Moving a project from PC to PC?

I have a netbook and my main PC. I want to hammer out text on my netbook, portability, and then move the project back to my main PC for editing, etc. Is moving a project between two systems as easy as just moving a file via a flashdrive?

Yep.

If you’re one of the ones who has shadowed files of 0 size in the zip backups, make sure you delete all those extra files before opening up the backup on scrivener. Or just back up unzipped, and zip using the utility of your choice.

Great. Thank You!

Hello, If I could just drop my 2 cents worth in, I have started using the free version of DROPBOX, recommended elsewhere on these forums. Dropbox is basically an online storage facility and the free version will let you store 2gb of files. Enough for a lifetime of writing, especially when you consider I could get four novels on a floppy disc back in my Amiga computing days and with lots of change. It enables me to work on projects at home on my main pc, save the project to the Dropbox folder where it will upload to the online storage folder. Then when I go online using my laptop or a completely different PC also running dropbox, it will instantly sync and enable me to continue using the most up to date copy. I was highly sceptical at first but the service works well. I tend to view it as an extra precaution rather than a backup solution. I still use a data key to back my zipped exports from Scrivener, it’s just that now I am no longer quite so paranoid about doing it.

Dropbox is great for this, I use it too. However, be cautious (its been covered extensively on these forums) to not be actively working out of dropbox.

Ie - safest way to ensure you don’t run into file corruptions, version issues, etc, is to Export as a zip file backup to dropbox, copy locally to second PC, and keep working. (Deleting the .scriv folder in dropbox and repasting the “active” project.scriv folder has the same effect really and unzipped… just more tempting to actively work from it that way.)

Just wanted to add that I’ve found Sugarsync to be amazing for working on two different computers. I prefer it to Dropbox because I can sync any folder I want on my computer, such as “My Documents” and I can sync folders between two different computers. So my Writing folder where I keep all my Scrivener projects is synced between my desktop and laptop. Whenever I work on one, the next time I turn on the other computer, it’s automatically updated. It’s a godsend, and a lot simpler, imo, than Dropbox, where I had to either store everything in my Dropbox folder, or remember to keep uploading it manually. I found out about Sugarsync from this forum, actually, when somebody else recommended it for use with Scrivener. Works like a dream.

My referral link to Sugarsync for bonus 500MB for both of us on top of 5GB free (I signed up without a referral link and regret it every day, if this is against forum rules I’ll delete!) Thanks: sugarsync.com/referral?rf=d … n=referral

It takes an iOS 5 device to get it, but then any file type can go into it:

   Box.net is offering 50GB free if you log in with an iOS 5 device. 

I just got my ‘upgrade’ this weekend after installing iOS 5 on my iPad. I’ve uploaded a few MS Word and PDF documents, so it isn’t only for iOS 5 related content. It could be another candidate for cloud based movement of Scrivener folders/documents.

Hurry, its only active for 50 days. Box blog describing the offer: blog.box.net/2011/10/14/why-box- … d-storage/

Ha! Forgot that I asked this question some time ago (I just made a duplicate post). Thank you all for the information.

So basically out of my name.scriv - I just want to grab the project file, or the whole root project?

Noooo. You want to grab the ENTIRE project folder, not just the project.scrivx file within it.

Here’s how I do this (using Google Drive).

Folder set-up:

• G Drive:
  • Projects Folder
    [list]- Project #1
  • Project #2
  • etc.[/list:u]

Desktop #1:

• Working Folder
• G Drive Folder
  • Projects Folder
    [list]- Project #1
  • Project #2
  • etc.[/list:u]

Desktop #2:

• Working Folder
• G Drive Folder
  • Projects Folder
    [list]- Project #1
  • Project #2
  • etc.[/list:u]

Laptop:

• Working Folder
• G Drive Folder
  • Projects Folder
    [list]- Project #1
  • Project #2
  • etc.[/list:u]

USB Stick/Phone Storage: This is back-up and off line life saver.

• G Drive Folder
  • Projects Folder
    [list]- Project #1
  • Project #2
  • etc.[/list:u]

Everything I’m working on gets it’s own folder in the Working Folder. This is where the .scriv goes. When writing on a given machine, this is where I’m working from.

Every project gets a sub-folder in the Project Folder. Within each project folder are sub-folders for everything related to the project. The only Scrivener folder therein is for storing zipped back-ups. The other folders are for storing non-Scrivener project material (for my projects this is typically a large set of visual reference - something I don’t need in the Scrivener project itself).

When I back up a project it is saved to the appropriate sub-folder in the G Drive/Projects folder.

When I switch machines, I unzip the latest project back-up to the Working Folder (overwriting the previous .scriv).

Incidentally, to keep this running smoothly, I use the following naming convention for my back-ups:

Project Name date - increment # . zip

So a typical project back-up would look like this:

Jesus the Barbarian 2012-09-22 - 02.zip

The advantages of the above naming scheme are

• Concise
• Human readable at a glance
• Displays chronologically whether you sort by time or name (note - I’m an American that lives in New Zealand and as such I have to say that the American date format is stupid, stupid, stupid)

This is about as smooth and painless as I’ve been able to manage it. There is some scripting/batch magic I use to update the Working Folder (it updates everything from the latest back-up) and run syncs to the USB stick.

About the only way I’ve thought to make this better would be if Scrivener allowed you to transparently use the back-ups as the save format. Then the whole working folder could be done away with (this would essentially require Scrivener to maintain it’s own “working folder” where a project is stored when it is open in Scrivener). I would love to see that implemented as an optional method of file manipulation.

Using G Drive has other benfits as it is automatically tied into an ecology of online tools (email, etc) and provides 5 GB of storage (you can buy more).

I used this set-up without G Drive for several months. At that time the USB stick was the “central repository” for my methodology. I also used this approach with my web space, but the transfer process was a pain (and I shut down my web site).

I imagine the methodology for use with Dropbox would be similiar, but I’m allergic to Dropbox.