Indeed, do not use the “Sync with External Folder” feature - that is something else completely.
All you need to do is put your Scrivener projects in /Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener and sync. That’s it.
Also, be sure that Dropbox on the desktop fully syncs on your Mac/Windows machine before syncing on iOS, otherwise not all the files may be available to be opened on iOS.
Please note that there are full instructions for syncing in the iOS Tutorial.
Yosimiti - if you are running into conflicts, it’s because you are not waiting for all files to sync before trying to open the project, or because you are editing the project in two places at the same time. You would have those problems no matter what sync solution was used.
So, in short:
Place any Scrivener projects you want to sync with Scrivener in /Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener (or whichever Dropbox sub folder you want to use).
Make sure Dropbox on your desktop has time to sync all the files (check the icon in the menu bar on the Mac to make sure it has finished syncing.
Sync on iOS (with Dropbox set up to link to the same folder in (1).
That’s it. When you’ve made changes on iOS and are ready to go back to your Mac/Windows machine, hit sync. Again, make sure all the files have been synced by Dropbox on your desktop (again check the Dropbox app icon) before continuing to use the project on the Mac. Before to hit File > Mobile > Sync with Mobile Devices if necessary, although normally you will be prompted if there are changes.
I’ve just spent some time actively trying to create conflicts. The only way I can do so is if I make changes to iOS and Mac versions without syncing in between. When you say that you “save it to Dropbox” on iOS, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean that you tap the sync button in Scrivener? You need to make sure you work on one platform at a time and sync before moving to the other platform. I’ve turned on the “sync projects on close” option to help make this step smoother.
I think it is the word “sync” that creates the problems. People think they need to do something special on their Macs and PCs, which they don’t.
To set it up You SAVE your Scrivener project in the correct folder on Dropbox. Then you OPEN the same project automatically if you point the iOS Scrivener to the correct Dropbox folder.
“Syncing” is a later process, when you have made changes to the stuff.
Hi
Can I just add that the instructions to sync are not that clear. I have used Scrivener pretty much as long as it has been out, and love it. So I was dead keen to buy the IPad version today, and have spent the morning searching for answers on the sync issue. I had followed the instructions, or so I thought, but like others was using the usual ‘synch to external folder’ option. I have been tearing my hair out, and came on here for answers. Seeing others having the same issue at least made me feel a bit better, and finally the answer is posted! 'SAVE as ’ the document, not ‘sync with external’. And now it all works, there it is, my book on my iPad. I think the fact that it is ‘save as’ needs to be highlighted in the instructions, in bold maybe. As an ex Analyst Programmer I know that things that seem completely , eye boggingly obvious to the developer are often totally missed/misunderstood by the user, especially the ‘super keen to get this new exciting thing working’ ones, which was me today.
Otherwise, it all looks fantastic so far
The instructions seem pretty clear to me. The problem is that some are/were using the wrong command, possibly because they were used to using work arounds to work on iOS devices before today. Easily cleared up, aren’t the forums great!
What about an alias of the .scriv file being moved to the particular Dropbox folder? I’d prefer to keep my project files local to my Mac, in my Documents folder preferably.
If you want to work on different computers you can’t have the files local on one of them. How do you think the second computer could read the hard drive on the first computer?
Understood. But I am talking about the difference between the main/original as primary versus a working copy. having your original/primary project stored “in the cloud” is not what I consider to be the safest practice, IMHO. I consider Dropbox to be a work/scratch/backup space, not a place I would ever fully trust storage of important documents. My local drive is backed up to separate servers, via LAN and WAN, which are far more secure than a third-party solution, like Dropbox. I guess I am going to have to force backups of Dropbox folders now.
The Dropbox folder which you see in Finder is just as local on your machine as any other folder. The only difference is that it automatically stores a copy on the Dropbox hard drive somewhere in the world. Your original is thus stored in a folder on your Mac named “Dropbox”. It will sit there even if you never connect to any network. The day you connect to a network it is copied to a hard drive at Dropbox HQ, resulting in you being able to download it to another computer.
… and to clarify, the Dropbox FOLDER is just a folder. The Dropbox sync software is what monitors that folder, just like backup software monitors a hard drive. The backup medium is dropbox.com’s servers, but your local copy is always local first, and then it’s backed up to dropbox.com. The only major difference is that if you make a change to the folder’s contents on another computer/device, those changes are copied back to your local Dropbox folder too.
Good clarification!
Dropbox is just a word, and it means different things depending on context. It can be a folder on your own hard drive, named Dropbox, or it can be an app on your computer, or it can be a company providing services, etc.
It may come as a surprise to some people, but files stored “in the cloud” are not really stored in a cloud, up in the sky somewhere, floating around on thin air. It’s all simply copied to someone else’s computer’s hard drive. So it’s not even really “stored” somewhere else. It’s just that there is a copy somewhere else.
You should also all keep in mind that Scrivener has lots of backup options. On the Mac you can set it to backup everytime you close the project and to backup before syncing. This is a super safety net.
Just don’t open a project on a second machines before you have closed the other on. This must by any means cause a sync conflict. And sync conflict does not mean the syncing went bad and files got lost. Sync conflict means that there are files from the project on one machine and files from the project on the other machine and Scrivener can’t tell which has the priority because none of the projects is newer as a whole. And because of that these files are put into a special sync conflict folder. So even in this case nothing gets lost.
I just use dropbox (it does keep a local copy on the mac) and the dropbox folder is included in time machine backups and weekly super duper clones.
If you really want two copies on your mac, maybe use dropbox as scrivener sync is designed to, but also do regular backups of your projects to another folder. I think that trying to get too fancy trying to sync multiple versions is a recipe for disaster. Or at least confusion.
I ran into the same problems too. Saving it from your MacBook into the Dropbox folder has to be very specific. Open your Dropbox folder. Go to the Apps folder your iOS version should create. Make sure you put your projects into the Scrivener folder within the apps. That was my biggest problem.
The iOS app looks great, but I don’t think they made this process very intuitive. I’m sure a lot of newer users are going to be extremely confused, especially if the iOS Scrivener is their first introduction to the software. Hopefully they can post a video on the site or within the app’s tutorial.
