I am running Scrivener on both a desktop PC and a Macbook. I have been working on the same file on these different platforms by storing the file on Dropbox. Recently, I have had enormous difficulty getting an up to date sync to work between the Mac and PC machines.
I have edited the file on Dropbox on my Mac, however when I open the same file on my PC it reverts to an older version of the file (I think the last saved version when working on the PC). Doing a saveas on my Mac and renaming the file doesn’t work, it still opens the older version. I have tried copying the file across manually and still the older version opens.
I have made the backup folder for both my Mac and PC versions of the software the same location in Dropbox, to no avail.
I suspect there is something going on here in relation to cross-platform compatibility that I do not understand. If someone could help me here, I would be most appreciative.
It’s possible that there are two .scrivx files, one which is recognized by Mac, the other by the PC. If you find that to be true, move one out of the .scriv folder and try opening it on both machines. If you are at your PC at the time, open that project first, then close down scrivener. The .scrivx file to be removed will then be the newer one.
I extracted the file from the .scivx file and my PC finally recognized it! So I celebrated - prematurely… The files and folders - ie - the structure of my dissertation - is there - but none of the content of any of the folders made it… any ideas on what I can do?
(If I can only work on one computer, fine. I will work on my desktop, the PC. The loss came when I decided to work on my macbook air. I’ll forgo that if I need to)
The .scrivx file is to your project as a table of contents is to a book.
EVERYTHING under the .scriv file is important, with the marginal exception being something that has been accidentally replicated, as can happen when sharing the whole project using cloud services like dropbox.
So, on the original windows computer, open the project and then go to File->Back Up->Back up to… and create a .zip compressed archive of your project. Move that .zip archive to your Mac, and then extact the project from the .zip file.
On the mac, the .scriv folder and all its contents will look like one file, but it’s just an illusion; all of those folders and files you could see on the windows computer are there.
If you want to keep going back and forth between computers, you can install the dropbox client on both computers, and then move the project to that folder and open it there. Then carefully follow the directions here: scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/ … c-services