Thanks Lunk, certainly – please see attached. I’ve included a screenshot of the Preferences window, the location of the Live file (on Dropbox), and the location of the Backup (on iCloud Drive). With blacked out areas for confidentiality.
Looking forward to hearing your insights!
cheers,
MJ
Have you activated Documents and Desktop in iCloud?
You seem to have two identically named “live” projects. One in Dropbox->1_Scrivener Live, and the other in iCloud Drive->Scrivener Backups.
You must be opening the one in the Scrivener Backups folder, which causes the error message. You should work out which of the two versions has the most up to date writing in it, archive the other, and make sure the best version of your project is stored in the Dropbox location.
Hi Lunk, thank you, yes – I have done this. Please see attached. Any further thoughts re. what may be causing the issue? It’s troubling to get this error message every time I hope the backup to ensure that it’s there correctly. (I’m not working or updating the file from there. Just opening it and I get the error message.) Is this a glitch with the software?
Also it seems strange that every time I close the live file I get the Project Template selection screen (attached) – ensure i this has any relation to my main problem…
Hi rdale, thanks for trying to help (this issue is getting frustrating - it should be simple to backup!) I’m only working out of the active “live” file. The backup file is what I’m trying to archive correctly. I get this error message when I open the backup file to check it (i.e. that the latest updates have been backed up.)
I’m not sure how to change the title of the backup file as I don’t see that as an option anywhere – only the option to pick the backup file location… Do you have any other suggestions, please?
First, you should not have Desktop & Documents in iCloud activated as that may be part of the problem. Scrivener needs access to the whole project package all the time, in one place, and with part of Documents only on the iCloud server and some on your computer, you might run into trouble.
You seem to be confusing things. Your live project is the one you open and close (and which saves itself every time you stop writing for a few seconds). That’s all you have to do. No archiving or anything else.
Your backups are created automatically when you close the project and are placed where you have designated them to go in Preferences -> Backup.
The confusing thing is that according to Preferences you seem to have your backups in Documents but then on the screenshot you have them on the iCloud Drive?
Are you moving things manually in Finder?
A detail, when you got the error message, did you test to Reveal in Finder as the box said?
Hi Lunk, I have tried putting my Backup folder everywhere (iCloud, Documents, Google Drive, DropBox) to see if it would resolve getting this error message to show up. I don’t think I’m messing anything up. I’m not archiving or moving files in Finder or anything. I’m simply working from the file in its “live” location, closing it and then opening the file in it’s backup location archive state to ensure it’s archiving correctly. It DOES open for me – but with the error message warning above. Which makes me worry that this could cause problems down the line which I must avoid now.
I’ve triple checked – not sure why it says “Doc” in the file extension in the Preferences window (for location for where to backup.) But it’s definitely saving to the iCloud Drive location in this instance.
If the issue is caused by having Desktop & Documents activated in iCloud Drive why do I still get the same message when I set Google Drive as my backup location?
One more odd detail – I “reset to default” the Backup location. And then within that Preferences window asked it to show me where the default would save it. What’s so strange is that the file structure indicated there does not mirror what’s on my machine. So I can’t “find the archive” in it’s default location. UGH. I don’t understand why this is so hard. I’m not sure what to try next…
Yes, I keep checking this – it aligns with where I’m trying to successfully backup the file.
I think Scrivener’s warning is legitimate.
If I am understanding your steps above, to confirm that your backup worked, you are going into the designated backup folder and using Scrivener to open the backup project.
Well, that corresponds to the warning message. You have opened your project in the designated backup folder, and that’s what Scrivener is warning you about!
I understand your desire to confirm that your backup worked. A better way to do that is to copy your backup project out of the backup folder, say onto your desktop, and then try to open it. Then you will not get the warning.
Make sense?
HTH,
Jim
ETA: I just read through the responses and see that rdale has already told you basically the same thing. 
In case you don’t realize this, there is nothing special about Scrivener’s backups, they are simply copies of your live project. If you were to have some disaster strike and your live Scrivener project was damaged, the first thing most folks on this forum would likely tell you to do–I certainly would–is copy your latest backup from the backup folder to somewhere else, and then open it to see if your lost words are in there. So what I am suggesting above is also what I’d suggest you do in the event of an actual problem.
