I imported something that my Scrivener file seems not to agree with, and it’s hanging it up on restoration. How do I load the file without it attempting to restore these new files?
Here is the approach I would take:
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First, right-click on the project in Finder and choose the option to compress it. This will create a .zip file copy of the project right alongside it. Use that in case you need to restore.
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Next, right-click on the project again and this time select “Show Package Contents”.
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Drill into the Settings folder, and drag both of the following files out of the project to a temporary location:
- ui-common.xml
- ui.plist
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Next, load the project. The window will be fully reset to default, with nothing selected in the editor and all items collapsed in the binder. This is a “safe start” as nothing beyond the basic information of the project will be loaded.
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Right-click on the editor header bar and select “Lock in Place”. Now you can click on things in the binder without them loading—and crashing.
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Navigate to the file that was causing the crash, hold down the Shift and Command keys and right-click on it in the binder. You’ll see a menu command appear: “Reveal in Finder”, choose that.
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A new Finder window will open to a numbered folder containing some kind of media—a PDF, movie, image or WebArchive file. Simply drag that resource out to your temporary folder as well.
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At this point you could close the project and drag the two “ui” files back into the Settings folder, then reload the project. Or you could just keep the settings reset like this and reapply any settings you prefer.
It shouldn’t crash (unless there is more than one corrupted item), but you’ll find an empty spot where this file used to be. It is safe to delete this.