So is there an issue with backing up a project that was once a backup? I don’t think it’s cause for concern (which is why I’m not putting it into the Bug report area.)
Here’s what I did:
1.) Backed up a project as a zip file and emailed it to myself to work on in the library.
2.) Unzipped the file on my laptop, opened up the scrivener project.
3.) Worked on some stuff. Saved it. Backed it up as a zip folder on the laptop and emailed it to myself.
4.) Downloaded the attachment, unzipped it, and none of my document notes had backed up. (Just project notes.)
I can make good backups on any other project file but this one. Same version of Scrivener (026). My laptop is running a newer version of Slackware, and my desktop is running a slightly newer version of wine.
For safety, I"m not going to try to open the weird project…just compiling it and then cutting/pasting into the old one. (And trashing it on the laptop).
This certainly shouldn’t be the case, and I’m not managing to replicate it on my own with zipped backups, so I don’t think the backup itself is completely broken in this regard (though I suppose it could be related to the OS, if the zip function is fussily not including certain files for some intricate and bizarre reason). Did you lose all document notes or only new ones you had added while working at the library? And if you test this on another project (should you get the chance to do so), with the double backup procedure as described, does it happen again?
Very sorry you lost your notes–I hope you’re able to restore everything from your other copies of the project.
If you haven’t trashed the project yet, you might want to take a peek inside the .scriv folder if you haven’t already and check that the notes documents themselves are actually gone from the Docs folder and not that they’re just not being loaded for some reason. They’d be titled #_notes.rtf.
Sure, you can zip it and send it to support AT literatureandlatte DOT com, though I don’t expect it will reveal anything, sadly. You never know.
I’m assuming that when you were working on the project prior to zipping it up and emailing it back to yourself the second time, all the notes were still in the project, along with all your other documents, etc. and nothing looked amiss? And then you used Backup Project To with the zip option on and then closed and deleted the project from your laptop? Just trying to get the exact steps here to figure out what point did away with your files, since needless to say, that’s a rather big bug. If you still have a copy of the project from your laptop (that you worked on, not the initial zip copy), have you checked that to see if the document notes are still there? (Indicating the it was the backup process that lost them for that copy, but not affecting the original files.)
Did you actually use the Backup Project To or did you backup externally when the project was closed?
Yeah. I worked on it for about 20 minutes or so, then saved. I can open the project again, and it looks fine. (I haven’t trashed it yet.)
Yep. Backed it up via the backup project menu item. Either zipped or not, none of the actual document files are in there.
Yep, they’re still there. The only difference between that and any other project I’m seeing is the 0kb duplicate files that’s a known issue with the zipped backup.
Yes, I used the dialogue in the program to back it up. Since it was the only project on either computer that wouldn’t back up, I assumed corruption and didn’t move it back to my desktop via other means. (Like compressing it outside of scrivener.)
I was unclear about that in the email. The files are made when Windows Scrivener makes the backup to zip, but when you extract the files via the built-in Windows utility, they get cleaned up. If you extract the files via a different utility, though–for instance, if I open them on a Mac, and I imagine the same if you’re opening on Linux–the shadow files are still there.
Also, I did just manage to do something weird, but I have to figure out how I did it. I will report back on that when I’ve retraced my steps, as it might explain that weird extra .scriv file in the one project. Maybe. Or maybe I’m just going crazy.
If the weirdness is on my end, it’s easy enough to work around (save the backups for true emergencies, now I know to edit out all the 0 bit duplicates, since that’s what caused the backed up project to not back up when worked on.)
But much relieved it’s not an issue with Scrivener.
For those playing along at home: if you open a backup to work on, remove the duplicate files first, if there are any. 8)
