Sections missing

Scrivener
,
1

I’ve just realised an entire set of sections is gone. I haven’t gone into a section of my PhD thesis is scrivener for ages. I can’t see it anywhere in any backups. Why would this have happened, and how can stop it from happening again?

2

Created a new thread since this is a new problem.

Is the project stored with iCloud, Dropbox, or a similar service? Are you editing the project on multiple devices?

Are the sections truly gone, or are they present in the Binder, but empty?

3

Thank you for replying promptly. The sections are there, but the notes within them have gone. They seem to have changed the type of file. I wonder if it could have happened when I updated to the newer version of scrivener? I have a time-machine backup. Would the information be there in the old version? How can I find out when the back up happened, so I can try to restore to a time machine version right before that?

4

And, it’s stored on my Mac, in the iCloud, and also on a maxtor disc as backup. The problem, as far as I can tell, seems to be throughout. I had been using it on 2 Macs a long time ago, but not recently…

5

If the sections are there but the contents are gone, that’s most likely a synchronization error. The index file used to create the Binder is separate from the content files that actually contain your work. If one gets downloaded without the other, you get the results you’re seeing.

You can find Scrivener’s automatic backups by going to Scrivener → Preferences → Backups and opening the backup folder in Finder. The “Creation Date” in Finder is the date of the backup.

Be very careful when restoring either Scrivener’s own backups or backups from another source. You don’t want to accidentally overwrite the current version of the project. I’d suggest creating a new folder for the restored copy(ies), and give each restored version a unique name so you can tell which is which. Section 5.2 in the manual has some tips for restoring projects generally and working with Time Machine in particular. I’d recommend reading it before you touch anything.

6

In my experience, it’s more likely they’re not gone at all. But it’s hard to prove either way without seeing it.

7

You say that you have upgraded Scrivener since the last time you opened the thesis. If you were moving from vers 2 to 3, did Scriv at first tell it needed to convert the project to the new project format?

  1. What are you seeing in the Binder? By a section, do you mean a folder in the Binder? Folders in the binder typically have text docs under them. Do the icons of these docs show that Scriv thinks they are empty (empty rectangle) or non-empty (rectangle with lines like text lines)? When you click on one of the empty-seeming docs, what view mode are you in (Corkboard, Outliner, Scrivenings mode, Single doc view)?

  2. What are you looking at that suggests to you the type of of file has changed? Are you talking about the project file or what ought to be the document files in the Scriv binder?

10

Thank you very much for all of your thoughts. A combination of what a few of you said, made me thing the data had moved around somehow in the backup - that was indeed the case. I have no idea why it happened, but when I clicked on one of the right hand icons, the original text was in the ‘synopsis’ section, and not where it normally is. I’m every so grateful to have found it so simply. Thanks very much!