Every time I re-open Scrivener after closing down, I receive the following message. What is going on??
This project was either not closed properly or is currently open on another machine. Please note that if the same project is open on two machines concurrently, data could be lost. Before the project can be opened, its search strings need re-synchronising. This process could take several minutes. Continue?
I only have one computer and this worries me as I am well into a novel and would hate something to stuff up. Cheers, Lindy
This message indicates that either Scrivener has crashed, that it has been closed down improperly in some other way, or that you are opening a file that was copied while it was opened.
Could you please give me your exact workflow with this project, i.e:
How are you closing Scrivener down?
When you close it down, do you receive an error such as, “Quit Unexpectedly”?
This problem has not come up again recently. It could be that it happens when I force a save as I exit but I’ll check and otherwise keep an eye on it and let you know if it happens again. It was doing it repeatedly so i don’t know what has actually changed.
Ok. I just saved and closed my novel project, opened another project then closed that without saving. I tried to open the novel project again and the warning came up again so I guess it is to do with a manual (not forced) save before exit?? When I say ‘ok’ Scrivener they says it is synchronising settings and my novel project opens intact (thankfully).
It sounds like a bug where memory isn’t getting flushed properly when a project is closed, so that when another project is opened the original project (which should no longer be around) tries to do something. I recently fixed a bug like this for Scriv 2.0, and it may be the same bug. When you see the “Quit Unexpectedly” panel next time, could you please copy the gobbledegook that’s in the window and paste it into your reply here? The trouble with those “Quit Unexpectedly” windows is that Apple insists you send them to them, whereas it’s me who needs the information in it, not them.
I don’t get any warning on closing. The dialog warning only comes up when I try to re-open…anyway, I’ll keep a close eye and a log of when/how etc…Cheers, Lindy
I’ve had the same message numerous times when launching, but I never paid much attention to it as I often copy the project file to a thumb drive and open it on a different machine. Just after the 1.53 upgrade though, I got it for ALL .scriv files on my hard disk, whether I’d used them recently or not.
I then got this message:
[i]"While the project was opening, files were detected within the project package that do not exist in the binder. This may have been caused by a permissions conflict, in which the file system refused the deletion of files from inside the .scriv package that had been deleted from the project binder, or by synchronization between different versions of the project.
The recovered files can be found in the “_Recovered Files” folder at the bottom of the binder.
Scrivener attempts to recover such files whenever a project is opened. To disable this behaviour for a project, hold down the Option key while the project is opening. If file recovery is disabled, holding down the Option key on open will re-enable it."[/i]
In each case, the ‘recovered file’ was the short story manuscript template, and nothing else. I didn’t notice any data loss, thank god.
I’ve never noticed anything unusual when Scrivener was shutting down, nor has there ever been an error message at that time. One thing I did notice was that after clicking “install and relaunch”, Scrivener shut down but didn’t re-launch.
And since this is my first post here and it’s a problem report, I just want to say I’m very happy with Scrivener otherwise. I love the look and feel and it’s the best of its kind I’ve seen so far
This is actually a completely different message and issue. 1.52 and 1.53 got much better at detecting files within the project package that hadn’t been deleted properly. And a previous version of Scrivener had a bug whereby the synopsis files didn’t get deleted for files that were deleted when you emptied the Trash. This means that in files created in 1.1, there could have been some files inside the package that weren’t deleted as they should have been. When you upgraded to 1.53, Scrivener detected these files and placed them in a _Recovered Files directory, so that you could decide whether they should indeed be deleted. This should be a one-time thing. (Also note that this message appears for a couple of the project templates, because I forgot to update them for 1.53 and they were created in an earlier version).
Ah, gotcha – thanks Keith. The ‘recovered files’ message followed right after the incorrect shutdown message, so I figured they were related somehow. Thanks for the quick explanation!
I attach a screenshot of the error message that this topic was started on. What happened today was that I decided to put the Scrivener folder as a sub-folder in my Writing folder on the Mac instead of being on its own amongst so many others. when I went to open my book file, the error came up. I relocated the Scrivener folder back to the Mac list of main folders and the error message did not come up. Knowing me, I would have moved Scrivener before - most likely to and from the Writing folder trying to decide where it belonged so perhaps this is problem solvered as they say…Cheers, Lindy
Did you move the project while it was open? Or at least copy it to the other folder while it was open? If so, then the copied project would contain a flag which tells Scrivener it is open, so that you would see this error message when opening it.
Could you clarify what the long Mac list is, as that isn’t something I am familiar with? To do so, load up the long Mac list in the Finder, and then select “Show Path Bar” from the View menu. At the bottom of the window you should see a list of items separated by right-pointing arrows. For example, when I show the Documents folder, I get: “Hardrive > Users > username > Documents”.
Also while you are at it, if you could do the same for your Writing folder, that would probably be a good idea. What you are describing shouldn’t produce any problems (barring the conditions Keith described with Scrivener not shutting down properly), but you might not be describing what we think you are describing, in terms of moving things around.
There should be no problems with storing Scrivener projects all over your disk. I have them scattered everywhere, and move them around all of the time.
No. And I did this before I went to work so to speak. It was just a ‘tidy’ thing. I do think that may have been what caused the problem at the outset for me - when i first got Sricvener I fiddle diddled about where to put it LOL
Sorry, I missed your previous question. I only mean the list of folders under ‘Documents’. The path is the Home folder then documents or, under Go in the Toolbar, you can go straight to the Documents list. Mine just happens to be quite long
Within that, I have a folder called Writing in which there are sub-folders ‘Poetry’ ‘Novels’ ‘For publication’ and so on. Some of those have further subfolders. I put Scrivener in the Writing Folder the other day when I’d finished working. When I went to open it the next time, it gave me the message I sent to you. I dragged Scrivener back to the main Document list (putting it on the same status as my Writing folder instead of being in it) and it opens just fine again.
I thought i’d just answered but my reply disappeared…No, there was no ‘quit unexpectedly’ message at all. Nothing was untoward except my moving the Scrivener folder from one location to another. It does not like to be a sub-folder by the looks of it. When I moved it back, it opened fine again.
