# Sync problems **URL:** \ **Category:** Scrivener for iOS\ **Tags:** bug\ **Created:** [November 22, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581 "2016-11-22T22:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/rwodaski)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 8:47am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/21 "2016-12-23T08:47:18Z")
> [@lunk](#): > > Well, syncing seems to work for almost everyone else, so unless you have a corrupt app, really bad or unreliable internet connection or corrupt project, the only explanation for ‘sync provlems’ is that you are actually doing something that creates the problems. well, nothing’s come up like that. i do have an ios centric approach; i can get sync problems without ever touching documents from the desktop. i haven’t had any issues since adding the business dropbox account, or since the update. we shall see how it goes. ---
**Author:** ![kewms](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/kewms/32/15720_2.png) [@kewms](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/kewms)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/22 "2016-12-23T17:10:26Z")
> [@rwodaski](#): > > Cleaning would be hard. We are talking about multiple versions of works of fiction; I honestly can’t tell which is the old and which is the new in all cases, even right after it happens because the old may be very old, and the new may be something I don’t recall much about because that’s how I am; I don’t really think about my writing; I write gut-wise, and need to have 100% trust in the software to capture that stuff. Plus, looking at the stuff that winds up in the conflicts folder, I really can’t make much sense of tens of thousands of words in large chapters. Hence why I stopped relying on sync, hence my problem now. Literally, I’ve just left those conflicts there with the idea that maybe someday I can make sense of them, but I don’t really expect to. The IP is gone for me when it gets that far…it’s a thing that I’ve dealt with my whole life, FWIW. So I have left the rubble where it is, and tried to find a way of working that avoids sync conflicts. I would suggest breaking your manuscript into smaller chunks. Not because that will make sync conflicts easier to resolve – although it will – but because just about all of Scrivener’s organizational and metadata features work better with chunks of hundreds or thousands, not tens of thousands of words. What I was actually referring to, though, was the possibility of conflicted files inside the structure of the project, that Scrivener isn’t able to get rid of or resolve. These probably wouldn’t be visible in the Binder, which is why you would need to use Finder on the Mac to track them down. See this discussion: [scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/ … c-services](http://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/cloud-syncing/using-scrivener-with-cloud-sync-services) Katherine ---
**Author:** ![kewms](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/kewms/32/15720_2.png) [@kewms](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/kewms)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/23 "2016-12-23T17:15:07Z")
> [@rwodaski](#): > > The above is definitely not true for me. I can get sync conflicts even when only editing on the iPad. Something that occurs to me: given that Dropbox requires a finite period of time to sync files, maybe I have been to fast for it? Or maybe I have had a partial sync, walked out the door, and dropbox wasn’t finished and I’m editing/syncing again? If the dialog box that pops up during sync only disappears when sync to the dropbox servers is complete, however, then I am probably not running into anything like that. I am always very careful to let the sync continue until the dialog box reports it is done. Maybe there is a timing problem anyway??? Failure to allow the sync to finish is the most common cause of errors, so there’s a high chance that this is a contributing factor. Having the business Dropbox use “fix” the problem is puzzling, as I assume the business use doesn’t have anything to do with Scrivener’s files. One possibility, though, would be that you are using Dropbox more often and more consistently, and therefore complete synchronization is occurring without any conscious action on your part. Katherine ---
**Author:** ![rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/rwodaski)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 2:50am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/24 "2016-12-24T02:50:50Z")
> [@kewms](#): > > > [@rwodaski](#): > > > > Having the business Dropbox use “fix” the problem is puzzling, as I assume the business use doesn’t have anything to do with Scrivener’s files. One possibility, though, would be that you are using Dropbox more often and more consistently, and therefore complete synchronization is occurring without any conscious action on your part. > > > > Katherine Could just bed a coincidence, or something has been changed in Scrivener. Just to be clear: I joined a business Dropbox account, but I also have my personal account (it did not change, although the path to the files changed). All of my scrivener stuff still lives in the personal dropbox. I rarely use the business stuff; by far the most common thing I do in dropbox remains the same: Scrivener on the iPad. And let’s keep in mind: for whatever reason (Dropbox changes; Scrivener update; good fortune) I haven’t had one of these iPad-only sync problems for weeks now. ---
**Author:** ![lunk](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/lunk/32/15732_2.png) [@lunk](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/lunk)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 8:58am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/25 "2016-12-24T08:58:40Z")
> [@rwodaski](#): > > And let’s keep in mind: for whatever reason (Dropbox changes; Scrivener update; good fortune) I haven’t had one of these iPad-only sync problems for weeks now. Or maybe it’s a result of you being more careful now that we explained some details on how to behave? 😉 Merry Christmas. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/rwodaski)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 9:51am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/26 "2016-12-24T09:51:27Z")
> [@lunk](#): > > > [@rwodaski](#): > > > > And let’s keep in mind: for whatever reason (Dropbox changes; Scrivener update; good fortune) I haven’t had one of these iPad-only sync problems for weeks now. > > Or maybe it’s a result of you being more careful now that we explained some details on how to behave? 😉 > > Merry Christmas. 😃 Ho ho ho. 😃 no, i am not doing anything differently. it covers weeks before we got talking about this seriously. but, yes, let’s all have a merry Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/rwodaski)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/27 "2016-12-31T00:25:24Z")
So, an update. I have continued to use syncing pretty much as I always have, and…I am not having any sync issues. I am using some of my oldest documents during the last few weeks, so…I guess it just works now. ---
**Author:** ![rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@rwodaski](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/rwodaski)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 3:56am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/28 "2017-04-15T03:56:06Z")
And I can add a long-term follow-up. Whatever it was that happened in that long ago of frustrating sync issues, I have now been using Scrivener on the iPad for an additional three months (with occasional use on my MacBook Pro) and I have not had a single instance of syncing problems. If it was me, I learned better; if it was Scrivener, it was fixed. Either way, I realized recently that I never think about sync issues any more. ---
**Author:** ![lunk](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/lunk/32/15732_2.png) [@lunk](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/lunk)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 6:57am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581/29 "2017-04-15T06:57:05Z")
> [@rwodaski](#): > > If it was me, I learned better; if it was Scrivener, it was fixed. Either way, I realized recently that I never think about sync issues any more. Glad to hear everything worked out just fine. 🙂 PS. Scrivener hasn’t changed… 😉 [Previous page](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/sync-problems/35581.md?page=1)