Perhaps you don’t realise, you can setup another cloud account by creating an alternative free email address.
Yes, you can only link one private (besides work/school accounts) cloud account to File Explorer—and I assume Finder—at a time, but if you’re storing pictures/videos on another private account, you may as well access that via the internet and leave give your file manager access to your Dropbox account for Scrivener use.
Computers have no way of tracking you have access to multiple free cloud storage facilities from the same cloud service provider or of keeping track of the cumulative free available storage.
It adds another level of safety too, keeping your social, private and business profiles away from prying eyes.
It’s sad but it’s not scriveners fault that only Dropbox works. Maybe you should file a complaint at Microsoft about it. Even Apple’s iCloud can’t handle it. It is what it is until other sync providers do a better job.
I’ve not been having any trouble syncing and backing up my Scrivener project with OneDrive between PCs, so it looks like the problem is more about getting around the iOS to be able to use other clouds to their full capabilities.
However, please don’t worry about this too much. I’m not going to be using the iPad for writing now it’s proven a little impractical in my particular case. I’ll probably just get either a Surface or a cheap Windows laptop so I can write on the go with my favourite writing app working to it’s full capabilities.
Fortunately the iPad isn’t a waste of money (in my case) with apps like Procreate, Art Set 4, and Poseit now available for me to use. I’m a pretty rubbish amateur/hobby writer who hasn’t ever published a thing, but my main occupation is as a professional in-house artist. So, no sweat - I expect to make some losses along the way as I find my own unique workflow.
They may be a way to avoid having to buy a Surface or Windows laptop just for Scrivener, but still to use the iPad to work on your projects.
However, it depends on what you mean by ‘working to its full capabilities’: if you mean ‘can do everything on the iPad that you can do on the Desktop’, then even the iOS version can’t do that.
But if you mean that you want a way of writing, creating and editing documents away from Scrivener which are synced automatically to and from the project, then you may want to check out the External Folder Sync feature.
Essentially the process is:
In a Scrivener project, nominate a folder in iCloud Drive (or other sync service) to house the external folder.
Choose which documents in the binder you want to sync, and in what format (RTF or plain text/Markdown)
Press the sync button.
go to the synced folder on your iPad and you’ll see the documents ready for editing in the editor of you choice. You can also create new files in that folder.
When you’ve finished, reopen Scrivener and the files will have been updated or added.
This process is how we used to work on the iPad before the iOS app was released: it’s robust and it works well. I sometimes use it even on a Mac when I want to do some more complicated text manipulation in a more suitable text editor such as Emacs/Vim etc.
Some features:
choose to sync only the Drafts/Manuscript folder, and/or set up a collection to identify individual documents
take snapshots before and after sync to prevent data loss
Markdown sync takes care of paragraph spacing and inline footnotes and annotations, etc.
Of course, it doesn’t do compilation or cork board or outlining – it’s purely a way of working on the text away from Scrivener.
It does require a bit of setting up, and of course there are some caveats, so take a look at S14.3 Synchronised Folders in the manual first, but you may find that this is a good enough solution.
Keith has commented publicly about why we’re with Dropbox now and the future of iCloud and other sync options being added in the future. Here’s one good instance: ICloud sync in future for iOS - #10 by KB
