I use Sync.com which is a Dropbox competitor but essentially identical. Is it possible to sync between my max and my ipad? All the guides I’ve found have been about dropbox in particular.
I am also open to using Icloud to sync the files as long as I can also use Sync.com as a backup, but I seem to remember that mixing syncing technologies is buggy. Not sure if that applies to this situation or not.
Scrivener on iOS has a Dropbox sync functionality built into it and it does not offer other options.
I don’t know about sync.com, but some sync services screw up scrivener projects, because they handle package files poorly (Scriv projects are not single files as they appear to be on macs, but packages of files). Dropbox handles packages well and hence the focus on dropbox.
What i just said implies that you need to be careful about even storing a scrivener project in a synced location, even if you are not trying to also access your projects from ios scrivener.
You can read a lot about this on these forums if you search around.
-gr
I’ve been using Sync.com for years to collaborate with a friend, even though the Sync people claim it is not suitable for complex projects like Scrivener projects. However the answer is that only Dropbox provide the necessary API to allow Scrivener on iOS/iPadOS to access the project directly and sync with your Mac/PC.
I use Sync for my active projects, with one or two on Dropbox, in case I ever need to access them on my iPad. Zipped backups, on the other hand, go to iCloud or Box. Mixing different cloud platforms like that causes no problems at all.
Mark
I know this is an old thread but I don’t see the point in starting a new one for this simple question.
From the above I notice that Xiamenese (Mark) uses Sync.com for Scriv projects and has done for a while with no problems. Have you, or any other regular Sync user, encountered any difficulties with Sync and Scriv in the two years or so since this thread was active?
The reason I ask is that trying to manage the limited space on DropBox is becoming nigh on impossible, so unless there are any known problems, I’m thinking of using Sync as my prime choice for Scriv projects. Any time I need to use the iPad for editing Scriv, I’ll have to transfer any necessary files to DropBox.
Hello @Tacitus,
I’m still using Sync for all my Scrivener projects and, over all these years, have had zero problems with it—apart from a very few occasions at the beginning when either I or my collaborator was too hasty in shutting down our computer before Sync had finished synchronising particularly deleting the user.lock, the last stage in the process. Note, I’ve found Sync notifications very helpful, as they keep me informed of changes on the server, including the deletion of the user.lock if that is the only change.
My impression had always been that it is slightly slower than Dropbox, presumably thanks to its greater security and use of encryption, but that’s only an impression and from a long time ago.
If I did need to access a project on my iPad, I’d move it into Dropbox for the purpose, but I never really got on with Scrivener on my iPad, so that is somewhat academic.
Mark
Hello Mark:
My use of Scrivener on iOS is comparitively rare nowadays so losing the facility altogether would probably be no great problem. Certainly the faff to maintain DropBox storage within the (free) limit (+ “earned” extra from the early days) is getting to be not worth it.
I’ll move stuff over gradually but other apps I’ve used with Sync have been OK. Following their advice that Sync is not intended for use with apps like Scriv I’ve always been a bit wary though. Others appear to use it with no problem so I’ll give it a go.
Thanks for the reply.
Just posted a question about whether sync.com is a viable service to use with Scrivener, and then found this thread. I hope to use it to sync between an old iMac (runs Monterrey) and a 2020 macbook pro that runs Sequoia. And do I understand correctly that to get this to work, I simply transfer a project to a folder in Sync and make sure that synching has finished before closing or shutting down my computer? Any other words of wisdom?
Just move existing projects into the Sync folder and set new projects to save there.
Always allows it to Sync fully before closing down a machine, and if you need to move machines while actually working, again check it’s fully sync’ed before opening. Fortunately the menu-bar icon indicates sync’ing in progress.
Set backups to a different location.
Mark
2 Likes