I have two related questions about moving Scrivener to a new computer and about where Scrivener stores its files.
First, if I install Scrivener on a new computer, what is the best way to transfer everything from my old installation — not only my Scrivener projects, but also my preferences, settings, templates, etc.? Ideally, I would like the new installation to behave exactly like the old one without having to configure everything again manually.
Second, I would like to keep all my Scrivener projects/documents on a different drive from Windows and the Scrivener installation itself. Is there a way to set a default location for new Scrivener projects, so that Scrivener always suggests, for example, a folder on drive D: rather than somewhere on the Windows system drive?
The reason I’m asking is that I regularly make complete system-drive images, and I want my working documents to remain physically separate from the system drive. That way I can restore an older system image without risking overwriting newer versions of my Scrivener projects.
What would be the recommended way of setting this up?
There is no such thing as a default location for saving projects, unless you mean the bog standard default it starts out with, in Documents. The only concept of a default it adheres to is to try and use the last place you used to save or open a project. So if you prefer to have them all in one place, you shouldn’t find you have to much of anything once you pick that place.
My first question to you is do you backup, specifically to the cloud? I’d recommend Dropbox because it works without hassle.
You can save your .prefs file File > Options > Manage > Save Options to File… and park that file in Downloads. It’ll save the general look you’ve customised in Scrivener for Windows.
Also, check File > Show Application Support Folder.
It will show you folders Backups, if backups are still in the original default location, Layouts for any customised layouts you’ve saved, ProjectTemplates and Themes, all to do with what you’ve customised.
after that, just move the your entire .Scriv folders to your new machine. Those are your complete projects.
On the new machine, drop the projects in an appropriate folder for Scrivener projects and build back the above by copying them to the same locations. The prefs file you need to load from the one you saved earlier, using Load Options from File.
One quirk about Scrivener that the Application Support Folder is under c:\users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\LiteratureAndLatte\Scrivener, not an area a user would want to play in unless they know what they’re doing.
Besides the above, if you fiddle with your Windows setup often, then you know Windows can safely be reset and preserve everything in C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents. Safely 99% of the time anyway, hence the need to backup. So why partition your hard disk to C: and D:, it’s a waste.
I also don’t know why people don’t simply place all their projects (.Scriv folder) in a Scrivener subfolder of Documents. It’s so easy to remember. And that folder can be pinned to quick access in File Explorer so no one would be confused or lost about where their projects are. Even my Scrivener Backups folder from Dropbox is pinned to File Explorer quick access, so everything is available at a glance and fully executable.