I have an old (I think) file; named file.scriv.
-Start Scrivener 3.0
-Open
-File Dialog appears
-Select file.scriv
-click Open
-components of file.scriv appear in file dialog, otherwise file won’t open in Scrivener.
Ideas?
Your file “file.scriv” is not really a “file”, but a folder holding scores/hundreds of files with your Scrivener project.
My hunch is that the folder structure and/or files are corrupt, incomplete, etc. which makes it impossible for Scrivener to open the project–possibly caused by a file copy process not controlled by Scrivener, e.g. third party sync service, perhaps when the folder was copied from another computer, … lots of possibilities.
At this juncture, first step would be to go to your backup (Scrivener automated backup, your system backup, or an archive copy of that old project, etc. ) and attempt a restore of a version which is not in the same shape.
An interesting idea. But this file comes from an era when Jurassic laptops stalked the earth, many machines ago. Today’s backups don’t include such ancient files.
Do yourself a favour: Download Scrivener 3.1.5.1 (if you’re on Windows, since your tag says MacOS but you’ve posted in the Windows support base) from the link below. It’s a free upgrade.
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/release-notes?os=Windows
On Mac I have 3.2.3.
I haven’t tried opening this file on my Mac yet. The “content” files seem to be all there; they are in .rftd format and are easily read through an external program.
Still, I don’t know why Scrivener doesn’t open a .scriv extension.
I’m still more confused than a chameleon in a Smartie box whether you’re querying Scrivener on Windows or Mac.
On Window, .scriv is a folder, in which is a .scrivx file (your project file). Opening that file will give you access to your project on Windows.
I’ll leave it to the Mac experts to explain that environment to you, as there are distinct differences.
Leave the .rtf files alone, you could end up with a serious mess, disconnecting your content from the .scivx control file.
There is a file named file.scriv.
Open it and there is no file called *.scrivx.
No reason for confusion: I don’t think it’s that uncommon to have both a Windows and a Mac version of Scrivener.
There are programs which will only run on Windows (X1 Search) and others which will only run on Mac (Ulysses). Having access to both platforms shouldn’t confuse anyone.
What is confusing to me is that a browser on both platforms is considered a “device.”
As you mention that the computer on which it was created was “Jurassic”, it might be that the project is a Scrivener v. 1 project, which Scrivener 3 can’t open.
If that is right, try downloading and installing Scrivener 2 from the legacy downloads at Lit&Lat—perhaps to make things simpler create a new user account to not confuse the two versions—and save it as Scriv 2; make that available to Scriv 3 (use a thumb drive or whatever) and try opening that.
HTH
Mark
PS The absence of .scrivx would support this.
Good idea. I still have Scrivener 2 on my Mac; I still haven’t gotten used to the v3 compile settings. I’ll try that.
You can also open a support ticket, here:
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/contact-us
We can often help recover projects from older versions of Scrivener.
Also, if you have the underlying RTF files, you still have the data even if Scrivener can’t be made to recognize it as a project. Worst case, you can import them into a new project and go from there.