Hi,
I just purchased a license and upgraded to Scrivener 3. But my old files, which were in Scrivener 2, are not in Scrivener 3. How to I import my old Scrivener files from version 2 to version 3?
Many thanks,
Leona
It’s okay - I found out how - went to Scrivener, Preferences, Backup, and found what I needed. Sorry for the false alarm!
Thanks,
Leona
Projects are saved in macOS’s file system (Finder), not actually in Scrivener.
Open Scrivener 3 and choose File > Find All Projects in Spotlight.
This should find all your existing projects.
The backup files are just that: backups, not the original working projects.
Hi Bridey,
so when I find All Project in Spotlight, how do I then move them to Scrivener 3…?
thanks
All you need to do is open them in Scrivener 3 - using File > Open in Scrivener or by double-clicking on the file in the Finder. Scrivener works like Word or Pages in that your projects are just files on your computer - it’s up to you where you save them. (The files in the Backups folder are just backups or your projects.)
I would recommend that you make sure you know where your projects are saved:
-
Set up a folder somewhere on your machine where you want to keep your projects. I have a “Writing” folder for my projects, and subfolders in the “Writing” folder for different types of project.
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Use the method Bridey suggested to locate all your projects in the Finder.
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If you just want to see where projects are, for each project, in the Finder Ctrl-click and choose “Show in Enclosing Folder”.
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Or, you can just move them to the folder you set up for your projects.
This way you’ll know exactly where your projects are on disk. You can then locate them using Scrivener’s File > Open menu and you’ll know that you need to back up this folder if you ever wipe your computer or move to another machine.
All the best,
Keith
I was wrong. Never mind. Apologies.
Scrivener 3 does not “kill” earlier versions.
As is clearly documented, it converts Scrivener 2 projects to the new project format, taking a backup before it does so. You can reinstall Scrivener 2 and open one of these backups at any time. Scrivener 2.9 will accept either a Scrivener 2 or a Scrivener 3 license key, and will also run in trial mode for 30 days if you do not have a pre-existing license. No further expenditure on your part is needed.
It is also possible, in the event that Scrivener is completely unusable, to extract your work from the project file using nothing but Finder and TextEdit, both of which are available with every Mac.
Moreover, our support team will – assuming you can refrain from profanity and insults – be happy to help with any issues you might have with either version, including extracting your data and issuing a refund if necessary.
Katherine
You’re right. I was wrong. I will take down that post.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t thrilled by the original post.
But I very much appreciate your willingness to correct your mistake. The internet would be a much better place if that quality weren’t so rare. Thank you.
Best wishes for success with your writing.
Katherine
I’ve read through the entire thread and am still quite confused. I had a couple of projects with extensive files in my previous version of Scrivener. When I open Scrivener 3, it cannot find these files using spotlight. Since I couldn’t find them in Spotlight, I thought I would transfer all of the files manually, but when I go back and open my old version of Scrivener,it only finds except two test files that I created when I downloaded Scrivener 3. None of my old files appear. (They were there yesterday, accessible through the old Scrivener app).
I understand that you’re supposed to just “know” where your files are, but without knowing where I originally saved them, is there any way to find them? Does scrivener have an extension I can search? I tried .scriv but it only found the new test files I made in Scrivener 3. I’m sure there’s something obvious that I’m missing.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Have you done a search in Finder, looking for any of the projects, or any files ending with .scriv? If you do that you should find your old projects and if you click on anyone of them you should see the folder path at the bottom of Finder.
You could download the trial of Houdah Spot https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/download.html and do a search using the option Kind is Scrivener Project.
Doesn’t HoudahSpot use the Spotlight index, though? Does it offer better searches, or just a better interface?
Katherine
As far as I know, Houdah Spot does use the Spotlight index. It does make it a lot easier to construct complex searches, and the results pane is a lot better.
What caught my eye here, though, was the possibility to search by Kind / Scrivener Project, which I don’t see in the Finder search. I don’t know what is happening behind the scenes in Houdah, and I guess it might just be looking for the .scriv extension, but the program has another option to look for a particular extension, so perhaps it is doing more than that. It might be looking for the file creator, I suppose. It is a long time since I went searching for creator codes via Get Info, and I don’t know if those still exist somewhere in the OS. I suppose something has to tell the system what the default application is, and it can’t be just the file extension.
If @michrichmond doesn’t have file extensions turned on, and he hasn’t said if that’s the case, would searching for *.scriv in Spotlight come up with anything?
Just a thought.
Mark
Yes, you can use Finder to search by “Kind.” Start typing “scriv” in the search bar and you’ll get a dropdown menu in which one of the options is “Kinds -> Scrivener Project.”
And yes, that search will find projects if the extension is hidden.
Another alternative is to search for text that is likely to appear in one of the missing projects. That will even find projects that aren’t recognized as such by the system.
Katherine
Thanks Katherine. In all the years I’ve been using Macs, I’ve virtually never had to use Spotlight or its predecessors, and I always have the extensions showing anyway, so I didn’t know that.
Mark