Notes on index cards and template sheets disappeared

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

Hi guys!

I’ve been using Scrivener for Windows for about half a year now and while creating my projet for this year’s NaNoWriMo yesterday I made lots of index cards for chapters and scenes with plot notes on them.

When I opened Scrivener today, I discovered that while the index cards were still there, they did not have anything written on them except their titels. All my notes have disappeared and I can’t seem to find them anymore. I am 100% sure that I saved the project before closing it yesterday, so I really have no clue what happened.
The problem only seems to have affected the index cards on the corkboard and in the binder on the left.
My research is still there.

Any ideas how I can get my notes back?

EDIT: I just realized that not only did my character sketches disappear as well, but the template sheets are also gone! Usually, Scrivener contains templates for characters and locations. When I try to open them, they are completely white.
Strangely enough, only this one project seems affected. I am at a complete loss here … Help please?

A-I-N
missingnotes.jpg

2

It might just be that your index file has gotten corrupted… some people have been reporting that searching for some of the missing text can make it reappear (since this makes Scrivener “look again” and refind the missing files).

If that doesn’t help, try navigating to the .scriv folder in Windows Explorer and opening it up, then going to files > docs. You should have a list of numbered files, with things like 13.rtf, 13_notes.rtf and 13_synopsis.txt (these will only exist if you have created notes/synopsis for those docs). Check if these are blank or not.

If they’re not there, you may have to restore a back up (Scrivener automatically backs up the file every time you close, unless told not to).

3

Thank you, I will try that!

I started the project again from scratch just to make sure and now everything seems to work the way it is supposed to.

Thanks again for the help.

4

Make sure also that the file path of the project doesn’t change while it’s open–for instance, if the project folder gets moved, or a folder somewhere in the path is renamed. If that happens, the text files are likely all still on your computer, just not at the location Scrivener is looking for them.