You can then review the conflicts, decide which version to carry on working with, or manually copy and paste text to merge them, and then move any unwanted copies into the Trash. Scrivener will usually detect if a file was not synced properly and if any significant conflicts are found, a second copy of the item will be created within a folder called 'Conflicts' added to the top level of the Binder. The Scrivener manual has information on restoring from backups. The first thing you should do is to check the back ups of the project to see if you have an undamaged version. If a project fails to open properly, or if parts of the project go missing or appear out of date, then it may have been damaged by a syncing error. NOTE: If you are sharing a project between macOS and Windows computers please read our article on Cross-Platform Compatibility.

We can take no responsibility for work lost through syncing problems, or for any other reason - always be sure to back up! However, no syncing solution is 100% reliable. We recommend ensuring that Scrivener projects are always available 'offline.'įollow the above guidelines and you should be able to sync your projects between computers without running into problems. Unfortunately, these services do not always handle Scrivener projects correctly, which can cause some of the component files in your project to appear to be missing or blank. Be cautious with 'smart' synchronization: many services will offer you the opportunity to 'optimize' your local storage by storing less recently used files exclusively on the company's server.See §5.2 Backing Up Your Work in the Scrivener Manual (available from the Help menu) or watch our tutorial video on backing up for more information.

Backing up locally will ensure that your project has backups on every computer you use Scrivener on. Don't use Dropbox as you may end up overwriting the backup from a different computer. Choose a backup location somewhere on your local hard drive.

Maintain local backups of your projects: by default Scrivener will automatically create a backup copy of a project when it is closed.

Be sure the tick in the green circle is present in the Dropbox icon in your menu or task bar - if it's not, don't open the project: wait until Dropbox is fully synced.

Do not open the project before your Dropbox folder is fully synced: if you try to open the project while your Dropbox folder is still syncing files from your other computer, you could be opening it in its old state.

If you simply sleep your machine, or let Scrivener close as part of the shutdown sequence, Dropbox might not get a chance to upload the final changes. When closing Scrivener there will be a number of final files that Scrivener saves, and that Dropbox will need to upload.

Do not shut down or sleep your computer before Dropbox finishes uploading: it takes time for the files to sync.

Always heed this warning and check that the project was closed correctly. Scrivener will warn you if it thinks the project is open on another computer.

Never, ever open the same project on more than one computer at a time: Be sure to completely close your project on one computer before leaving that computer and opening it on another machine.

As you work on the project, Scrivener will save the files you change on your local hard drive, these will then be automatically uploaded to Dropbox and then downloaded to the other computers using that Dropbox account.įollowing the guidelines below when syncing Scrivener projects will minimise potential problems: If you want to share a Scrivener project then it has to be stored that folder. Once Dropbox is installed on your computer it will create a folder on your hard disk, which will then sync to your Dropbox account. If you are using any of the services listed below then please read the advisory note. The guidelines below are written with Dropbox in mind but would also apply to other similar cloud-sync solutions. A Scrivener project is made up of many linked and interdependent files, and each one needs to be synced correctly to avoid problems with the project. There are many cloud-sync services available but one that works well with Scrivener is Dropbox. If you're looking for advice on iOS syncing, see our article on Dropbox Syncing with iOS. This article will cover syncing between macOS and/or Windows computers. If you want to share a Scrivener project between two or more computers you can use a cloud-sync service to automatically sync the project between them.

Import scapple document into scrivener