Scrivener 2 is superb!! However, I’m getting a strange bug when launching by opening a document rather than from the app icon. When I do this, two copies of the document open, plus the templates window. The app seems to think that when I launch from a doc I also want to go through the app launch procedure. This is presumably why it opens the templates window and the second copy of the document as well.
At the moment I only have one Scrivener project on my Mac. When I created a second test doc, however, the launching confusion got even weirder. I launched from the first doc and got two opening progress bars for it as before, but in fact only one opened plus a copy of the test doc (for which no progress bar appeared).
I have trashed both previous copies of Scrivener, v. 1 and the 2 beta, so this can’t be causing the repetition.
This is annoying, as I always open Scrivener sessions by opening the doc, not launching the app, as I imagine is true of most people. It never happened with v. 1.
I can’t reproduce this at all. By “opening the doc”, I assume you mean by double-clicking on it in the Finder - which works fine for me. And as this is something handled at the OS level, it’s very strange if it’s opening two copies of the document.
What OS are you on?
Can you please check the console to see if any errors are reported there when you go to open your project (~/Applications/Utilities/Console.app)?
Thanks for the fast reply. Yes, I’m double clicking on the document icon in the finder. The OS is 10.6.4, the Mac a Mac Mini.
Here’s what Console reports for the past hour or so of use. Before recording it, I quit Scrivener and launched it again by opening the document as described - with the same result as before. If it helps I can make a screenshot vid of what happens and send it. Here’s Console meanwhile:
You’e got some sort of scripting addition or plugin installed on your system which is causing all those console reports - I recommend you remove it. (“post menu cleanup”, “examine context”, something to do with Spice Shaper and Paperless Additions - look into all of these).
Best,
Keith
Thanks for the reply. I’ve removed these scripting additions, but it makes no difference. I’ve delved further and the problem is proving persistent. It seems to be triggered when the project gets to a certain number of words (and, possibly, files). My reason for saying this is the following troubleshooting sequence:
I uninstalled Scrivener 2 and all .plists, downloaded again and reinstalled. The problem remained.
I created some new projects, adding minimal content, and they all opened normally.
I therefore wondered if the project creating the problem had become corrupted in some way. So I created a fresh project and began copying over files from the problematic one. Everything was fine until I had fifty files and just under 37,000 words in the new project, at which point it started reproducing the same problem.
I wondered if some particular file was causing the problem, so opened a new fresh project and added the last files added to the other one before it began acting up. There was no difficulty.
I created another fresh project with fifty files with a few characters content in each, plus synopses. No problem.
Conclusion: for some reason the problem starts when the project reaches about 37,000 words (and, perhaps, a given number of files). I haven’t yet tested this with another project as adding this amount of content, different from the existing project, will take time.
To summarize what is happening when I launch from the project icon in the Finder:
The normal progress bar appears, loads a small amount then stops.
A second identical progress bar appears and loads rapidly.
A third progress bar opens behind the first one, reading, "Rebuilding search indexes. Please wait. Looking for changed files… (This only flashes up very quickly - I had to take a screenshot video and stop the frame to see what it said.)
Two copies of the project open.
I should add that this has only happened since upgrading the app and the project to v. 2. There was never any problem with the same project in v. 1 (nor, I think, with the beta of v. 2, but as I only tried this for a day before the full upgrade I can’t now recall exactly).
Hope this helps. I realise that you’re very busy at the moment and that if this is not happening with any other users it can’t be a priority, but I’d be grateful for any advice and I guess it may be useful to get to the bottom of it in case it does arise with someone else.
Cheers, and thanks for your brilliant and hard work. I’m a professional writer, and Scrivener is the absolute tops. It knows how I think.
Can I ask what is a seemingly stupid question, but it is something that I experienced?
You don’t happen to have two copies of Scrivener on your hard disk, do you? I downloaded the updated version, but before installing it ran it from the .dmg to check the version number to see that it was the latest. I had forgotten that the previous copy in my applications folder was actually running at the time. I seem to remember I ended up with two copies of the last project open.
So, if you have two copies of the app on your machine, when you double-click on the project in the finder, is it opening/trying to open it in both copies?
