Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:45 pm Post
Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:42 pm Post
KB wrote:Our support thread on “Working off of network drives” has understandably left many users concerned about using Scrivener with Dropbox. However, the problems with storing .scriv files on Dropbox have been somewhat overstated, mainly because we want to ensure users know that no syncing method is 100% safe. So, here are some guidelines on using Scrivener with Dropbox that should keep you out of trouble.
Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:35 pm Post
scshrugged wrote:It might be worthwhile to reconfigure the Scrivener manual in such a way as to consolidate the material regarding the software's abilities (and the related generalities) to backup and sync––a new section up front and center titled Protecting Your Work. Include User actions that can and should be taken to avoid the loss of work. Topics to include the cloud, the recents list, testing the backups (yes, they're being made, but have you opened them and taken a peek), making hard copies and just general use case matters, etc. Also include the additional insight beyond the manual that L&L has gained through the Forum and Support channels.
Additionally, consider whether this consolidation of knowledge would be valuable as a Forum pinned (locked) topic, a knowledge base article and a separate Tutorial section.
The subject's importance, though it's currently ably stressed in Scrivener resources, might be better served by being given special prominence. This wouldn't prevent every catastrophe but I think it would lessen the frequency of hearing sad stories.
Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:37 pm Post
Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:09 am Post
Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:30 am Post
AmberV wrote:There is another side to the coin in that on the forum here we of course are going to see more examples of how various pieces of technology can be misused together and create problems—what we don’t see as much of are the routine cases that happen by the countless quantities every day, where this technology is used without much if any hassle at all. And it’s not just this of course; forum topics like this tend to act as an accumulator for problems in general, some of which might not even be related to the topic of this thread.
While it is possible to make a mess of things of course, the developers of systems like Dropbox have a vested interest in making sure their technology works reliably and, as much as it is possible to do so, with as few conditions for mishaps as they can engineer into it. Our simple two-point checklist in the original post here will avoid all known problems that cannot easily be solved by engineering—the human element you could say.
If you are mindful of those things, then you really don’t have anything to worry about. Lightning strikes aside.
It might be useful to go back to the very first paragraph in this thread, and reclaim a portion of what the discussion here was originally intended to be framed upon:KB wrote:Our support thread on “Working off of network drives” has understandably left many users concerned about using Scrivener with Dropbox. However, the problems with storing .scriv files on Dropbox have been somewhat overstated, mainly because we want to ensure users know that no syncing method is 100% safe. So, here are some guidelines on using Scrivener with Dropbox that should keep you out of trouble.
This paragraph is referring to a period of time in which we did have a sticky post with a bunch of dire warnings and bold face text, written by yours truly. It was originally written before these technologies were fully understood, and before we narrowed down all known problems with them to a few basic procedural mistakes that were easy to make. At this point in time, the original post I made is entirely obsolete.
If we did not feel that this technology was fundamentally safe to use with Scrivener we would not have spent months building a sync architecture based upon it for the iOS version, after all.
Take a look at a few other software manuals, even for programs that are very similar to Scrivener in architecture, susceptible to precisely the same kind of misuse, and see how much time is spent warning people about how dangerous it is use to Dropbox (it’s not), and how one should spend hours building and learning layers of safety nets before even thinking about using it (they don’t).
It’s a bit of a tricky line I think—between making sure good practices are shared and readily available, and perhaps overreacting to cases where technology is misused, and using that as a basis for disclaimer style documentation. Don’t drink the bleach and don’t delete all of your backups. Where is the line.
Most companies are not talking about leaving your hard drive plugged in while saving, or going into great detail over how to use the Dropbox status indicator, etc. While I can’t confess to knowing where the line is best put, I don’t think our problem is, based on observation of others, in not saying enough.
Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:14 am Post
Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:11 am Post
Zena wrote:I had no way of knowing that I was “misusing” the software. Why not put the simple two-step formula in the Quick Tutorial?
Fri Mar 09, 2018 4:48 pm Post
Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:43 pm Post
NotCharlieKaufman wrote:It pains me to read this thread because it makes me doubt L&L's judgement if they would base their syncing infrastructure around this dumpster fire of a company.
Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:45 am Post
JimRac wrote:The short version is that, as per L&L, DropBox is the only company that currently provides the programming interface necessary to implement the syncing hooks for iOS Scrivener.
Sat Mar 10, 2018 2:46 am Post
NotCharlieKaufman wrote:JimRac wrote:The short version is that, as per L&L, DropBox is the only company that currently provides the programming interface necessary to implement the syncing hooks for iOS Scrivener.
Not true. iCloud Drive provides everything necessary to synchronise package files, which are the format Scrivener uses.
https://developer.apple.com/library/con ... Cloud.html
Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:12 am Post
Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:06 pm Post
Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:22 pm Post
pippa6161 wrote:if i go into App Store it wants another €21 from me.
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