Not opening [projects after system crash]

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Hi all, apologies if this is in the wrong place. I am alarmed my software isn’t opening. I used it as late as yesterday arvo and wrote a new chapter. My computer (MacOS) did shut down unexpectedly later in the day while that file was still open. Now my Scrivener opens but when I go to Open recent and choose my book, or any version of it I get an error message. I have turned laptop on and off to no avail. Can’t see an option to add the error screen shot here. Here is a cut and paste of the start of it. many thanks -------------------------------------
Translated Report (Full Report Below)

Process: Scrivener [1690]
Path: /Applications/Scrivener 2.app/Contents/MacOS/Scrivener
Identifier: com.literatureandlatte.scrivener3
Version: 3.1.2 (10882)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2023-09-13 11:32:58.4936 +1000
OS Version: macOS 12.6.7 (21G651)
Report Version: 12
Anonymous UUID: 3F1D816A-4D77-858B-0E7B-F7E166A874CC

Sleep/Wake UUID: F35B38D0-7BEA-466D-9279-1584FAD452EA

Time Awake Since Boot: 1600 seconds
Time Since Wake: 1049 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000045cb00000018
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x000045cb00000018
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 11 Segmentation fault: 11
Terminating Process: exc handler [1690]

2

  1. The first thing I would do is use the Finder to locate your Scrivener project file (.scriv) itself – that file is the active master file of your project. I would Duplicate the project file and give the duplicate an explanatory name that makes it clear it is a safety copy of your project.

  2. The next thing I would do is go to your Scrivener Backups folder and find the most recently dated backup of your project. Duplicate that and pull the duplicate out of the backups folder to your Desktop. Give it a sensible identifying name also.

  3. Go back to active master project file and try to open that active master project file directly from the Finder by double clicking on it. With any luck just opening the project file directly from the Finder may put you back in the pink. (IF it does, do yourself a favor and add that project to your Scrivener Favorites menu and use that in future to open your project, not the Recents Menu.)

  4. If the project file still gives you an error when you try to open it, you may need help from someone who can read that error report. You now have some safety in trying things, though, because we have in (1) made a safety copy of the project as it stands, and in (2) made a safety copy of the latest backup Scrivener made of that project. If your existing project file can’t be resuscitated, you can use that backup-duplicate as your new master project file (that being what backups are for!) – it would remain to be seen if that backup proj has all your latest material or was not entirely up to date.

  5. Someone will probably come along with more knowledge and advice. But, remember, you don’t have to just wait – you can contact technical support directly at Literature & Latte. They are helpful people. (While Lit&Lat support folks regularly help out around here too, the Forum is officially just a community of Scrivener users helping each other out.)

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3

@gr’s suggestions are all good, but your version of Scrivener is also significantly out of date. That’s the most likely issue. You can download the latest version here: Download Scrivener | Literature & Latte

If it still crashes once you’ve done that, the next thing to try is resetting the project display settings:
https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/macos-troubleshooting/resetting-a-projects-display-settings
And also resetting Scrivener’s Preferences:
https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/macos-troubleshooting/resetting-preferences

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4

Thank you, document is recovered in new version of Scrivener :slight_smile:

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