Thanks for the suggestion. No, I trashed both previous copies, v. 1 and the v. 2 beta, and emptied the Trash for good measure. The problem remains. It also only affects this project and any others that go above this weird word limit.
Two more troubleshooting steps, which just add to the weirdness:
I created a new project with just over thirty files and a total word count of over 45,000 words. There was no problem. So it’s not just a problem of wordage.
I tried importing the problematic project into a new project via File/Import/Scrivener Project. This is the method recommended in the manual to deal with corrupted files. The problem recurred with the new project.
So, something appears to have gone wrong with the problematic project during upgrading, and is brought across to any new project created from the same material in v. 2, whether this is done by importing or by manually copying over the content.
This is not crippling so far, as all I have to do is launch the app rather than the project. But it is worrying, as it means that my main work project is now corrupt and I have no idea of how to clean it up. Perhaps I could export everything as plain text, open it in a different app, and then copy it again into a new Scrivener project - but that would be really laborious. Probably nothing else will go wrong, but I don’t at all like having my main work project causing the app not to work as it should. Help, please.
I can verify having 2 copies of the same document open. I have only one copy of Scrivener running (Version 2.0 (6023)). I cannot replicate this behavior, but it has happened now 2 or 3 times. I think it has something to do with setting Scrivener to open on boot–but I don’t have the time right now to try to isolate it further. I’ll let you know if I can reliably replicate this behavior.
Thanks, alanterra. But I am not launching Scrivener on boot. I boot the Mac, do other stuff, then launch my project in Scrivener from the project app, which is when the trouble starts.
Btw, re my last post, when I launch clean from the new imported version (direct from the project icon, without launching the app first) two copies of this open PLUS one copy of the original project!! Go figure…
I don’t want to overload the thread, but I’ve tried one more thing. I restored an older version of the project from Time Machine and updated that. It produced the same problem. So presumably whatever is wrong with it was in the v. 1 version and played badly with the updating process - though I never had any problem with it until updating.
Try re-downloading and re-installing, as I have put a new build up - I don’t think the new build will have any effect on this problem, but let’s rule that out first. After that, please take a look at the Console (~/Applications/Utilities/Console.app) and let me know any errors that get reported there as you launch Scrivener and it results in two projects open.
Also, what OS are you both on? (10.4.11, 10.5.8, 10.6.4 or whatever.)
Done, and no change. I get the three progress bars and the two copies as before. Console reports no errors. All I get there is three requests to update scripting additions (which I get with a slew of apps, I now realise).
There is only one copy of Scrivener in the Dock when you get to projects open? That is, does double-clicking and opening cause a second Scrivener icon to appear in the Dock, or not?
Sorry to ask the obvious, and sorry if this was answered above, but I’m very tired and about to clock off.
Fair enough, you must be blitzed right now. No, only one icon, and no other copy of Scrivener anywhere on my system. I’ve looked manually, by Spotlight, with DataLore and I’ve emptied the Trash after deleting the previous versions. The only other one one is on my Time Machine HD.
Time to grab a pint, mate! I’d stand you it if I was there - Cornwall, land of me fathers.
I’m being good, and saving the pints for tomorrow night!
Could you take a video of the what happens somehow, for instance with a trial of ScreenFlow? I’m a bit lost on this one, so I figure a video might be the next best thing to reproducing it.
I’ve just sent you three videos to the support email address.
And alanterra is right! Idiotic of me not to have realised this! I generally end a session by saving the doc and quitting, not by closing the project first. This is my normal procedure with all apps. It hadn’t occurred to me that this might be a problem.
So, it’s a small bug, then, and nothing is happening to the files - great!
I’ve played around a bit with this and another project and what happens is that if I open both, follow my usual procedure to end the session, then relaunch directly from one of them, Scrivener opens both. If I was only working on one project during the last session, it opens two copies of that.
If I do close and then quit, when I next launch directly from the project icon I get the templates window and then the project opens. That seems a bit odd, too - why does the template window open when I’m reopening an existing project?
Looks like the code dealing with launching projects may need a bit of a clean-up (says he arrogantly, the total non-tech).
Glad it’s not a biggy, though. Think I’ll have a beer, too.
