Using Scrivener with Dropbox

Not true. iCloud Drive provides everything necessary to synchronise package files, which are the format Scrivener uses.

developer.apple.com/library/con … Cloud.html

It’s more complicated than that (this is coming from one who doesn’t use DB). The most complete technical explanation I’ve found for Scrivener using DB and not others came from KB, Scrivener’s developer, in the thread that JimRac pointed you to. The specific post: iCloud Sync - #14 by KB

And. ask yourself this—would a company not use, without rational reason(s), what is a popular cloud resource? A great amount of thought and work went into this. All evidence points to KB and company as not being fools.Their coding and general reputation is easily found. I don’t expect you to take my word for it—check for yourself. To be clear for anyone who lands here—Dropbox is required for iOS Scriv to/from desktop Scriv cloud syncing; that’s not so for desktop to desktop Scriv syncing. For iOS to/from desktop syncing/transfers, iTunes or similar can be used instead of the cloud.

Good luck.

I really need some help. I used to write using Pages and it synced really well between my iMac, iPad and iPhone, so that wherever I was I could access my work.
I found that Pages was not a good software to write a long novel and when I read up about Scrivener I was delighted to find some software that seemed to be developed for what I needed. It said it synced between all my iGadgets and so i purchased it. I have written the first few chapters of my book on my iMac but now i want to go away so I thought I would download it onto my iPad so I can continue working while I am away. Its nearly impossible. I have wasted two full days so far. It wont download onto my ipad. if i go into App Store it wants another €21 from me. I am reading all these posts and people are mentioning dropbox, so I have tried downloading it through dropbox but the file is just sitting there and not downloading. I’m ok with technology but I am no genius and I am finding all these posts almost impossible to understand and all the complaints that dropbox wont sync properly. I am not sure if I have to save my novel through Scrivener into dropbox on my iMac and if so how do you do that.
Why can’t it just be like Pages, where you download the App on all the iOs things you have and it automatically syncs between them all.
I am not sure if I can get my money back from Scrivener as it seriously does not do what it says on the tin, so to speak, and I just need one person to speak in simple terms to me as to how to set it all up. I really can’t waste any more time away from my writing to sort all this out.
Is there any one out there who can help me? PLEASE !!!

I have plenty of storage in my iCloud - can’t i just sync it that way?

Hello Pippa. I’m sorry you’re feeling so frustrated, Let me try to help. I’m just a user, not a member of the team, but I’ve been using Scrivener for over 10 years.

The first thing to understand is that although, on your desktop, a Scrivener project looks like a file such as one created by Pages, it is actually vastly different and hidden behind what you see may be hundreds—or even thousands in a big project— of files all linked together. You don’t need to worry about that, but just realise that sync’ing a Pages file is very easy compared with sync’ing a Scrivener project.

Secondly, while you can save your Scrivener project to iCloud and access it on different devices, a lot of us would say “Don’t!” because it is a greater risk of corrupting the structure than Dropbox, because it is slower and it’s not so easy to see when the project is fully uploaded to the server or downloaded to your machine. The upload must be complete before you shut down a machine on which you have been working, and the download must be complete before you try to open the project on a given machine. Also, funnily enough, even though the iPad is an Apple device, because of the way iOS works, apps like Scrivener are sandboxed which means they can’t read data from other applications and, as I understand it, Apple doesn’t provide developers with the necessary code to sync data backwards and forwards easily between “Files” and other Apps like Scrivener. Dropbox does provide the necessary code which has allowed KB to do it.

So, you need to use Dropbox for that purpose, though you can do it with iTunes—someone else will have to give you a heads-up on that … I’ve never tried so don’t feel competent to advise. On the other hand, Dropbox, once you’ve got it set up right is pretty easy. Assuming you already have a Dropbox account:

  1. Download the Dropbox app onto your iMac—it doesn’t work through the Dropbox web interface— and log it in to your Dropbox account. It will set up a “Dropbox” folder in your user area on the iMac.

