It has now happened for the second time within a few weeks that a project file closes the window immediately after opening with a crash report and can no longer be started and edited.
I use the current macOs Ventura and the current Scrivener version for macOs (3.2.3).
Unfortunately, the backup file is also corrupt and very old. Basically, I would have to rewrite the entire project, unless you have a tip on how to repair such a damaged container file.
The error: I open the project file, the Scrivener App starts for a short moment, then crashes with the following error message. (The file can no longer be opened.)
I embrace you both as life savers. Deleting the two config files helped. I can open and edit the project again, so the emergency operation was successful. Thank you very much!
PS: Since the problem has already appeared twice, my question: Is this a bug and are you working on a fix?
It is not a known bug. This kind of corruption is not unusual after Mac OS upgrades, so I wouldnāt be overly concerned unless it becomes a recurring problem.
What is concerning is that you didnāt have a current backup. This would be a good time to check Scrivenerās automatic backup settings at Scrivener ā Preferences ā Backups and make sure they match the way you work. It would also be a good idea to have a Time Machine volume or other external backup.
Good morning and Happy Monday!
I have of course activated the backup function, but the last backup was also corrupt, with the same error. I have now increased the settings extremely and set the number of backups per project file to 10. This should give much more security. Thanks again for the quick help and the solution to the problem. It saved me a lot of work.
PS: Do you have a customisation update planned for Ventura?
Glad you are getting this sorted ā¦ Just checking to perhaps de-risk the corruption issue ā¦ what you have set for you Scrivener āAutoSaveā? I have mine set for āAuto Save after 2 seconds of inactivityā which is the default.
FYI, for backups, I do the max of automatic back up on open and close (belt and braces) and I āonly keep 25 most recent backupsā. Disk space available and cheap.
I concur with @kewms to also setup and routinely use an Apple TimeMachine backup for your entire system.
For my Scrivener (Verion 3.2.3) options, the max they give is 25. Yes I could copy the older ones somewhere else and approach the limit of infinity, but I use other backup methods for all that.
By the way, if clearing your interface settings solves the problem and this is something that happens periodically in the project, then my guess would be you have something in your binder that the software, or the libraries it depends upon, does not like.
So if you crash out again, chances are high it was something you clicked on recently in the binder.
I have got many different novel project files but they have a lot in common regarding how they are structured. Checking out the binder content, there are only text (rtf) files, PDFs for research and graphic files (JPG) for illustrations and cover titles. That is basically it.
BTW: The two crashes I have mentioned happened on different project files and days after I upgraded to macOS Ventura. After I recovered them, everything runs fine for now.
Thank you all again for your helpful advises. One of the damaged project files was 500 MBytes large (a novel series) and I really started to sweat when it started to crash. So your hint was gold for me.
