1.82GB project opens but does not show, pls help.

[FredInChina]

Hello,

I need a bit of help here.

I have a 1,82 GB project containing 100's of files & videos imported as alias that opens but does not show on screen.
- I closed the project after it would not open a couple of newly imported videos; it saved and backed up
- I restarted the computer (old windows habits die hard)
- upon reopening, the file seems to open, but never shows on screen
- other scrivener files open normally.
- I went to the backups and unzipped the most recent - same thing.
- I unzipped the previous one - same.

What is going on?
What should I do?

Thank you for your kind help, I need to get some work done and I am a bit stuck for the moment.

Fred

[FredInChina]

still stuck and getting frustrated.
After much trying things out and multiple restarts, now the other (smaller) projects don't show either.
They open (it has a brief progress bar), they close (also has a brief progress bar), but they don't show on my displays - they are not in adjacent screens either.

Please somebody, help me.
There must be (I hope) just a flag to toggle somewhere...

Thanks

[Hugh]

If I had this problem, the first thing I'd try (given that more than one project is affected) is re-downloading the software, and re-installing. Have you tried that?

Next, I'd ask myself whether there's anything that I've added to my computer system that could be incompatible with Scrivener, or anything that I've changed.

Then I'd check the Console app to see whether it's throwing up any messages at the point when your project fails to show.

You've probably carried out these actions already, but it's worth just making sure.

(And, by the way, when you get your project up and running again, which you will, if I were you I'd consider ways of dividing it up - not that Scrivener is unreliable, it isn't, in six years I've never had a single problem, but, you know, a project of nearly 2 GB is relatively large, eggs-in-one-basket, and so on…)

[robertdguthrie]

Take a peek inside the project (CTRL-click & choose "show package contents"). Are there any files that look as if they have duplicates, like the file ending in .scrivx? What about the files under the "Files" folder within? If you can list off what you see in the main folder and the Files folder, maybe that will provide a helpful clue.

[FredInChina]

All right, thanks for the hints Hugh & Robert.

There is nothing I can spot as unusual upon unpacking the files.

However, the console shows a bunch of errors, invalid param & exceptions at a truckload of memory addresses:
[on a fresh start of the whole system - I first opened a smallish project , which opened correctly, closed it, then open the troubled biggie, and it did not show.]

2013/12/03 6:55:33.808 AM Scrivener: *** Assertion failure in -[NSTextFieldCell _objectValue:forString:errorDescription:], /SourceCache/AppKit/AppKit-1138.51/AppKit.subproj/NSCell.m:1564
2013/12/03 6:55:33.808 AM Scrivener: Invalid parameter not satisfying: aString != nil
2013/12/03 6:55:33.830 AM Scrivener: (
0 CoreFoundation 0x91c2ca67 __raiseError + 231
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x99c01149 objc_exception_throw + 155
2 CoreFoundation 0x91b94289 +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 137
3 Foundation 0x9b8c1233 -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 116
4 AppKit 0x9ad78bc3 -[NSCell _objectValue:forString:errorDescription:] + 169
5 AppKit 0x9ad78b11 -[NSCell _objectValue:forString:] + 55
6 AppKit 0x9ad78a6b -[NSCell setStringValue:] + 50
7 AppKit 0x9ae7bece -[NSControl setStringValue:] + 114
8 ScrAppKit 0x0049627e -[KBQTMovieController(SliderCode) adjustTimeDisplayForCurrentMovieTime] + 134
9 ScrAppKit 0x00496d76 -[KBQTMovieController(MoviePlayback) goToTimeInterval:] + 152
10 Scrivener 0x002341cf Scrivener + 2306511
11 Scrivener 0x0007b1b8 Scrivener + 500152
12 Scrivener 0x0007d067 Scrivener + 508007
13 Scrivener 0x00079e5a Scrivener + 495194
14 Scrivener 0x00079776 Scrivener + 493430
15 Scrivener 0x000796b7 Scrivener + 493239
16 Scrivener 0x0007e7c4 Scrivener + 513988
17 Scrivener 0x000392cc Scrivener + 230092
18 Scrivener 0x00004628 Scrivener + 13864
19 AppKit 0x9b159ce2 __-[NSDocumentController openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:display:completionHandler:]_block_invoke_11 + 257
20 AppKit 0x9b15b971 __-[NSDocumentController openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:display:completionHandler:]_block_invoke_8 + 185
21 AppKit 0x9b14e371 __-[NSDocumentController openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:display:completionHandler:]_block_invoke_4 + 910
22 AppKit 0x9afbf5b0 -[NSDocumentController _openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:usingProcedure:] + 494
23 AppKit 0x9b14dfdb __-[NSDocumentController openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:display:completionHandler:]_block_invoke_3 + 259
24 libdispatch.dylib 0x92e79fbd _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 15
25 libdispatch.dylib 0x92e7bf4d _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 260
26 CoreFoundation 0x91b22d43 __CFRunLoopRun + 2003
27 CoreFoundation 0x91b221dc CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 332
28 CoreFoundation 0x91b22088 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 120
29 HIToolbox 0x9232d543 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 318
30 HIToolbox 0x923347d6 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 168
31 HIToolbox 0x9233471a BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 88
32 AppKit 0x9ad59ee8 _DPSNextEvent + 678
33 AppKit 0x9ad59752 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 113
34 AppKit 0x9ad55ac1 -[NSApplication run] + 911
35 AppKit 0x9afe6ac5 NSApplicationMain + 1054
36 Scrivener 0x00002ad5 Scrivener + 6869
37 ??? 0x00000002 0x0 + 2
)

