PLEASE Delete everything. I’ve given up and would like this post deleted… if possible. 
Did you have an internet connection for the PC?
Did you wait for the Dropbox app to upload everything to the server?
How domyou know it has not synced?
You need to describe in detail what you did and what happened. Otherwise we have to guess… and that’s no use.
Yes, you are missing something. Let’s take it step by step.
To begin with, use accepted nomenclature or everything will get confused.
On the PC:
When you create a project you Save it in a folder in your Dropbox folder. While Scrivener is open and you are writing, Scrivener will automatically save all changes in the background, without you clicking on File -> Save. Okay?
Your backup location is somewhere else, not at all in the Dropbox folder, and you set it up in Preferences on a Mac, maybe under Tools -> Settings (?) i Windows? A backup is created when you close the project and it has nothing to do with your active, synced project. Okay?
On your iPad:
You must check that your iPad Scrivener is actually looking in the correct Dropbox folder where you saved your project, not where you have the backup.
The best would be if you could take a screendump of your file structure on the PC and then a screendump of your Dropbox settings in your iPad Scrivener, and the Projects screen as well.
What version of Scrivener do you have on the PC?
Katherine
That’s the current version.
Please create a text file on the PC, in the same folder as your Scrivener projects. (Not inside the project, just in the same folder.) Synchronize to Dropbox, then go to dropbox.com with a web browser, login to your account, and confirm that the file appeared.
If it did, synchronize the iPad, and look for the text file in the Dropbox app on the iPad. (Not in Scrivener, which can’t open files that are outside of Scrivener projects.)
Katherine
x
Because of the sandbox between apps in iOS, one app can’t directly reach into the Dropbox app for files. You have to have the Dropbox app on your iOS device for Dropbox to perform the basic file sync, but then your other app (in this case Scrivener) has to include a bunch of specific code so that it can access its portion of Dropbox).
Hence, Scrivener will not see the Word doc you put in place (it’s not the right format) but since you can see it via the Dropbox website, that confirms that the Dropbox app on your PC is properly replicating the files to the Dropbox server.
Since you can see the file from the Dropbox iOS app, that also confirms that the files are properly replicating and visible to your iOS device.
Now, in iOS Scrivener, tap on Edit -> Gear wheel -> Dropbox settings – how is it configured?
Right, that’s what I would expect. I just asked you to use an ordinary file rather than a Scrivener project to confirm that the basic sync functionality is working.
Next, create a brand new test project on the PC side, save it to the same location as the test file that I asked you to create, and then sync it, first to Dropbox, then to the iPad. Again, check your Dropbox account on the web and then the Dropbox app on the iPad to confirm that it successfully transfers to both locations.
Katherine
Understood. In real life I work in IT and one of the key pillars of effective troubleshooting is making sure all expectations are clearly stated (and re-stated) just so everyone is always on the same page. I cannot tell you how many times me or my colleagues temporarily forget basic stuff that if we’d just repeated it out loud every 30 minutes or so, we’d have avoided hours of unproductive exploration.
You say that your project is scrambled in Dropbox. From where are you looking? Can you paste a screenshot of that?
Since you have the correct folder set in iOS Scrivener, do you see it in your projects list?
Hooray!
Katherine