Clarification of iCloud concerns

[kewms]

There are two potential bad things that can happen, and I should emphasize that they can happen with any synchronization system, including Dropbox.

(1) The file used to build the Binder doesn't match the actual contents of the project. This will cause "blank" items, as the file that Scrivener opens (or tries to open) doesn't exist but the Binder entry remains.

(2) Copies of the project on different computers have different contents. If you make changes to a document on one computer, then edit an unsynchronized version of the same document on another computer, you have just potentially created two conflicting copies. You could end up with Version A on Computer A, and Version B on Computer B. Depending on what you do to resolve the conflict and how good your backups are, it IS possible to lose work in this scenario. Note that *any* part of the project can be exposed to this kind of conflict, including the master Binder file.

We do not recommend leaving a project open indefinitely. Even if you aren't synchronizing, doing this keeps Scrivener's automatic backups from running. If you *are* synchronizing, it's a terrible idea.

If your connection is bad or non-existent, the best solution would be to treat the project you're actually working on as canonical, and make a local backup of it before you attempt to re-synchronize.

In any data loss scenario, you are most likely to lose whatever you were actively working on, whether that's new writing, research files, or the Binder structure. Older data is more likely to (a) not have changed between two potentially conflicting copies of the project and (b) be captured by a backup file anyway.

A full discussion of best practices to avoid synchronization errors can be found here:
https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb ... c-services

Katherine

[scshrugged]

Keith, thanks for that great information regarding iCloud Drive issues.

There are a couple of ways to see iCloud sync. In the Finder, a little clock face will show sync progress in the sidebar (view -> show side bar, or command-option-s) if you have a shortcut to iCloud there. The clock face will appear beside the iCloud shortcut.

Individual things waiting for upload or download will appear in the lists of files with a little cloud symbol.

For more detail, turn on the status bar with view -> show status bar (or command-/). That will show you the available space on iCloud if it's synced, and if it's in the process of syncing, you'll see how much is waiting to transfer.

I think I'll move back to iCloud for my writing - but I'll keep backups turned on in Scrivener to a local, non-shared directory and I'll make manual backups. Time Machine, too, with my rotation of three backup drives.

Belts, suspenders, and hard liquor. No cutting corners with disaster recovery and backups.

Thanks for the info. Have you moved back? If you have, has it worked well?

Anyone else, please feel free to chime in.

[LuckyJack]

Belts, suspenders, and hard liquor. No cutting corners with disaster recovery and backups.

Thanks for the info. Have you moved back? If you have, has it worked well?

Anyone else, please feel free to chime in.

I'm not out of hard liquor yet, but I'm giving it high priority. In the meantime, I'm still using a USB thumb drive and a two-way sync utility, editing on both my iMac and my Macbook Air.

I have some notes in Devonthink, and have discovered a Scrivener project can be stored inside a Devonthink database.

That's pretty cool.

[wordchiseler]

I have some notes in Devonthink, and have discovered a Scrivener project can be stored inside a Devonthink database.

Stored only or viewed also?

[LuckyJack]

I have some notes in Devonthink, and have discovered a Scrivener project can be stored inside a Devonthink database.

Stored only or viewed also?

Stored, viewed, any usage in my experience.

Anything you put in Devonthink is stored in a regular filesystem folder. You can select something and choose "view in finder" and it's in a regular subdirectory. If you note the path, you can "cd" to there in a terminal window.

I haven't tested making changes in Scrivener and then searching in Devonthink for the changes. I believe that will work, because if I open a Nisus document or a PDF in Preview from inside of Devonthink, Devonthink updates when the application (Nisus, Preview, whatever) closes.

[StephenHay]

Re storing Scrivener projects in Devonthink, do you import or index?

[Hugh]

Re storing Scrivener projects in Devonthink, do you import or index?

It's worth reading brookter's post here. I use DTPO extensively, but without further investigation, I too would be very reluctant to import Scrivener projects into a DT database (and, although this isn't part of the question, I wouldn't want to risk syncing them to DTTG). But, like brookter, I can't see any way in which indexing could be a problem.

[StephenHay]

Thanks, Hugh. That post was most helpful and I've looked through the posts on Dropbox, too. I think I have my solution

[rizog]

I have just discovered this. It seems a very counterintuitive way of doing things. I'm a long time reluctant user of Dropbox.