Take a summer holiday Lunk. You’re going to give yourself a hernia protecting Scrivener’s honour.
This isn’t the first time you’ve suggested the developer should retire and abandon Scrivener. I really wish you’d stop doing that.
Ignore the haters.
iOS 13 and Catalina will move file transfer out of iTunes into the Finder. This should be adequate for many users if they don’t like Dropbox.
De -re. finder integration: will this help people who use both Mac and iOS? Honest question!
Having never used iTunes sync, I don’t know if this is the same (a file transfer versus a 2-way syncronization), or something new that may or may not work with Scrivener files, but this article gives a peek into how it’s done with Mac’s Finder:
imore.com/how-sync-your-iph … s-catalina
Scroll down to the “How to sync files to your iPhone or iPad on macOS Catalina” to see the interface.
I did a little experimenting between iOS 13 and macOS Mojave (not Cat) using iCloud, and have what could be a workable solution. It does require a manual step at the end. Catalina may help, but I am not sure.
- iOS 13 lets you pin a folder to always keep it downloaded. This is key if you use Scrivener without network access and forget to grab the files before you leave. I also dragged this folder to my sidebar to help with the last step.
- On iOS navigate to your iCloud Scrivener folder and tap to open a file
- Scriv will prompt you where to save the file: On My iPad, or Dropbox. Choose On My iPad.
- Edit the file to your heart’s content.
- Back all the way out of Scriv and double-check the file save date is accurate.
- Drag the edited file back to the sidebar folder. I did this to help with the navigation. I chose overwrite the existing file, but you also have the option to Keep Both.
- I opened the edited version in macOS Scrivner and got the familiar synced changes view.
The key to this is finally in iOS 13, the On My iPad folder is exposed for general navigation in Files easier than it has been, It’s a manual step at the end, but at least now I can start getting away from only using Dropbox to Sync Scrivener. I feel this method at least replicates the idea behind the iTunes transfer without needing to use iTunes. Catalina might help with the last step, by showing this in Files, but dragging the file back to iCloud does the same thing.
Obviously, the usual disclaimers apply. Make sure your backups are good before you try this with a production file.
Regarding iTunes file-sharing > the Finder, as derick noted, Apple posted this:
Bottom of page, “Sync devices with Finder” -
support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200
If it works anything like a third-party tool (I think it was called iExplorer?) did back in the day, it will be pretty nice—and frankly just the sort of sync I’ve always wanted for myself. It doesn’t quite look to be as integrated with Finder as that one was. With that you could “mount” the device on your desktop and work with the files seamlessly. You could even edit Scrivener projects right out of the device without transferring them anywhere. It was a little slower since it was going over USB 2 (at the time), but no slower than working off of a flash drive or similar.
It looks like 10.15’s take will be more along the lines of what iTunes provides (copy in / copy out), but without being buried in several layers of iTunes UI. Hopefully it does not carry with it some of the weird limitations iTunes has, like not being able to examine subfolders within an app’s storage area.
I look forward to playing with it once the systems reach a better point of stability. I’ve always used AirDrop, which is pretty nice, but you have to approve every transfer individually, which means you can’t update your phone from the living room—which iTunes (or a third-party file manager) + WiFi sync can do.
For the record, JoRo’s opinions are his own. Not only is he not a part of the Literature & Latte staff, but IMO he has grossly misinterpreted the comment of Keith’s that he cites.
As iCloud is currently implemented, using it to synchronize with iOS Scrivener would require a ground-up rewrite of Scrivener. There are no plans for any such project.
However, iCloud and Apple’s tools for accessing it are continuing to evolve. We are certainly aware of user interest in iCloud synchronization, and are watching that evolution closely.
Katherine
I tried to see what happened when you put a Scrivener File in iCloud Drive, and opening it in the iOS Files App, which would send it indeed to Scrivener iOS and asks you where to save/open it. It works with like a 10MB file, but with a 10GB file, it says it can’t open it. I guess because you can’t download the file first, so Scrivener iOS doesn’t open it, because you would be opening only a half of a file.
