New to Scriviner, like the program, confused about the best way to work on a project from my desktop to my laptop. I’ve been saving as and then uploading that to Google Drive but this is a bit cumbersome. Is there an easier way to do this?
I’m confused by this sync option, literally I am trying to sync, but that doesn’t seem to do what you would think it would do.
Welcome to Scrivener and the Scrivener forum.
Using Google to store you Scrivener projects is not a good idea. There is an advisory on the L&L website about that where they explain that Google’s services sometimes corrupts the files. Sigh.
See Cloud Syncing / FAQs - Literature and Latte Support and specifically (linked from that page) Google Drive Advisory / Cloud Syncing / Knowledge Base - Literature and Latte Support
I use Dropbox, and have for years, to sync between my MacBook and iOS (iPhone and iPad) with no issues. Unless your Scrivener projects are huge you can likely use Dropbox’s free account.
There are other ways to sync and they are discussed at the first link above and numerous posts here that you can search for. IMHO the Dropbox way the easiest to setup and very quick and reliable. More information also is in the Scrivener Manual.
Is a cloud not a cloud? Why would this work on Dropbox and not Google Drive?
Nope. My understand is that Dropbox provides a more sophisticated API for developers to develop robust sync alogrithms, compared with other third party-developers. Scrivener is not the only app which works best with Dropbox vs. alternatives.
And regardless of which third party sync service you chose, you have to ensure that the Scrivener project files are kept on the local machine and not “online”. Each service uses their own nomenclature and UI to set that. Scrivener projects are composed of scores/hundreds of files, all of which have to be properly copied on sync, and available offline and local.
To get more info on how and why Google’s service machine mangles Scrivener files … talk with Google, I guess.
gotcha, thanks for the links!
Because of Dropbox’s price structure after 2 free gigs. I use google drive where 100 gigs for 2 dollars a month. I backup project as a zip backup to a google folder from pc and then open on laptop after putting in synced project folder in the trash. Then reverse back to pc. While unzipping look at mail or surf the net. Never lost any data over 4 years this way.
It depends a lot on your circumstances, but if everything is on your home network, it might just be easier to turn sharing on, for the system that tends to be on more often, and then mount it as a drive to the other machine. Depending on your home network speed, it might even be fast enough to edit straight off of the other computer with your laptop, for example. I do that quite a bit when I’m testing Mac vs PC stuff, I’ll have a project with some stuff I’m testing in it, and swap back and forth between platforms, both editing the same exact project. The only thing you need to be wary of there is closing it out before switching, but you’ll be warned with a dialogue box if you try to open it twice, so it’s not as bad as all of the awareness you need to have when syncing.
Of course file sharing means more than being able to do that, it also means easily copying the project local for full speed usage, and then copying your updates back up when you’re done. For larger projects, that is what I do, it all depends.
But if this is more like a scenario where you don’t want to think about copying stuff around before you leave the house, and want everything to have one remote repository to pull from, then using cloud sync might be better.
There is more than one way of doing that though, this method is the main one I use when I need syncing instead of file sharing. That method will be the safest all around as I’m not aware of any sync service that will stumble over copying one single .zip file around between devices. And since the method has you setting up Scrivener’s automatic backup feature to do the uploading for you, you really don’t have to think about it much. The only thing you have to remember is let it finish uploading your backup after you close the project, before shutting down.
You’d have to ask Google that.
As the advisory explains, one issue is that Google “helpfully” changes the extensions on component files inside the project, making it impossible for Scrivener to recognize them. That’s a (poor) choice that they made.
This was pretty much my method until I got to thinking there’s gotta be an easier way. I think the way described by rms is the hot ticket, I’ve yet to try it yet though. Going to have to start with getting a dropbox account.
I always have my desktop on so editing the files on the desktop from the laptop would probably be the easiest it can get. At times I do want to leave home with the laptop to edit the project so for that I guess I would just have to revert back to zipping the project on the desktop and putting it in the cloud.
IMHO the Dropbox way the easiest to setup and very quick and reliable.
So sync’ing from the desktop to dropbox is a breeze. But I’m noticing that Scriviner is sending Dropbox what seems like every file expect the main one (.scrivx) so how am I to edit the project on the laptop when the main file isn’t there?
The Cloud Syncing / FAQ article just informs you of what not to do it seems, it doesn’t give a step by step instruction on the smoothest and easiest way to work on the same project between 2 computers…
another thing that is confusing is this. “note that the folder sync feature cannot and should not be used to try to sync a project between two different machines”
folder sync feature? isn’t that what we’re doing here?
Install the Dropbox software on both machines. On both machines, make sure it’s running, logged into the same account, and configured to “Make available offline” for the folder you plan to put your projects in.
With Scrivener closed, use Finder/Windows Explorer to move the project into the Dropbox folder on Machine A. (“The project” is the entire .scriv folder including all subfolders.)
Allow Dropbox to sync. Confirm that the project appears on Machine B. Make a small but visible change, and confirm that it syncs back. Done. Go write something.
DO NOT use the Sync with External Folder command. It’s designed to share projects with third party software, not with other instances of Scrivener.
DO NOT use the Dropbox app or Dropbox web interface to poke around inside the .scriv folder. I just helped someone who did that and wooo boy! did they mangle their project, but good.