Leave the shared folder path alone
All I did…
On Macbook Pro Copied files to Dropbox/apps/scrivenor
On ipad, synced to dropbox and files appeared
Been trying to break the sync all morning, seems very robust indeed
Well done
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.
No!
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?
What do you mean “save” the project in Dropbox? I’m in a similar boat - I thought that the syncing was all the needed to be done.
Your dropbox folder is local to your mac. It just also syncs.
You Save as… the project in the correct folder when you are on your Mac/PC. That’s all there is to it.
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.
I’m having the same problem.
I’ve done all of this. Now when I go to “drag projects from Dropbox” theres nothing to drag, it just asks me to make a new project. Shouldn’t my project that I’ve placed in the Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener folder be draggable?
I’m very frustrated.
There’s no dragging in the iOS app. Have you tapped the sync icon in iOS and set up dropbox pointing to the same dropbox folder you used to save the project on the desktop?
On what device are you trying to drag your project? If it’s saved to the folder on Dropbox specifically created by the iOS app when you linked to Dropbox, then it should show up automatically on the iOS device. While working on the iOS device, dragging the project out of the Dropbox project folder stores it on the iPad, and thus it won’t sync