I am switching between office and home computer (I just push/pull the projects to Github) and the “project already open” bug is having serious impact on the workflow.
Every time I try to open the project I get this “already open”, The only solution is to create a new project and import the old one. Obviously. this is quite suboptimal.
What is the solution to this? Can I disable some kind of auto-logging that causes this error? Is there a file inside the project I could just delete? Anything would be better than this “new project”-“import broken project” solution
Scrivener creates a lock file when the project is open, and removes it when the project is closed. If you transfer a copy of the project while it’s open, that copy will include the lock file. The “fix” is to close the project first.
Alternatively, if you’re sure that the project is in fact closed elsewhere and the message is being generated erroneously, you can safely ignore the message and choose to simply “Continue.”
Note that using Git for version control of a Scrivener project is unsupported and entirely at your own risk. Attempting to edit a project on two systems simultaneously is likewise not supported.
I have a question related to this.
First - regarding Git - I am simply doing it for convenience instead of Google Drive, etc. In that sense, it’s the same workflow as if I was emailing myself the project, which I assume shouldn’t cause any problems (or would it?).
I do still get this error, however, so I want to make sure it’s something I am doing incorrectly. Here are all the steps:
Computer-1
Have Scrivener installed in /Applications/ (root folder not /users/ssttpp/Applications) .
Open project, write, save.
Save. Close Scrivener (not the project, the app itself)
Git add, commit, push
Computer-2
5. Git pull the project
6. Open it to edit (possibly - get the error “Already open”). <<<< This is where the error can happen
6-A. Open to edit fails and Scrivener crashes, nothing can be done at all. The only solution is to create a new empty project and import the failing one into it.
7. Save. Close Scrivener (not the project, the app itself)
8. Git add, commit, push.
Computer-1
9. Git pull the project.
10. Open it to edit (possibly - get the error “Already open”). <<<< This is where the error can happen
10-A. Open to edit fails and Scrivener crashes, nothing can be done at all. The only solution is to create a new empty project and import the failing one into it.
A couple of notes:
The errors at 6 and 10 are not happening all the time. They happen sometimes and sometimes pressing “Continue” is enough but sometimes I cannot open the project at all for some reason.
Scrivener is installed at root /Applications/ but I do have multiple users on the Mac. The one that is using the Scrivener is not the admin. The admin user never touches the Scrivener project. Should I install it in the /users/ssttpp/Applications instead? I think I tried that and it made things worse
Can you advise please what may I be doing wrong here?
The first thing I would do is test with some mechanism other than Git. If you close the project, copy it to a USB stick, and transfer it to another machine that way, do you still see the error?
For whatever reason, the Git copy appears to include the lock file, leading to the error. It’s possible that you’re simply acting too fast, before Scrivener’s cleanup is finished. Try closing Scrivener, wait five minutes, then engage Git.
Using Google Drive (or Dropbox) is not “the same” as emailing the project to yourself. Emailing the project to yourself creates a completely self-contained copy, independent of the original version. Using a synchronization service involves uploading and downloading from a third-party server to ensure that the server copy is identical to the local copy. What describes your use of Git?