I just noticed that there is a new folder called “Crash dumps” inside my main project file. I mean, this is in the same folder/level as my various bits ‘n’ pieces and the TITLE.scriv file. Inside it are a bunch of files, mostly dated a month or so ago, almost all with names like iexplore.exe.2068.dmp
I hadn’t used Scrivener for eight months or so, but I don’t remember seeing such a directory when I used it last year. So…
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Is this something new?
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Should I worry that it means Scrivener is crashing? Honestly, I don’t remember it happening at all for the last month or so, since I set up this new project.
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Are these files important/used for something and so should be preserved? Or shall I simply delete them when I’m done with this project?
Thanks!
These aren’t files Scrivener creates, so I’d be concerned because it means your project folder is collecting files that don’t belong to the projcet. Scrivener’s crash dumps are saved inside a “minidump” folder within Scrivener’s installation directory, e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Scrivener\minidump, and they would only have numbers in the file name.
I’m a little confused too by your reference to a “title.scriv” file being inside your “main project file”. The ProjectName.scriv folder is the project folder, and everything inside it should be files created by Scrivener, all belonging to the project. In there would be the “project” file that you click to open the project in Scrivener. There shouldn’t be other “.scriv” folders or files that you or anything other than Scrivener has saved there.
If what you mean is that you have a folder where you save your project and other related files, e.g. the “My Novel Stuff” folder where you have saved “My Novel.scriv” and “Spreadsheet For My Novel.xls” and whatever else that is related to your novel but not part of your project, that’s fine. But even then you shouldn’t be getting dump files there–I can’t think of any program that would automatically save its crash dump to a user-created folder like that.
Where is your project saved?
Yeah, it’s just what you guessed, a ‘higher level’ folder to keep together both the scrivener folder AND assorted other related stuff. What I have is:
c:\0MyGreatNovel\ (the zero is just to keep it sorted to the top of the files list)
And inside that is c:\0MyGreatNovel\MyGreatNovel.scr
With under that all the scriv folders – files, settings, snapshots, and under them in turn all the docs and whatever.
On the same ‘level’ as GreatNovel.scr I have a bunch of other files and folders. Much of it is, well, legacy stuff: this is a book I started years ago, before I had scrivener. I have a directory with the old .doc version of the novel. (It’s now been imported into scrivener but I’m not yet confident enough to actually delete it.) I have lists of characters/bios/names to use/locations/clues/red herrings/reference materials/etc. All ditto: imported into scrivener, just haven’t taken the ‘drastic’ step of deleting the older copies. Yet. I’m a suspenders & belts type person.
I also have a directory with several ‘how to structure a novel’ type essays I occasionally look at while I’m wrestling with plot problems – not things I need to import into scrivener, but useful to have handy. I have a link to SyncToy which I use to backup that entire directory to my external hard drive when I’m done each day. I do, actually, have a spreadsheet where I’m building stats about my scenes. 
And a whole bunch of other stuff.
And it’s there that this mysterious CrashDumps directory has appeared. I just now noticed when I look at the properties that that directory was created on Oct 3 – but the files within it are dated from 7/22 to 9/6. So it looks like they have been moved into the folder (why?) after they were created elsewhere. Why I haven’t a clue.
But if they have nothing to do with scrivener, this isn’t your mystery.
Has Internet Explorer been acting up for you lately?
iexplore.exe is Internet Explorer.
But no idea why it would be storing crash dumps there.
Yes, actually. I often get a warning that it has stopped working, but if I hit return all seems to go on as before. So maybe that’s the cause, but as you way, why there? I renamed that folder (to Xcrashdumps) just to if a new one gets created or what. So far, not.