Moving Data From Windows Scrivener to Mac

Hi there,

I have Scrivener installed on my mac desktop. I have bought a windows laptop today which I intend to use for writing when I’m on the road.

If I purchase and install a copy of Scrivener for Windows onto my laptop, will I be able to sync any work done on the laptop back into Scrivener on my mac ? If this is possible, are there any potential pitfalls I should watch out for?

Or would it be more sensible to use an ordinary Windows text editor, and export it to Scrivener on my mac using something like Google Drive or Dropbox?

Any advice would be much appreciated :slight_smile: Thanks.

I believe this article will explain everything you have asked for:

scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … patibility

Further I would say there are many people on this forum who are using this workflow already, and so who knows how many more out there are, that don’t come here. So I think it is safe to say this is a viable way to work. There are a few general cross-platform things that can come up—just general things may potentially have a problem with in any programs you use. Sometimes fonts won’t be recognised and reset to default, that sort of thing. Other people don’t have problems, it just kind of depends on all of the factors.

The one thing I would strongly caution against right now is Google Drive. We have numerous reports of bad failures using that synchronisation service with Scrivener. Work has been lost as a result of some of these. Dropbox, on the other hand, has an extremely clean record. The only ongoing problems we see with it are cases where the documented guidelines were not known of, or unheeded (and it should be stressed that the problems resulting from that are often very mild and can nearly always be fixed). You’ll find a link for those three simple guidelines in the article above.

But, if you are nervous about it, using the folder sync feature on your Mac and then editing on the PC with Word or something is not a bad option either. It may limit the full extent of what you can do, because Scrivener Links and sometimes comments may not always survive—you have to use the editor more basically. But if you already do, then it’s not a problem, and it is convenient.

That’s awesome AmberV. Thanks for the information. :smiley: Data loss was my primary concern, so I’ll definitely give Google Drive a miss when it comes to Scrivener related matters.

I’m going to take a look at the link right now and then decide on an appropriate course of action. Thanks again.