it can be in. It can be showing you the all of everything. But it can also be showing you just the results if a search or the items in a defined Collection. You can Hoist the binder so that it shows you just a part of the binder as if it was the whole thing. The loose thought I had was if sometimes the binder was getting in one of these states without your properly realizing it. Not sure this is very plausible. Most such binder changes would be super surprising if they happened when you didn’t realize.
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When you say the missing chapters “don’t show in the novel” do you mean that you can’t find them in the Binder, or that they don’t appear in your Compiled output document? Or both?
@kewms Pretty sure there is nothing about compile in this at all.
The OP says the files “don’t show in the novel,” but that they’re “copy/pasting them into a new doc/chapter.” So clearly they are being copy/pasted from somewhere, and therefore are not completely “gone.” Hence my question.
When someone’s text is missing, especially if it happens over and over, my first thought is always: what view mode are you in? Document? scrivenings?
2nd thought is: did you type in the folder, not the subdocument (or vice-versa) and got confused which document to click on to see the text?
Other causes are way down the list for me.
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One other thought; maybe you’re accidentally invoking a keyboard shortcut that moves the documents?
The location of the files revealed in the binder should be apparent; they’re either at the top level of the hierarchy, or in a folder/indented under another document, maybe a few indentation levels down. You can collapse and expand parts of this structure (there are little triangular shapes to the left of the names of files/folders that have other folders/documents indented under them). If we’re to help you figure out what’s happening, at a minimum, we need to know where you found the documents when they were revealed in the binder from your search results.
Take a screenshot if possible; AmberV can help you if the forum software hasn’t yet awarded you the trust level to drag images into a reply.
I had issue with a downloaded theme, where add folder put in file in it and file disappeared in folder and there was no > visible and when clicked on in editor or scrivenings view. got back by duplicating folder and suddenly the dropdown > appeared and could access file. Might be related to downloaded theme, but could try if happens again.
I was just using MS Outlook, and when I switched back to look at my mail, none of the folders was visible in the sidebar; everything was blank. I hovered over where they should be, and Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, etc… began to appear as I hovered over where they were. Everything seems to be working just fine, but Windows wasn’t refreshing that part of the application window.
If parts of a window can disappear from view in a Microsoft application running on a Microsoft operating system, then it can happen to Scrivener too. I can’t recall ever seeing this issue; maybe it’s a glitch introduced in a recent update?