  2. Open that and check if there is an “Apps” folder within it and create one if there isn’t.

  3. Open the “Apps” folder and create one called “Scrivener”.

  4. Move your Scrivener project into that “Scrivener” folder within the “Apps” folder within the “Dropbox” folder. It should look something like this:

On your menu-bar at the top of your screen you’ll see a new icon of five black diamonds round a white one … it resembles an open cardboard box. It should also have a little disc at the bottom right with rotating arrows or something; that tells you Dropbox is in the process of sync’ing. You must wait until that “badge” goes away, indicating that Dropbox is fully sync’ed. It may take some time the first time you do it … you can check on how it’s going by clicking on the Dropbox icon and it tells you at the bottom of the menu that drops down.

  1. Now, on your iPad, install the Dropbox app from the App Store.

  2. Open Scrivener on your iPad; I would have the iPad in landscape orientation … I think it makes it easier to see where you are. At this point, I would open the Tutorial : Draft and choose the “Syncing” card. That tells you exactly how to proceed from here.

Just in general, I don’t know if you have done so, but you will save yourself a lot of heartache and wasted time by spending an hour or so going through the Tutorial you find under the “Help” menu on your iMac, and the whole of the iPad tutorial. It will help you to understand how different Scrivener is from Pages, and also what things are called in the Scrivener interface. That will make it easier when/if you come back for more help and advice.

Good luck. Get back to us if you’re still having problems, and persevere … you’ll find that you’ve made a good choice.

:slight_smile:

Mark

It’s not 100% clear from your post, but it sounds like you might not have the iOS Scrivener app installed on your iPad or your iPhone.

Yes, it is a separate purchase. L&L has Mac, iOS, and Windows versions of Scrivener. As they are different platforms, they each must be purchased separately.

So, if you haven’t purchased Scrivener for iOS, in addition to the other steps Mark has listed above, you need to add another step 5.5: “Purchase and install Scrivener for iOS”.

hi, I have an iMac, an iPhone and an iPad. I have Scrivener downloaded on my iMac and I have been using it for a week or so. In the ad I saw for Scrivener before i purchased it, it said that buying Scrivener would give me access to the software on all three of my Apple devices. My problem is that I have spent two days trying to download the Scrivener software onto my iPhone and my iPad and it won’t download unless i purchase it again.
My real question is - do i have to buy it three times for each device and if so - that is a complete rip off - and not what they said in the ad.
I just want my one subscription to cover my three devices as said in the ad and for all three of them to sync. Is this possible?

Hi Mark - thank you so much - that was so kind of you to send me all that info. I have drop box as an app on my iMac now and i managed to save my novel in the folder Scrivener in dropbox. But turning to the ipad now - i have the drop box app on their now, but I cannot get Scrivener app on the ipad without paying for it again. Every time i read anything about Scrivener it says i can have the software on all three of my Apple devices but every time i try and down load it on my ipad or iphone it wants another €20 from me. This is where I am stuck. Surely if i have paid €50 for the software i don’t have to pay for it again for both my phone and my ipad do I ?

Scrivener for iOS is a separate purchase from the Mac app that you have already bought. Once purchased, it can be used on both your iPhone and iPad. It’s worth remembering that this is not a subscription, but a one time purchase. Scrivener 2 on the Mac had at least 7 years of free updates, and on iOS has been maintained and updated for free for the past two years (I think – I forget exactly when it was launched). Well worth the investment in my opinion.

Damn - you are all right. I never realised MacOS was different to iOS. So i have now paid another subscription for my ipad and will see if i can sort it all. Hopefully I will get it all to sync ok through dropbox so fingers crossed.

ETA: Pippa - Never mind my post below, as you seem to have sorted it. But you keeping saying “subscription”. To be clear, Scrivener is not subscription based. :slight_smile:

Hi Pippa,

I don’t believe that was an ad for Scrivener by Literature & Latte, as they have never charged a subscription. Could you please provide a link or snapshot to the ad?