Please somebody, what is the next step?

Thanks
Fred

[Bdillahu]

Assuming you're on a Mac, I would try moving your preferences folder "elsewhere" to save a copy and then restart Scrivener "clean".

Hold down "Option" and in the Finder open the "Go" menu and you should see "Library" - from there, got to Application Support and Scrivener - I would just drag that to the desktop or something.

After that, see if you can open a project.

Bruce

[FredInChina]

Thanks for chiming in Bdillahu, that did not work.

I am going to reinstall scrivener.
How do I go about that?
1- simply delete scrivener from the applications folder.
2- download & install afresh?

Is there an uninstall method somewhere?
What is best practice here?

Thank you.

[FredInChina]

Okay.

I followed apple's instructions and got rid of scrivener.
Then I reinstalled it from a fresh download.

Upon opening scrivener, & after warning that it is an app downloaded from internet, etc... instead of giving me the start splash screen, it directly opens the offending file, and still shows nothing on the displays!

This is getting old very, very quickly!!!

What next?
Please, pretty please...

Fred

[AmberV]

Empty project windows can result from corrupted font caches. If a necessary system font cannot load, then the window building process just halts, resulting in partial or entirely empty windows. I would download the cleverly named Maintenance, appropriate to the version of OS X you have installed (that is very important), and run it with default settings. After it completes, reboot your computer. It will take a little longer to boot, and everything will run slower for a while until caches are fully rebuilt by the OS, this is normal, but hopefully it should at least work!

[FredInChina]

Thanks AmberV, you've removed a ton of lead from my heart and put a broad smile on my face.
I knew that could be fixed, nevertheless, pressure and anxiety build ups are sometimes hard to ignore!

Is there a resource I can look up to learn how to split up this large document?
I might as well do it before feeling all warm and comfy again.

Thanks again
...and thanks to Bdillahu, robertdguthrie, & Hugh that jumped in to the rescue earlier.
Fred

[Hugh]

Fred,

Thanks for that. No problem.

Ioa's the expert, but just to add my two-pennyworth: I'd do two things. First I'd assess whether it's worthwhile splitting, given that the problem has turned out to be systemic, and nothing to do with the project. I would, but I'm ultra-cautious where work is concerned, especially if I've put many hours into it. Second, if you do decide to split your project, the key point to remember is that you can drag and drop files from your current binder to the binder of a new project.

[FredInChina]

Thanks Hugh, that's good to know.
The thing was becoming ungainly anyway, so splitting it is a good idea.
All the files are research files, most imported as alias - I need to experiment a bit to make sure that links and references to original files don't get broken, etc...

[Bdillahu]

So glad you got it sorted out... figured AmberV would come through

[FredInChina]

Yes, AmberV for President!