I needed to restart my macbook. So all my Pages documents closed. Then when it tried to close all of my open Scrivener documents I got an error message that says:
The backup folder does not exist
The folder specified for automatic backups “…” does not exist. Please specify a different folder via the Preferences.
Try Again. OK.
If I hit try again it fails.
If I hit OK the error bubble quoted above pops up again
The Preferences option is whited out. I can’t minimize my Scrivener documents. I can’t edit my Scrivener documents. I can’t resize my Scrivener documents. They’re all affected.
For all intents and purposes Scrivener is open but crashed.
Help?!
We can do a Zoom session, if you like.
Can we do this Tuesday morning sometime? Thank you so much!
I’m sorry. I’m not seeing a link?
Yes 11 would work for me. I’m in Tulsa so same time zone. I’ve never done zoom before but could try it. Are you familiar with this issue? Or think you know what might be causing it? Thank you!
Ok great - thanks! I just thought maybe it sounded like something you’d seen in the past, having read what it was doing. Will go check out your page to see if you’re gonna message me or I’m gonna message you or what, at 11.
Can we do it via email or messenger? Easier than learning zoom overnight.
No. It could take a week in text messages to do what we can do in 20 minutes when I can SEE the problem and lead you through a few steps to try. Someone else will help you in text messages (here in the forum), but the cause of a problem like this one is too unpredictable for me.
How can you SEE what’s on my screen? Like I said I’ve never done zoom.
Can you force quit Scrivener (CMD OPT ESC)? A backup might not be created, but the current file should already be saved … and if Scrivener has crashed there probably isn’t anything else that can be done.
If the Mac is then turned off, left for a few seconds and cold booted, you should be able to see if Scrivener will launch again. If it doesn’t, you should be able to uninstall and reinstall the software to fix any corrupted code. Your projects are kept separately from the application, so they should be safe.
Are projects stored on the Mac’s hard drive or an external disk? And similarly where are backups stored?
No one has suggested what I would do first when an app goes wonky.
With Scrivener closed, move the preferences file out onto the desktop (~/Library/Preferences/com.literatureandlatte.scrivener3.plist)* and then try restarting Scrivener. If Scrivener opens take the time to reset your preferences.
Re-installing doesn’t clear the Preferences, so if that file is corrupted—which can and has happened to others—it won’t solve the problem.
* Hold down Option and mouse to Go in the Finder menu bar.
Hope that helps.
Mark