Hi, I’ve been using a trial version of Scrivener for Mac OS X with no problem at all. Today I bought Scrivener from App Store and installed it on my MacBook Air and mi Imac. It runs smoothly in the MacBook, but when I’m using the Imac and choose backup location in preferences Scrivener crashes. It doesn’t allow me to write in the box (which is always blank) to specify location, but it allows me to access the “choose” label and to actually browse and choose the location, but when I press “open” Scrivener crashes down and disappears. However, I can back up files manually to the location I want.
Can you help me with this crash? I’d like to establish a location for automatic backups, as I can do in my MacBook. Otherwise, I will be able to do manual backups in my Imac.
Thanks a lot.
Hi,
Sorry to hear you are having problems. Could you please send me the crash report? Or, if you have sent the automatic report that appears when you reopen Scriv, let me know and I’ll look it up. When you choose the lOcation, do you make sure that you wait until the folder contents in the open panel is fully visible? There is a bug in Mountsin Lion with open panels that can cause them to send nil information to the app sometimes, and I’m wondering if this could be the cause…
Thanks,
Keith
Hi, Keith,
thanks for your prompt answer. Yes, I wait for everything to appear. In fact, the first suggestion for location that Scrivener makes me is the folder I want to choose (and I can see also the previous files I saved manually in it). The problem is that when I click on “Open” Scivener disappears, I’m sent out.
I tried to attach one of the crash reports, but I couldn’t, so I give you the link for you to have a look at all of them.
dl.dropbox.com/u/3899819/Scriven … _Files.zip
I’m really grateful for your interest and help 
,
Juan.
Hi Juan,
This is very strange - the crash reports you attached indicate that the crash is coming somewhere in Apple’s sandboxing code, the part that allows a sandboxed app to maintain access to a folder or file between sessions (which is obviously necessary for the backup folder).
Unfortunately, I don’t have a system running the same version as Lion as you on which to test right now, although this was tested on 10.7.4 before I upgraded to Mountain Lion. I have also tested this out on the version of 10.7.4 running on my MacBook Retina display (which is a slightly different build to the version that is run on non-Retina machines), and on Mountain Lion machines, and I cannot reproduce this problem at all. I have asked other members of the team to see if they can reproduce this on the same set-up as you, though.
Could you please tell me what happens if you try to change the location of the Scratch Pad directory (in the “General” pane of the preferences)? And what about if you try to add directories to the authorised list, via Scrivener > Authorize Directory Access…? Do you get crashes there, too? (I ask because these use the same sandboxing mechanism as the backup preferences).
One thing you might try, too, is using Onyx to rebuild the launch services and do general maintenance on your machine:
Another user resolved a mysterious crash in 2.3.1 doing just this, although as the nature of the crashes was a little different, I doubt this will work, but it is most definitely worth a shot.
Thanks and all the best,
Keith
Hi Keith,
- I tried to change the location of the Scratch Pad: the box was initially blank but it allowed me to browse and choose a folder as location. I clicked on “Open” and the window on which I did it went frozen on the Preferences window below as well. I couldn’t close any of them. However, when I clicked on any other part of Scrivener, the binder, for instance, everything seemed to work fine. For some time, if I tried to access the Preferences again, I only got the frozen windows. After a while, I could access again to the preferences with no problem, but the Scratch Pad location box was blank again. The result, thus, is different from the back-up error, since Scrivener doesn’t disappear, but the Scratch Pad location can’t be selected and the window freezes.
- When I try to Authorize Directory Access it allows me to browse in search of directories, but when I choose one and accept the box with authorized directories remains blank.
I don’t know if these are good or bad news, if it makes things better or worse. I’ll wait for you help and, meanwhile, I can only thank you again.
Best regards,
Juan.
Hi Keith,
unsing Onix didn’t work. I even reinstalled the Mac OSX Lion software and things are the same. The funny thing is that it works fine in my MacBook Air and I started this MacBook with a migration from my Imac (this was before buying Scrivener from App Store). Both systems should be pretty much the same. My Imac and MacBook Air are really new, only two weeks old, so they don’t have any disturbing softwares installed.
There is another curious fact and I don’t know if it’s relevant: when I bought and downloaded Scrivener I did it from my Imac (where I have the Back-up destination problem). On downloading it, it was directly installed (or appeared) in my Applications. However, when I downloaded Scrivener to my MacBook, it wasn’t directed to Applications. It only appears in the Launchpad.
Thanks and best regards,
Juan.
Hi Juan,
That is stranger and stranger, and I’m at a bit of a loss here seeing as this seems to be something going on deep in OS X - the crashes are happening in Apple’s sandboxing code, as I say.
One thing you should try is ensuring that Scrivener is installed in Applications, though - that shouldn’t make a difference, but it’s worth a try. Do a Spotlight search for Scrivener and delete all versions of it, then re-download from the MAS via the “Purchases” tab.
All the best,
Keith
Hi Keith,
I don’t know what happened, but, as if by miracle, the back-up location began working all of a sudden. I didn’t do anything else. I didn’t delete Scrivener. The programme was temporarily blocked when closing it, but did not crash as in previous occasions. Then I realised it didn’t give me the message about unable to automatically backup. On the contrary, I saw that it did an automatic backup to the standard destination set by the programme. Right after that I went to preferences and selected the location I was interested in and it remained there and worked correctly. The little change that I have detected is that just after that the automatic correction that transformed double hyphen (–) into a longer dash didn’t work (I don’t know if it was due to something I did without being aware of it). Apart from that, everything works fine with automatic backup now.
Thanks a lot for your interest in my case,
Best regards,
Juan.
Hi Juan,
Did you do a software update on your Mac by any chance? I have since found out that Apple screwed up with some of the 10.7.4 installers so that a vital file for sandboxing in OS X was missing on some versions of 10.7.4. Apple released a software update to address this, which would show up only on affected Macs.
Thanks and all the best,
Keith
Hi Keith,
Yes, indeed. Now that I remember, I did a software update proposed. Maybe that was the change that solved things.
Thanks a lot again.
Juan.
That would indeed explain it - many thanks for confirming this!
All the best,
Keith