Indeed, in iOS 13 / iPadOS you will be able to keep files pinned, which keep them downloaded, and automatically syncs changes. We will have to see how it works (I don’t install betas on my devices). If it does, we would be able to use iCloud Drive instead of Dropbox BUT it wouldn’t be an automatic sync anyway. It would be more like what you do manually through iTunes / Airdrop, but all from your device to iCloud Drive. We will have to see if it works.
@sidderke, have you tried this way:
https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/ios-11-support-of-files-app/37322/19
I tested it just because a while back (iOS 12.x) and it worked, but it was with a far less than GB project.
Are you saying that you are usually syncing a 10 Gb project via Dropbox between your Mac and iDevice?
I have about 25 Scrivener projects, of which about 6 are between 1GB and 10GB. The 10 GB being the biggest one. I have a 5 GB and a 3 and 4 GB ones as well. The rest of my Scrivener projects are normal sized (about 100MB).
I use them as containers for movie ideas, with a lot of research in them, including pictures, PDF’s (hundreds, sometimes thousands) and sometimes video. Not only for the scripts, but also for the movie ideas (locations, designs, etc. …)
It works great, and that’s why I also, just like Keith, don’t want Scrivener to change the flexibility of their format. You have to know that, except for those gigabytes of research, I only work in those projects on small text containers of only kilobytes. So when Scrivener syncs the changes I make, it only takes a couple of seconds/minutes, because only a couple of megabytes change - once you’ve done the initial upload/download. Because of Scrivener’s features, I can refer to research, link to it, take pieces of it and put it in document notes, stuff like that.
The only problem I have is that since Scrivener 3, the checking for Dropbox files takes minutes, instead of just seconds on Scrivener 2 (yes, the same size of projects). Apparently this is the fault of the Dropbox API, and not of Scrivener.
The answer to your question is both yes and no: I work every day with these multi-GB files and it works fine. That’s why L&L designed Scrivener: how big your project is, it only loads parts, and it’s quick and flexible. So yes, I work with these files every day. But NO, I don’t constantly sync 10 GB files. I constantly sync megabytes of files that are INCLUDED in a multi-GB Scrivener project.
Yes, that’s the one I tried, and it works with smaller files, but not with very big ones. I think this could change if in iOS 13 I use PINNED files so the iPad / iPhone keeps them completely downloaded on my device. But we will have to see.
I know how sync works. 
I was just a bit surprised of the size. The initial sync must have taken a while? I try not to have too much stored on my iPad, but then I only have 256 Gb in total to play with.
The initial upload to Dropbox could take a while, but even that was not too bad. That was/is 20GB in total, and took maybe a couple of hours. Surprisingly, the first download to my devices, iPad or iPhone, went pretty quick, like an hour or so, at most. I don’t know if it’s because we have pretty good internet speeds in Belgium or because Dropbox does this local LAN thing, but not as bad as you’d expect.
Okay, good to know if I ever create such big projects. 
Yes but more importantly: performance on ipad / iphone / mac is always perfect and snappy.
By the way, if you ever need to go through the long bootstrap process of getting huge projects on your devices again (and for anyone else thinking of doing so), there are efficient ways of doing so, documented in the full guide on syncing.
The theory is simple: copy the big stuff over with high-speed USB cable, and meanwhile if the project isn’t already uploaded, let it do so from the Mac (which is not throttled like the API is, and thus will use your bandwidth to its fullest). Once that is complete, drag the wire transferred project into the Dropbox area on the device. Since both will be identical copies, there will be nothing to sync at that point, and after that point, only what changes should sync.
The main limitation is, as sidderke knows, that annoying Dropbox issue with slowness while scanning large folder structures. But that isn’t quite the same thing as overall gigabytes. You can have 10gb with five binder items. In theory a 70mb project that is only text, but has +10,000 binder items all with an average of 5 to 10 snapshots will take a lot longer to sync.
Thanks for that extra clarification! I thought so but didn’t know for sure.
Hey folks, just to let you know that all is well here at the retirement home. Nurse Catalina lets us oldies play on her iPadOS beta if we eat our sprouts, and I have high hopes that if we incontinents are really good, she might even let us try one of those apps which make writing more fun by making you type asterisks between all of your words. What fun, Pip!
Nap time now,
K