Synching panic between IOS and Windows

I have been using Scrivener for years on both an iPad and a laptop with Windows, but for the last 10 months I’ve been using just my iPad due to retiring and losing access to my laptop. (Yes, I am ancient which may be part of the problem!) I just bought a new laptop and installed Scrivener, but when I synched it with Dropbox it didn’t upload everything and what was left out seemed very random - notes on some sections of the manuscript, some files completely blank in my research section although all the titles seemed to be there, and several sections of the manuscript are completely missing the text. It did take a VERY long time to upload the files into Scrivener and I am wondering if I gave up and shut it down too soon, making it synch the new and partially missing version with Dropbox. I did cut synching off on my iPad to keep all my work there from being overwritten so haven’t lost it, but I am wondering what to do to get the correct version back on Windows and synched with the iPad! Should I uninstall the laptop’s version, resynch with the iPad, and reinstall on the laptop??

My current Windows version of Scrivener is 3.1.6.0. While I was still using my previous laptop I did start getting messages after (I think) an update saying files were detected in the project that were not in the binder, but nothing was ever actually missing from the binder and no text ever appeared in the conflicts section - just blank pages. I am getting that message again with some of the conflicts showing text (just notes from a few of the manuscript sections as far as I can tell).

Thanks for any advice anyone has to offer!

The first thing you should do is backup (not sync!) the iPad. Instructions are here:

The second thing you should do is confirm that Dropbox on the PC is configured to “make available offline” with respect to your Scrivener projects.

Then, use a test project to confirm that syncing is working correctly, in both directions. Once it is, check to see if the project you care about is now intact.

If it isn’t, use the backup to restore it. Don’t discard the backup until the project is syncing correctly in both directions.

2 Likes

Thanks so much - this is VERY helpful!