Sorry, I know this is a frequently-raised topic. I’m trying to get a Scrivener file to sync via Dropbox between my Mac, iPhone and iPad, all using a fully updated OS 26. I have a .scrivx file on my Mac, and I have DropBox set up on all three devices.
I have made sure the project is available locally on the Mac, not online only. But on both iPhone and iPad, when I synch and then try to open the file, I get the message “Invalid project. The project cannot be opened because it does not contain a valid binder structure file. Please ensure that the project has been fully uploaded from other devices and then try syncing with Dropbox again.”
The file works fine on the Mac. The error occurs whether I have Scrivener running on the Mac or not. As far as I can tell, the file is fully uploaded, though I don’t see a green checkmark on the menubar icon. The file is the same size on the Dropbox website as on my Mac. I’ve been through the troubleshooting files here, I hope thoroughly, and it looks like I’m doing everything right…but apparently not.
A .scrivx file is not a complete project, just the index used to build the Binder. On the Mac, you should see a .scriv “package,” which is actually a folder.
You can also investigate the upload status of the project by looking at it in Finder. Does it have the green checkmark icon there?
Yes, in Finder I look in the Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener folder and the .scriv “file” shows a green checkmark. (I think I meant “.scriv” when I earlier typed “.scrivx”)
Well, I think I’ve tried them all. I have created a new project on iOS, and it synced just fine to the Mac. Most tellingly, I think, I saw the iPhone say several files were syncing, while the original project on the Mac only shows 1 file sync, though there are many different documents in the first project.
I’m thinking something went very wrong in the creation of the project. I’ve also just now created a new project on Mac, and it synced without issue to the phone. I think my next step is to create a new project and sopy the contents of the cursed project into it.
I suspect the root cause of your issue is that when you copy the project contents into a Dropbox folder, not all of it gets copied. Scrivener projects are macOS “packages” containing scores/hundreds of essential files and folders.
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I keep all my Scrivener projects in one location and Dropbox takes over and handles all syncing—not Scrivener. I use
~/dropbox/apps/scrivener/
folder.
I recommend you create all projects in a local Dropbox folder on your macBook and do not rely on copying. And give Dropbox plenty of time to sync up to their server, and then back down again to your devices.
To expand on @rms’s comment, exactly how did you get the problem project to Dropbox? Uploading via the Dropbox web interface is likely to cause problems.
Yeah, I did set it up with the Dropbox web interface originally – ignorance, it’s my only excuse.
But I’ve solved the problem now. I saved a copy of the project outside of Dropbox, deleted the copy in Dropbox, then created a brand new project in the Dropbox folder and copied the individual elements into it. That made for a good project that synced on iOS. Thanks for the help!
For future reference, the last step may not have been necessary. Once you cleared out the version in Dropbox, simply dragging the copy back in might have done the trick.