Recently I have noticed an increase in sync issues. I use Scrivener 3 on my 2104 i7 iMac, running Mojave, and have Scrivener IOS on my iPad running IOS 13. I tend to have a VPN running on the iMac. I use DropBox to sync. My backups are kept in a separate folder.
Can anyone offer me a troubleshooting workflow, to try and get this ironed out?
FYI I tend to sketch out scenes on the iPad, and press the sync symbol often, and always just before closing. It is often on the iMac that I get the warning. At times, on the iPad, I get asked to close the project to allow syncing, but still, I end up with conflicted copies of scenes.
What rms said. Remember that synchronization is a two-step process. First Dropbox uploads from the iOS device to the Dropbox server, then it downloads from the server to the Mac. In my experience, there’s also a small amount of “processing” time in between: newly uploaded data isn’t ready for download instantly.
Also remember that even if the two devices are in the same room, the data still has to go to the Dropbox server and back, meaning that synchronization speed will depend on the speed of the internet connection in both directions.
I’ll add that a pause before opening your project on Mac may be in order as well. It takes a finite amount of time for the Mac Dropbox app to notice that your project has been modified on its server and download those changes to your Mac Dropbox folder. Until you get a feel for how long it takes in your setup, I’d suggest checking your project’s “modified” date/time in Finder and making sure it’s updated before opening (or OKing Mobile Sync for) your project.
On the Mac, you can also click on the Dropbox icon in the menu bar. It’ll show you if it’s still syncing as well as a list of the last files it synced and when.