Scrivener iOS syncing via Dropbox continues to crash the app

[Scotter]

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?

The lack of chatter is from resignation. Nothing’s changed or helped going on months now, so why bother.

[KillerWhale]

+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.

[jwilker]

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

I don't know if it will work for everyone but I found a workaround that worked for me.

I created a new folder inside Dropbox
then I moved all my Scrivener projects from /Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener/ to this new folder
I opened Scrivener iOS and it didn't crash.
Then I closed it.
I moved one project back in /Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener/
I started Scrivener iOS again and it synced this one Scrivener project without problems.
Then I moved back the other projects one by one and synced every time.

[QuietSnooze]

gcg's suggestion seems to have worked for me

[Thomas Rabenstein]

I don't know if it will work for everyone but I found a workaround that worked for me.
I created a new folder inside Dropbox
then I moved all my Scrivener projects from /Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener/ to this new folder
I opened Scrivener iOS and it didn't crash.
Then I closed it.
I moved one project back in /Dropbox/Apps/Scrivener/
I started Scrivener iOS again and it synced this one Scrivener project without problems.
Then I moved back the other projects one by one and synced every time.

This works fine for my smaller project ~50 Mbyte each, but not for my main projects, which are at about 450 .. 500 Mbyte each.

[anderswt]

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

[AmberV]

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.

[KillerWhale]

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.

[lunk]

sync does not work anymore on Scrivener on iOS.

Yes it does, for many users. I haven’t had the slightest problem.

[AmberV]

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.

[KillerWhale]

sync does not work anymore on Scrivener on iOS.

Yes it does, for many users. I haven’t had the slightest problem.

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.

[drmajorbob]

It seems like SOMEONE in Wales could bring you a device that demonstrates the problem. That, or it’s EXCEEDINGLY rare.

[AmberV]

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.

[drmajorbob]

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.

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.

[anderswt]

Thanks Amber for the update.
What I read was that L&L has no idea about what happens and is not working closely with Apple to solve this unknown problem for us unfortunate customers.

This was unfortunate news for an otherwise lovely app.
/A