I recently discovered that after moving Scrivener Backups to a folder in iCloud Drive, backups were no longer made. Due to an error, I somehow had the project bundle in a scratch region that is not covered by Time Machine, and when I cleared the scratch region, the project was lost—that’s when I discovered there had been no backups, since 2023 when I moved Scrivener Backups under Documents, which is all in iCloud Drive (backups earlier than that were present). I’ve now moved the folder back to my home directory and have verified that backups are being made normally once again.
From what you say, it’s impossible to really figure out what happened.
My hunch is that what you report is that the automatic backup settings in Scrivener were not setup in the way you thought they were and you did not notice the problem.
That being said, it is my view (not everyone agrees, I realise) that putting backups on local folders that are synced with 3rd party sync services is not a good practice. The risk I see is that if something happens (disk flaw, accidental or deliberate deletion, sync corruption, etc.) to the backup on the local drive or on the synced copy on the service’s server, then that “flaw” is instantly synced to the non-flawed location. Poof. Backup gone and may or may not ever be noticed until the backups needed.
My practice and backup regime for Scrivener is (which you may consider to emulate):
- Projects in a Dropbox folder on the local drives. Dropbox (not Scrivener) handles the sync. So that I can easily sync with iOS devices. I do not consider the Dropbox locations “backup”. If iOS synching not needed, then I would put Scrivener projects in ~/Documents/Scrivener/.
- Backups directed to ~/Backups/Scrivener/. This a local non-synced folder. Scrivener backups set to be “zip” files, keep 25 copies, and automatically created on project close.
- System backups using the 3-2-1 methodology (see Internet for explanation) which includes but not limited to local Time Machine full system backups. That regime backs up both Scrivener projects and the backups.
- I test the backups every so often to make sure still viable and that I remember how to restore.
I have a similar system, though I have no issue with zipped backups being on a local folder synced to a cloud service.
Yes, with any system, the possibility of an individual backup being corrupted is always there, and yes that corrupt backup could be synced, just as a corruption in a project could be synced.
However, given I have backups set to 25, and there are regular zipped backups. I do not consider there to be any significant risk.
I also use Time Machine, however the risk you suggest in a flawed backup or system issue on the local machine would also be copied to the Time Machine backup. Thankfully, with Time Machine you can step back in history.
For me.
Projects - stored in a local folder synced to Dropbox.
Backups - stored in a local folder synced to Sync
Essential folders (includes Scrivener projects and backups) synced to a NAS
Continuous incremental backups to a separate Time Machine drive
Periodic Bootable backups with Carbon Copy to another drive.
I’m also considering Backblaze as an additional option.
Nothing in computing is guaranteed 100%, but I think the risks to a locally stored zipped backup synced to a reputable cloud are minimal. I figure if my overall backup strategy fails, it’s time to give up.
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