syncing with external folder gets disabled only on a certain mac

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Good morning everyone.

This is a bit tricky, but I would like to try to fix it all the same and keep loving Scrivener as I do…

My use scenario: I work on my projects on several macs, 4 of them, 3 at home and 1 at work. Every project is synced via Dropbox. Every project is also synced with its external folder, which is on Dropbox as well. That allows me to work on my project when the only device available is an Android phone: I keep the external folder files synced with DropSync, edit the files, they get synced back and when I am on a Mac again Scrivener senses the updates and sync it back and forth.

The matter is that in one on my macs, I had to move the Dropbox folder into an external disk or volume, so that the path is different from the one into the other macs.

Generally, I handle that with symlinks. Say I want to link a file into Dropbox to the mac desktop, I create a symlink, icloud syncs the desktop all around every mac and in each one of them it works like a charme.

With Scrivener, what happens is that, every time I open the project onto the mac with a different Dropbox path it automatically disables «check external folder on project open and automatically sync on close» which is instead very handy in my workflow.

Into the sync with external folder pane, I cannot manually edit the path to Dropbox, I can only choose it via Finder, where symlinks are not visible.

I suppose that, if I could edit that manually, I could insert it folllowing the symlink and all would go smooth with no disabling at all.

What strikes me is that if I open the project on a good mac, one where there is no disabling, the sync folder points to a certain path, while if I open the same project on the mac giving me the issue it points to a different one. I supposed that parameter was a roaming one, one which were synced along with the project, but maybe I am wrong and you have to set it differently for each local copy of the same project.

So my questions would be:

  • is there a way to manually edit the path, so that I can make it point according to symlinks on the troubled mac and that way make it identical to the other ones, which, in my opinion (but I may be wrong), would stop the disabling?
  • any other way to fix that?

Thank you for your attention and patience.

Scrivener is such a powerful tool for a writer, I thank God every day for it, it made me much more productive.

Have a nice day.

2

My understanding is that external sync is only supposed to be running on a single machine when you are syncing a project between multiple Scrivener instances – that Scrivener is not designed to understand multiple external sync points (even if you are trying to work around that with having your external sync folder be replicated via a sync engine) and that Bad Things™ can result.

3

Thank you for your reply.

But, no.

As a matter of fact, it works like a charme amongst the other macs and there is no way to let bad things happens, as long as you govern the syncing accordingly: never open the same project on several machines, never open a project before the syncing to and from Android / Mac finished.

I worked month with that setup scenario and never had an issue.

Thank you and have a nice day.

4

Interesting.
I have been driving cars for 40 years and never had an issue. Can I skip the safety belt then? :wink:

5

Of course, I never wear them and I am still alive.

I guess that has nothing to do with that… But it’s a good joke :smiley:

Have a nice day