Where does Scapple save your files?

[Mrs Tiggy-Winkle]

This may sound like a silly question, but where on your hard drive does Scapple actually save your files?

The reason I ask is this...

I wanted to make a hard back-up of my file.

Because Scapple lacks a 'back-up to' feature like Scriv, I used 'save as'. After having saved the file and removed the hard disc, I returned to Scapple which dutifully, after two seconds, tried to auto-save my work. But it informed me it couldn't.

I assume this was because the path had been changed.

I used 'save as' again to reset the path to the one Scapple routinely uses ... but I didn't know where that was. I searched in 'My Documents'. I had no folder labelled Scapple. (I have a Scriv folder, which I *think* Scriv placed there itself. I certainly have no memory of creating a folder for Scriv files.)

I created a Scapple folder in 'My Documents' and directed Scapple to auto-save the work there. Which it did ... once. But thereafter, I am being told 'a file with that name already exists. do you want to replace it?' Every two seconds!

Sigh!

I want to be able to save hard copy of my work and then have Scapple return to auto-saving my files in the same place as it did before (wherever that is!) without me having to manually change save paths.

Am I missing something?

Sorry for taking such an inordinate amount of time to describe what is actually a very simple problem.

[rdale]

Scapple doesn't have a dedicated folder to put its files, any more than Word does. You can create a scapple document and save it to your desktop, to your Documents folder... anywhere you like.

What you want to do is run a search using the file browser, starting at your C: drive (or whatever drive you might have Scapple documents on). Search for ".scap" That should find all the copies of all of your Scapple files on that hard drive.

[Mrs Tiggy-Winkle]

Thanks, rdale, but what I'm asking is where does Scapple auto-save documents?

Since saving a back-up to a hard device, I can't get Scapple to return to auto-saving in the same place it used before. It wants to auto-save to the hard device which is no longer plugged in.

The reason for this is the lack of a 'back-up to' feature in Scapple. Sciv has this, and after you have 'backed up to' a location of your choice, Scriv will simply continue auto-saving as before. But with Scapple, you can't 'back up to' a location (at least, not that I'm aware of), you have to use 'save as'. But from then on, Scapple will continue trying to auto-save to that new location even if the location (the hard device) is unplugged.

When Scapple tries to auto-save (every two seconds) I get the message 'scapple cannot save to that location'. It gives me the option of cancelling the automatic auto-save or using 'save as' to choose a new location. But I don't want a new location, I want the original location, where scapple always stored my auto-saves before I plugged in the darn hard device!

Effectively, my question is: how do I get Scapple to return to its default auto-save location after I backed up using 'save as' to an external device?

As a work around, I created a new Scapple folder in 'My Documents' but the problem is whenever scapple auto-saves I get the message 'this document already exits, do you want to replace it? Remember, this is auto-save, which Scapple tries to carry out every two seconds!

I don't want to disable auto-save, I just want Scapple to auto-save to the previous location, the one it used before I plugged in the hard device.

Incidentally, I searched in files as you suggested and the only .scap files I could see were the ones I had put in the brand new folder in the last few days. I can't access Scapple files directly from my hard drive. I can only open Scapple files from within Scapple itself. So, this begs the question ... where all all my Scapple files stored? There must be a default location where Scapple saves my files. This location is not accessible from the hard drive*, but I need to know where it is so I can tell Scapple to save there again after using the hard disc.

I hope I'm explaining this properly. I don't want to over-explain or come across as condescending.

*If I can, and I've just made some hilariously stupid error, please tell me. I am already aware how incompetent I am with regard to computers and have no objection to being told again, as long as it solves this frustratingly silly problem with auto-save!

Thanks for your time.

[rdale]

Okay, I think I've got it...

1. You were working on a scapple document named (for instance) "MilDollarIdeas.scap"
2. You wanted to copy that file to an external drive, so you connected that drive...
3. ...used Save As and navigated to that external drive and clicked the "Save" button.
4. You ejected the external drive
5. Now Scapple complains when it tries to save the new copy, since you disconnected the drive where it last wrote that document to.

The solution here is to find the original file, the one you were using before you used Save As. Then use Save As again, navigate to that original file, and save your file there again. That will replace the original with whatever changes you have made since, and from then on, your saves will go to that file. There is no other place that your auto-saves go, it just updates whatever copy you were last editing.

[Lewis-H]

Double click to create a new note in Scapple.
On Mac, press cmd-L to enter a link (in Windows it's Ctrl-Shift-L).
Enter the link to your other file: file:///Users/username/MyScappleFile.scap
Double-Click to open the note.
Double-Click to open the link.
I hope this helps!
Regards,
Lewis

[FredBob]

This may sound like a silly question, but where on your hard drive does Scapple actually save your files?

It saves the file in the place you first saved it to. This means IT OVERWRITES, and thereby deletes, the previous "version" of the file. This is destructive.

There are NO backups. And it is pretty impossible to create one, give the setting for "auto-save."

Therefore, i recommend extreme care using this program.

[devinganger]

It saves the file in the place you first saved it to. This means IT OVERWRITES, and thereby deletes, the previous "version" of the file. This is destructive.

There are NO backups. And it is pretty impossible to create one, give the setting for "auto-save."

Therefore, i recommend extreme care using this program.

Using Save As to make a copy that you can work on before doing anything majorly destructive is somehow unworkable?

No features in the world will save users from poor processes.

[lunk]

Effectively, my question is: how do I get Scapple to return to its default auto-save location after I backed up using 'save as' to an external device?

When you use "Save as..." you create a new version of the file you are working on with a new name, and in your case to a new location. So the file you have open is no longer the file you opened when you started. So you have to either do what Rdale suggests, i.e. make a new "Save as..." using your original file name, which will result in a prompt "do you want to overwrite...?", or close the file you are working on and re-open the original file from its original location.

Or, if you want to make a backup copy, close Scapple and copy the file to the external drive using Explorer (or whatever the file handler is called nowadays in Win 10), or duplicate the original file and move the duplicate to the external drive. When you are done, re-open Scapple and the original file.

Remember, "Save as..." doesn't mean "Rename", it literally means "Save a copy of this file I am working on, but with a new name, and then continue working on this new copy with a new name".

So there is an auto-save function in the Win version? Not in my Mac version.

[Max44]

You set it up in Preferences under the Backups tab. If you use zip:ed backups you can save them in your iCloud Drive folder, which means that you can access them even if the hard drive on your Mac breaks down.

[lunk]

You set it up in Preferences under the Backups tab.

In Scapple?
You’re possibly in the wrong part of the forum. I think your comment relates to Scrivener.