L&L’s website is very clear that each platform is a separate purchase: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/store/scrivener?tab=iOS

As others have mentioned, if you like Scrivener for Mac, then you’ll find Scrivener for iPad/iPhone is a lighter version of the software–less functionality–but extremely capable, and well worth it if you like to work cross platform.

The ‘subscription’ i was talking about was the product key. And as i said, i never realised Mac was different to iOS so i was upset i had to buy it twice. But its done now and i have Scrivener both on my Mac and my iPad.

I have also got Dropbox on both.

To risk annoying anyone with my simple brain … I am now stuck on how to sync and work with my project via dropbox. I have just read the tutorial on syncing to dropbox and its telling me to copy and move the work out of dropbox before working on it and it all sounds terrifying to be honest. Any advice that once i have managed to get everything syncing via dropbox, how to actually work on the documents and not lose all my work?

There’s a thorough guide to setting up Dropbox synchronization for iOS Scrivener here:
scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … g-with-ios

If you still have questions after reading that, you might want to start another thread. This one is long enough that things tend to get buried. Please note also that this thread started before iOS Scrivener existed, so much of what it has to say is not applicable to your situation.

Katherine

I’m trying to sync Scrivener 2 with my iPad via Dropbox and have got as far as getting the draft onto my Scrivener on the iPad, but I get a notification ‘Invalid project. The project has not a correct binder structure files’ (I use Novel format). I’ve looked at the Package settings, and they seem to be correct. Files, Setting and so on with Capital F and S.
When I see the project on my iPad, it looks as if each folder is a separate project, so there must be something wrong with the original project on my Mac? It works fine there, and I am using the save as function to get it over to Dropbox. I am not able to sync any other projects even though I use the save as function to Apps/Scrivener as before.

Help, I’m at my wits end.

What version of Mac Scrivener do you have? The Scrivener -> About Scrivener command will tell you.

Only versions 2.8 and newer support synchronization with iOS Scrivener.

If that doesn’t help, there’s a troubleshooting guide for iOS synchronization here:
scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … os-syncing

And a thorough setup guide for synchronization here:
scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … g-with-ios

Katherine

I am really struggling with this. I am not stupid but I seem to be with all this. I actually do not understand what to do. Can anyone take me through a step by step guide for morons to sync between iMac, iPad and Dropbox. I’m just not getting how to do it. :frowning:

Please look at the setup and troubleshooting guides linked in the post immediately above yours. If that doesn’t help, please either start a new thread or email our support address and explain what you have tried and what is happening.

To contact our support team:
literatureandlatte.com/contact-us

Katherine

If you haven’t already, install the Dropbox app onto your Mac and let it put all the files in your Dropbox into your Dropbox folder on your Mac.
Quit Scrivener.
MOVE YOUR PROJECT to the folder inside your Mac Dropbox folder that you’ve told iOS Scrivener to sync to.

I think this is worth mentioning: The dropbox app on your iOS devices is completely superfluous. The iOS version of Scrivener had to build in access to dropbox, so it doesn’t need or use the Dropbox app on your iphone or iPad. You can certainly have it installed, but the iOS dropbox app is not how you sync your iOS Scrivener to dropbox.

The Mac is completely different. It does not have built-in code to talk to dropbox.com. Instead, you have to install the Mac dropbox app, which creates the dropbox folder on your Mac. The Drobox app then monitors that folder for changes and syncronizes them with the dropbox.com servers. The dropbox.com servers are the middle-men between each of your devices.

If you have your iOS Scrivener app configured to sync with dropbox, that should create a folder for Scrivener that will appear on your Mac (via the Finder) inside the Dropbox folder. That’s where you’ll want to access projects that sync between Mac & iOS devices.

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