My entire project has disappeared. I took a week off and when I returned it was no longer in my recent projects. No trace of it in the backups. Totally gone. Any idea what might have happened? Earlier project is still there.
Welcome to the Scrivener forum.
You don’t say macOS or Windows version…
Likely only missing from the Scrivener “recent” list. Why? I don’t know. It seems to happen.
Using Windows File explorer or macOS Finder, look in the file system for which folder you think you put your project. Look for a folder or file with *.scriv as extension. Can also use the operating system’s search feature for that extension.
Once found, before going any further, set up the automated Scrivener backup. Extremely important.
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First off, don’t panic.
Second, you don’t mention if you are on Windows or Mac, so here are the usual places to start looking for the default Scrivener-created backups in both:
MacOS – [home user folder] → Library → Application Support → Scrivener → Backups
Windows – [home user folder] → AppData → Local → LiteratureAndLatte → Scrivener → Backups[1]
Unless you have a different backup folder defined, any backups should be there. If you find one, the best practice is to copy it to the Desktop and create a new Scrivener project then import the copy from the desktop.
If that doesn’t help, please let us know what operating system you are using and which cloud service you may be using (and if you have OneNote enabled).
The AppData folder is hidden by default. If you do not see it, you can access it by using the Run function (Windows + R) and entering “%localappdata%“ without quotes, and that will open the File Explorer to the [user] → AppData → Local folder where you can follow the path above. Caution: While this tip uses the Run function it does not run any code, only uses a Windows environment variable. Some users are rightfully suspicious about advice that includes using the Windows+R function. ↩︎
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Thanks & sorry - Mac OS. I have searched my entire computer for .scriv files – and looked in the backup folder (I have set up automatic backups). It has, very mysteriously, completely disappeared! I know it seems impossible and I am totally baffled….
Do you remember the folder name where you saved your project? On a folder synced by a third-party (iCloud, Dropbox, Google, etc.”
Have you told iCloud to store anything in their server in Tahoe 26.x Apple Logo → System Settings → General → Storage → Store in iCloud button
Do you have a recent system backup, e.g. with TimeMachine?
I think Scrivener backups are turned on by default at the installation. Did you ever change the backup location? Did you use the “Open backup folder” button in Settings to look?
I’m puzzled why you say that you searched for .scriv files, but on your initial post you say
I’m wondering my that “earlier project” not found by your search. Did you do the search with Spotlight or Finder?
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Try this: Command-Space (spotlight search) and search for “.scriv” without the quotes. It should pull up every Scrivener project on your machine in short order, especially if your older projects are still accessible from in Scrivener.
You might want to check your trash folder too.
You did not mention if you use a cloud service (DropBox, OneNote, Box…)
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I had this happen to me recently… a project I was working on on my MBA disappeared entirely, including all backups.
I have no idea what happened, though I suspect that with my tremor, I might inadvertently added a . at the beginning of the filename, which would make it hidden (I had another legacy file, a PDF, which suddenly acquired a \ in the middle of its filename, causing Dropbox problems), but I don’t know why making the active file hidden would also have made the back-ups hidden.
If I remember rightly, I was able to access the project on another machine, create a new project and copy all the files across.
I don’t think this will help @LM, except to make it clear that it can happen, and for someone whose rapidly approaching his 20th anniversary of Scrivener usage!
Mark
P.S. One further thought for @LM: do you have your finder set to hide filename extensions. I really don’t understand why that is even made possible, let alone the default. I don’t know if you can search for .scriv if extensions are turned off.
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Thank you so much Dain for trying tp help - but I’m sorry to report that I’d already done that, and just did it again to quadruple check - and I have checked trash. And I have checked icloud (the only cloud I use)… it is truly a mystery. Thankfully I had exported some of the files to a doc to share with someone who doesn’t have Scrivener (could this be related??) so I haven’t lost everything, but it does scare me a lot about my other projects & new projects – if all the backups disappear AS WELL…. it’s a terrifying prospect! (I guess I need to do more time machine backups!)
Still hoping someone might have an explanation, it just feels really bizarre.
Thank you Mark - interesting that it has happened to you as well (but no I didn’t have any odd punctuation in the project title) - and no I don’t have filename extensions hidden! It is very strange and disconcerting. And I had been really so loving Scrivener…
This is not something that Scrivener itself is able to do.
Generally speaking, a file can only disappear in a limited number of ways:
- It’s really gone. An untrusted user or rogue software removed it.
- It’s been hidden. This might happen if some form of antivirus software quarantined it.
- It’s on an external drive that has since been removed.
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Yes, I know. I am completely baffled. I am pretty tech savvy and not prone to imagining things, but unless you have search tricks beyond those suggested above all I can say is, it’s gone. I don’t have any anti-virus software, and I’m not using any external hard-drive. It is a genuine mystery.
The only thing out of the ordinary that I did was delete some cache folders. Nothing else seems to have been effected by this, and I can’t see that it would have effected Scriverner, but it is the only abnormal thing that has happened between the last time I opened the document and discovering that it was gone.
I know it sounds like I must have done something stupid and I was hoping maybe someone would point out an obvious thing that I’d overlooked, but thus far everyone has made sensible suggestions, all of which I’d already tried. So I’m totally stumped.
Sorry missed this - it was saved locally, on a folder that is still there with all the other files also still present. By earlier project I mean another .scriv project that I’ve been working on over the past year – something completely different. So when I search for .scriv I find that project, the tutorial that comes with Scriverner, and a test. All the backups of those projects are in the backup folder.
Unfortunately I am bad about time machine backups & last one was before I created this project -that would have been the ideal answer!
@LM Perhaps try searching for a string of text that you know to be included in the file. If the .scriv extension has somehow been lost, that should bring up the file with its new name. I don’t know whether that works with the zip backup files, as well, but it may. Good luck!
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This will an painful lesson regarding using Time Machine. But if you have it set up correctly you don’t have to do anything it works by itself backing everything up every hour. Bt, I really hope that you will be able to somehow find your files.
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There are indeed more thorough search tools you can use on a Mac.
Here is a thread with some tips for an extremely similar case (you might want to skip down to my second longer post, as the first covers easy stuff you’ve already tried). Probably no sense in going all over all of that anew, here, as nothing about any of this has changed since then. Spoiler alert: they found their work in the trash (which Spotlight won’t look into).
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I idly wondering if you have more than one Mac — like, a desktop and a laptop.
Thank you!! I’ve never had BACKUPS disappear!
I do not. But I appreciate so many people engaging with the mystery!
Good thought, but tried & no luck…
Something that can happen in theory, is if you never changed the default backup location then it would be stored with the rest of Scrivener’s support files. There are some utilities that claim to “clean” your user folder that can even run autonomously in the background, which might clear out application data if the application itself appears to have been uninstalled. So if all of those stars align, your backup data can be lost in such a fashion.
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