I have the problem that Scrivener constantly hangs while I am typing - multiple times in a session. The only way to resolve it is to restart my computer, although I don’t have issues with any of the other applications. I don’t have autosave disabled because I am afraid of losing my work if the application is so unstable. Any ideas of what I can do?
It’s not possible to disable the autosave completely, but you can adjust how frequently it saves. The default of 2 seconds of inactivity may just be too frequent for your system and your length of pause. Try adjusting this to about 8 seconds and see if that makes a difference in working.
Also check for any sort of external software that may be conflicting with typing into Scrivener. Anything like a text expander, global macro system, or anti-keylogger (which could be part of a larger security program) that monitors the keyboard input. If you can, set any such software to exclude Scrivener, or try disabling it temporarily while you’re working in Scrivener to see if it prevents the freeze.
If you do get the hang, is this just Scrivener going unresponsive? Usually you can right-click an unresponsive program and quit it that way, or end it via the Windows Task Manager, without needing to shut down your whole computer. Does that not work?
I have the same issue. Since the last update, Scrivener has been crashing. More accurately it had been freezing up when it autosaved (back when I had a Windows7), and now it is actually freezing up for good, going blank screen (now I have Windows8).
I could just close up the program with End Process, using Task Manager, except I can’t. I did this several times and it won’t close. In fact, as I am writing this post, Scrivener is in my desktop bar, still frozen after I have ended the task in task manager countless times, frantically clicking that button to no avail.
It has happened yesterday as well and it does seem that the only way to close Scrivener is to actually restart the computer… Which is inconvenient.
My laptop is pretty good. I can working 3D, in After Effects and in Flash making animations (that’s my day job so to speak) and it works just fine. So I don’t think Scrivener freezes because my computer can’t keep up with the autosaving. Before the update I didn’t have this problem. I usually didn’t even notice that Scrivener was saving.
So to summarize: Back when I used Windows 7, after I updated Scrivener, it started to hiccup and freeze for a bit, every few seconds as it autosaved. I let that slide. Now that I am using Windows 8, Scrivener not only freezes on autosave (after about 10-20 minutes of use), but it also remains frozen, even after I frantically click on the End Task button in Task Manager.
I can’t go back to the previous version of Scrivener, not easily at least, since I can’t open the new version file I have been working on with the older version of Scrivener.
Until I get an idea of what’s happening or an answer here, I will probably copy what I have written in the new Scrivener, in a .doc document. Uninstall Scrivener. Install the older version (which I have stored, thankfully), place my text from the .doc, into a new Scrivener project (but of the older version), refuse the update and cross my fingers the crashing will no longer occur.
If reverting to the old Scrivener works, I’ll let you guys know.
Are you running any anti-virus software? There’ve been some reports that Avast is causing Scrivener to freeze. If you’ve got that, try whitelisting Scrivener or otherwise excluding it from Avast’s monitoring and see if that helps.
I’ve reverted to the previous version of Scrivener, before the update and it’s running smoothly. No issues with it so far. I do use Avast. But I am not inclined to update at the moment, and try your solution for the moment since it’s working just fine. But thank you. 