Last night I went to work on my project (which was open) and found several files blank. I went to a back up (there only seems to be one back up since these scenes were written) and there are no rich text files for the scenes, but when I preview the backup I see the first paragraphs of those scenes. I am wondering if they are somehow zipped but I can’t figure out how to unzip them. Something similar happened a few weeks ago. At the time I had a second computer and on the second computer the files were there, which is very weird as the project lives in iCloud so should be the same. I no longer have a second computer but I did try transferring the backup from iCloud on my phone and that didn’t help. I know there can be synchronization issues with iCloud but not keeping my projects in iCloud isn’t an option.
Really want to get my files back and would appreciate any advice. I’ve also emailed support.
With any cloud service, always ensure that your projects are configured to be “available offline.” Incomplete synchronization is by far the most common cause of this error.
I have automatic backups. Per my post above, I’ve moved the back ups to a different location and looked the text files. There aren’t text files for the missing scenes but when I preview the back up I can see the opening paragraphs of the missing scenes. So they were there at one point and perhaps are still there. For instance this shows in preview for one of the missing scenes:
flashback - CofV - Mel/Julien
“Mrs. Rannoch.” The nod was faultlessly polite, the angle of his shoulders had the military precision befitting his xyz uniform. But the gleam in his blue eyes was unmistakable. “I trust you are well. I imagine you’ll be off from Vienna shortly.”
“As will most us. As I’m sure you will be”—she studied his insignia of rank—“captain.”
“Must go where duty calls. I hope you’ll accept my best wishes for your heath and safety.” His gaze caught and held her own. The gaze of a friend. And not of someone …
If the problem is that the file needs to be downloaded, fixing the setting should cause it to “magically” reappear. I’d try that before taking more drastic measures.
Different cloud services have slightly different instructions, and Apple in particular has a habit of moving the settings around. But here’s how to do it with Sequoia. How to stop iCloud Drive from removing offline files
Thanks! That doesn’t quite seem to work on my computer but I’ll investigate further. The version I airdropped from iCloud files on my phone is the one that shows everything in preview but the files still aren’t there when you open it, but it’s now in my downloads folder on my hard drive so it’s not missing anything from iCloud.
Also something seems to be wrong because it’s supposed to back up on quit and yet I have no backups since January 5th despite quitting and restarting my computer more than once. I assumed it was back up or I’d have done manual backups.
Automatic backups work. Manual backups normally never required but for peace of mind or a specific purpose. Why not working on your machine, mystery?! To where are backups directed? Have you confirmed backups are turned on (perhaps post a screen shot of settings)? Is destination Local Disk or folder synced with a third party sync engine? If latter, what have you set for online/offline files? How many backup copies do you keep?
It won’t let me post a screenshot, but my settings have it set to back up on project close and save 5 backups. My other projects have multiple backups. I’ve used Scrivener for over a decade and never had problems until the last month. I’ve started exporting a compile every night. But mostly at this point I’m trying to figure out if I can get back the text in my blank files.
Have you checked for your “online” files at iCloud for these missing files? Not using Airdrop, but actually changing the setting to to make all files “offline” and perhaps logging in to the iCloud web site. Have you changed that setting of online/offline yet, and if so, what was the result? Are backups also stored on iCloud? Sure they got there?
I keep 25 copies,
Backups are not a project setting. Mystery why ‘other’ projects different.
I keep 25 copies on the local drive in ~/backups/scrivener and then rely on my system backup (Time Machine et. al.) to backup the backups using the 3-2-1 methodology.
The backups are there on iCloud. That’s where I saw the preview that shows part of my missing files (those showed in the iCloud drive back up on my phone). I moved a copy to a my downloads folder on my computer so it would have to live offline but that didn’t solve the problem. 25 backups is a good idea - I’ve changed to that. And yes, I do know it isn’t a project setting. I don’t know why this project was behaving differently.
My hunch for why backups not working is you put then not as zip files in iCloud folder on your local computer with iCloud set to be “offline”. And you are using odd ways to recover.
Full advice above. Good luck. you may have lost it all due to how you set up and use iCloud. I hope not.
Actually… that’s not the whole picture. Projects do have backup settings that can override the global settings (e.g. “exclude from automatic backups”, and also the backup location).
Where did you see this “preview?” Finder’s QuickLook Preview is not a reliable indication of what’s actually in the project.
There is a specific iCloud setting to make projects available offline. I recommend using that setting rather than moving things around in an attempt to fix the problem.
Have you looked specifically at the backups that Scrivener itself creates? By default, these are ZIP files and should be uploaded/downloaded in their entirety.
I’ll update your trust settings to allow you to post screenshots.
Thanks very much for your email, which I’ve replied to. Yes, I started with the Scrivener and I started by double clicking to unzip. I only started poking around and looking for individual files because they were blank when I opened the backup.
The preview where I’m seeing the files is the finder preview. As I said those files’ folders don’t have rich text. I’m just mentioning the preview because it means at one point they were there.
From what I can can tell my project is Downloaded. It seems the Keep Downloaded option is only available with Sequoia, so I am upgrading my operating system.
Not my understanding based on the fact I do not have Sequoia running and I have that option. Where did you get that idea? Good luck anyway. Other sage advice and questions above which may help you better.
