I installed iPadOS 13.3 (beta) on my iPad Pro 12.9 and … no joy. Sync still drops out as before, despite also crossing my fingers.
Hi all, I have been watching this thread with interest for a while and wanted to add my own experiences with Scrivener on iOS in relation to syncing via Dropbox. I currently use Scrivener on both MacOS Catalina on a Mid 2014 Macbook Pro and a 2012 Mac Mini, and on iOS I am running Scrivener on a 2016 iPad Pro 9.7 inch running iOS 13.2.2 and, until recently, on an old iPhone 6 running the latest version of iOS 12. With all of these devices I didn’t suffer any crashes in Scrivener when syncing my projects between MacOS and iOS using Dropbox.
Yesterday I upgraded my iPhone to an iPhone 11 which is now running iOS 13.2.3 and tentatively tested the performance of Dropbox syncing using this new device. I say tentatively because I have seen how many are unfortunately suffering with Dropbox sync issues when running iOS 13 on newer devices. However, thankfully when I have been syncing my projects between the iPhone 11 and my Mac devices I still do not have any issues or any crashes, which leads me to believe that the problem is not only the type of device that Scrivener is running on. I believe that others have also drawn this conclusion but thought I would add my voice to the mix to see if it helps with a resolution. In terms of my projects in Scrivener I write fiction, but I don’t tend to keep large amounts of research materials embedded in my Scrivener projects. These I keep in DevonTHINK 3.0. So my project sizes are very small indeed. I have five projects which I am syncing. Not all of them are active projects. I don’t know whether this is relevant or not, but when I set up my new iPhone 11 I migrated all of my data from my old iPhone to the new device via a backup of the old device in Finder on MacOS. So all my previous settings will have come through.
I hope that a resolution comes quickly, either from an Apple update to iOS or via a workaround from L&L, as I can only imagine how frustrating this bug is for every user experiencing it, as well as for the developers. Especially as the bug appears to defy all logic.
OK, I’m not seeing much chatter on this thread since 13.2.3 came out. Did it fix the problem or are folks still having issues?
I’ve not been hit by this bug [yet], but I’m actually scared to try to sync my phone (I work mostly from my iPad and sync my phone only every so often) or reset any setting on my iPad just in case I trigger it.
I have 13.2.3 and it did not fix the problem. I think, like me, many have given up on syncing to iOS or have been using the manual solutions suggested elsewhere. It sounds to me like it’s a memory allocation issue as some have suggested. Whatever it is, it isn’t fixed.
I enjoyed this, thanks. I particularly liked the sentence, “It’s really starting to chafe my arse.” I agree, of course. I’ve pretty much stopped using the iOS app at all.
The lack of chatter is from resignation. Nothing’s changed or helped going on months now, so why bother.
+1 for giving up
Still using Scrivener on Mac to complete my current project but I’ll be testing the competition for the next one, sorry.
FWIW this worked for me on an iPad Pro 9.7" with the latest iOS 13. Painstaking and slow, but copying each one at a time, waiting for dropbox then opening scrivener iOS, rinse and repeat and now all projects are synced and I don’t crash out wheen syncing after a desktop change
gcg’s suggestion seems to have worked for me 
This works fine for my smaller project ~50 Mbyte each, but not for my main projects, which are at about 450 … 500 Mbyte each. 
I have the same experience, small projects yes, large no.
I would also appreciate if L&L could share a bit about what they are doing to solve this quite a large problem. I think we users deserve some concrete info.
/Anders
I’m not sure what could be added that hasn’t already been said. The only new piece of information I think we can now say with certainty (though it was already a pretty certain conclusion) is that it has nothing to do with data. We’ve tested projects that cause a shutdown for others 100% of the time, and there is no shutdown.
As stated before, it remains unclear if there is anything we can do to solve it. It’s not really a crash, but the app being shut down by the OS externally for reasons it is not terribly forthcoming about.
Thank you Amber, but that is not really an acceptable response. That means that, barring convoluted workarounds, sync does not work anymore on Scrivener on iOS, making the app pretty much useless.
The problem has been dragging on for some time now, it can accepted that it takes time to solve, but throwing the towel is something else entirely.
Yes it does, for many users. I haven’t had the slightest problem.
There are also many of us who do not use sync at all, making claims of it being now “useless” a bit eyebrow raising.
But yes, the main problem is precisely that it doesn’t happen everywhere—to the point that we’ve never once seen it happen, despite extensive information provided on the contexts where it does. Nobody is throwing any towels anywhere, but there is only so much that can be done once the data you have has proved without use, but wait for more data.
Well, not everybody is as lucky as you are, and there seems to be “many” users on this thread for whom it does not work, or only after much fiddling.
@Amber: Yeah, I may have overreacted a bit on that one, my apologies. It’s just that we don’t see any progress on our end, and for us who depend on Scrivener for a living, we cannot rely on it on mobile scenarios. You feel powerless, yeah, but we as users feel powerless too.
It seems like SOMEONE in Wales could bring you a device that demonstrates the problem. That, or it’s EXCEEDINGLY rare.
Yeah, I kind of half jokingly thought of adding, “unless someone is willing to send us their device for a couple of weeks”, but seriously, I don’t think that’s a good idea, we’d have to draw up papers and stuff. 
If I were in this scenario myself, I’d try a factory reset and installed iOS 13 from scratch, then tested to see if the problem persists with Scrivener and little else if anything installed. If it didn’t change anything, I could just restore from backup and get back to where I was an hour or so later. If it worked, I’d roll with it and set up the device like it was new. If it stops working at some point, I’d have a much better idea of what changed, and thus what might be an external culprit, be it setting or app.
But that’s a lot to ask of anyone as a “troubleshooting step”, to say the least.
It turns out I never had this problem), but if I did … and if I were near … I’d sign those papers. Maybe I’d even mail you the phone from Texas.
I had a different problem instead, but I support a group where several users need a fix for this one.