To make sure that your backups remain backups, tick the box to make them zip-files.
The default is in ~/Library/Application Support/Scrivener/Backups, which by default is in a hidden location. That may explain why you can’t find a way to navigate there with Finder, and it’s definitely not going to be anywhere in your iCloud Drive hierarchy. If you want to make the folder visible, navigate to your Home folder in Finder, hit ⌘J to bring up view settings for that folder, and tick the Show Library folder option. Now you should be able to navigate manually to the above path.
Something else to consider is that each project can have its own backup folder set. If you have changed a project’s backup settings in Project ▸ Project Settings… then it won’t respond to the setting in your main Preferences: Backup pane.
I simply took the Scrivener Backups folder out of my Documents and put it on my Desktop. To test it, I closed and reopened my project, and the error message doesn’t show up anymore.
Be sure to reset the backup location as well, or the error message will reappear as soon as you make a new backup. (Closing and re-opening doesn’t create a backup, as nothing has changed.)
Katherine
That’s probably less a solution and more a dodging of the error condition. I wouldn’t recommend putting your automatic backup folder on ~/Desktop, for one thing. That location is meant for storing aliases and short-term things you are presently working on, rather than serving as a long-term archive for huge amounts of information. It will slow down your Mac in the long run, trying to do so.
The main thing you want to do is keep your work separate from your backups, and going by your description that hasn’t yet happened. There is no reason to keep them together under any circumstances, no matter what you are doing—using Word or Adobe Reader or Scrivener. So instead of moving the folder with everything in it to a different location to avoid the warning, what would be best is to separate your working files from your backups.
Right now you have, if I understand correctly, all of your important backups stashed on the desktop along with your work. You are avoiding the error by making it so that folder is no longer a live backup folder, but presumably you want your automatic backups in the automatic backup folder.
The best setup will be:
Hello and thanks for being here. I have used PC forever and a day. At age 60 I decided it’s time to be a writer. I started Scrivener on my PC but it seems limited so I jumped all in, purchased a MacBook and repurchased Scrivener. Not sure if I downloaded it correctly but I’ve been writing Mac Scrivener but every time I open it, it warns me that my project is not in a recommended save location and is stored in its own automatic back-ups folder. It tells me it could be overwritten. It recommends that I close the project and move it to a different location.
My question being new to the platform and Mac, is where? When I close it, it’s gone so I have to reopen it to save it(?) and then the message pops up again. It’s a vicious cycle and, well, I’m no spring chicken. Mama ain’t got time. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Seems to me that instead of loading your project, you actually open the last backup, and over, and over.
Have your backup zipped in the option panel/backup, that won’t happen again.
If you only have one project going, check this option and Scrivener will load the last project on startup. No need for you to do anything.
And of course, as the message says, don’t store your project(s) in your backup to folder.
Thank you. I don’t know what I’ve done. I’ve got several zipped back ups of the same project in my documents folder. Maybe I downloaded Scrivener wrong or something. I should have just stuck to my pc and not tried to reinvent myself as being tech savvy and a writer all at the same time. I’ll go through your suggestion and see what comes up. Thanks for the speedy reply
In addition to the above existing discussion on this matter, which I’ve merged this query into, there is also an article on this warning specifically, which provides advice on how to avoid it.
As for Mac and PC, I guess this warning hasn’t been added yet, or maybe you just never ran into it for different reasons, but in this case consider it the software doing you a favour. Working directly out of your backup folder is a really bad idea, no matter what kind of branding logo comes on screen when you boot the computer up. It’s not really a technical thing… it’s like not using your expensive china for breakfast, or keeping the nice stationery in a drawer instead of on the counter where it gets scribbled on without thinking about it.
Having several is perfectly normal. Scrivener doesn’t overwrite any of them until it reaches the max count (as set in the options/backup) for a specific project.
In your Documents folder ? If that is where the options are set to backup, that’s normal too. Just don’t have your project folder in there as well. (I’d pick a better place than such a generic folder, though…)
I for myself create a folder that is something like C:\ScrivBackups, then make sure Scrivener points to it in the options, then drop a shortcut to this folder on my desktop. (I even customize the folder and its shortcut to display an icon that leaves no room for doubts.)
No chance that I later create a project and place it in a folder with such an explicit name.
→ Treat that folder as the vault it should be.
