Converting Win 1.9 to Win Beta Mess

[rscottfarrell]

What a fiasco this product is. I asked earlier if content is safe using the beta. I was told it was. It is not. I converted a 1.9 file to the 3.0 beta. This was a complete first draft of a novel. Three scenes vanished. I did a global search. The content gone. Two dozen scenes jumbled. Some placed in wrong chapters, Several showed up in the front matter section. The front matter files appear under research. Some scene content was loaded into a chapter synopsis, but not others. What else? Duplication. 15 or more scenes were duped and scattered all over the manuscript. this is a F(&*(** mess.

No wonder it has taken years to get a 3 windows version. The software, at least if you want to convert a file is not usable.

[JimRac]

Sorry to hear you had issues converting from v1.9 to the beta. I haven't experienced any problems with that myself.

I'm posting to remind you, just in case, that a backup of your v1.9 project was created when you did the conversion.

The backup folder would be named something along the lines of YourProject Backup.scriv, and would have been created in whatever folder the original v1.9 project was in.

Best,
Jim

[rscottfarrell]

Thanks Jim. Yes I have a 1.9 backup plus the word doc that was compiled from it so the original work is intact but not in the 3.0 version. I have been so anxious to get out of a years old version I thought I'd try it for the rewrite. I asked about data integrity prior. I converted from the lastest 1.9.

[lunk]

How did you convert the project?

[kewms]

Topic moved to beta forum. That's definitely not the expected behavior.

Did you just open the project in the beta version, or something else?

Katherine

[jesuslpgc]

What a fiasco this product is. I asked earlier if content is safe using the beta. I was told it was. It is not. I converted a 1.9 file to the 3.0 beta. This was a complete first draft of a novel. Three scenes vanished. I did a global search. The content gone. Two dozen scenes jumbled. Some placed in wrong chapters, Several showed up in the front matter section. The front matter files appear under research. Some scene content was loaded into a chapter synopsis, but not others. What else? Duplication. 15 or more scenes were duped and scattered all over the manuscript. this is a F(&*(** mess.

No wonder it has taken years to get a 3 windows version. The software, at least if you want to convert a file is not usable.

Can you explain what steps did you take to move your project from 1.9 to beta? That might help the dev team to sort any issues aout!!!!

[rwfranz]

Thanks Jim. Yes I have a 1.9 backup plus the word doc that was compiled from it so the original work is intact but not in the 3.0 version. I have been so anxious to get out of a years old version I thought I'd try it for the rewrite. I asked about data integrity prior. I converted from the lastest 1.9.

Echoing what the others said; that's not the expected behavior. I'll readily admit that the conversion process has been less than stellar, but this is the first time I've read of this kind of a mess resulting from using it.

I'd love to know the exact process you used, what type of project you converted, etc. I'm sure the devs would love to see your original files (particularly if you can reproduce the result).

Other questions arise, though. For example, this is the kind of thing I might expect if the two versions were installed in the same directory (I did that with an early beta, and the behaviors were decidedly not as expected). They should not be installed in the same directory (that is, only one of them should live in C:/Program Files/Scrivener, and only one of them should live in C:/Program Files (x86)/Scrivener).

All that said, there are another two ways to convert the old version of a project to a new version of the project.

Method 1:
Open both versions of the software (yes, at the same time). Version 1.9.x and version 2.9 RC5.
Open the old 1.9 version in 1.9.x.
Create a new project in 2.9.x.
Select the ENTIRE binder in version 1.9. (Ctrl+A).
Drag the selection into 2.9, and drop it in the binder above the Trash folder and below the other folders. Move the contents of those folders into the appropriate locations in the new binder.
Save the new projct.
Done.

Method 2:
Open version 2.9.
In File -> Import -> Scrivener Project..., select the Folder containing the project you want to import. Click Select Folder, and everything should import just fine. Scrivener will put those files in the new project, with the old project name having its own folder at the same level as the Draft folder. You can then move the files and folders around as you see fit.

Now, I can't guarantee that files haven't been corrupted, et cetera. But either of those methods should work. The second one requires less work on your part, I think.

rw

[rscottfarrell]

The process used was as simple as I could think of. I opened Win 3.0 beta. Did not have Win 1.9 open. I opened the Win 1.9 novel (scriv file) in 3.0. I was prompted to update. I did. That's it.

The question I have now is an even more important issue. After having pieced the content together, chapter by chapter, I have rewritten one third of the novel in Win 3.0 beta. How safe is my content? Not trusting it, I compile daily so I have the work in Word.

What is also interesting is the content was correct for 8 of 31 chapters. My process is to finish a draft, print it out in Word, let it sit. Read the hard copy of the novel, edit on the page, the blue pen. Take the edited hardcopy, go back to Scrivener, save the novel as the next iteration and have at it. When I got to chapter nine (not bothering to look ahead in the file), I discovered scenes missing and out of place and all the other issues stated above.

Freak out time. So I went through scene by scene, copied and pasted. The jumbling of content was extensive.

Another question: Will Win 3.0 open a Mac file properly? The reason I ask is that I write in Windows to a complete novel. Then I save another copy, open it in my Mac, update it there and compile to Vellum. I really don't need to open a Mac version in Win, but am curious about those two working together.

[rscottfarrell]

Another question came to mind. If I did not import the file, just opened it, is that improper protocol?

Is it possible I corrupted my version of Win 3.0 in doing so? This morning the work seems to be OK.

Also, if I successfully complete the rewrite in Win 3.0 beta which is my intention, can I save a copy, open it in Mac 3.0 successfully so I can compile then output to Vellum, without corrupting the work?

[TooOldForThis]

Because version 3 is a Beta, I don't take chances with my work. I write in Beta 3, but at the end of each scene, I copy and paste the scene to version 1.9--just in case. If anything happens in Beta 3, I still have my full work in a 1.9 project. I also write in iOS version on an iPad with Dropbox. So far, I have not had any problems with opening them in Win and iOS via Dropbox.
[Update] I just tried converting a large project and it looks fine in Beta 3.

[JimRac]

The process used was as simple as I could think of. I opened Win 3.0 beta. Did not have Win 1.9 open. I opened the Win 1.9 novel (scriv file) in 3.0. I was prompted to update. I did. That's it.

Yes, this is the same process I've been using for converting v1.9 projects into the beta. Mostly short stories but did do one massive novel-in-progress. I've never had issues with content being incorrectly converted. BTW, I haven't messed with importing at all--haven't needed to

[rscottfarrell]

Also, the spacing of characters in the beta is off in composition mode, but I'm sure you guys already know that. It is intermittent.

[rscottfarrell]

I am on windows 10 BTW. Not that should matter. I may try to repeat this with old content just to see. Not sure what caused this odd result.

Katherine, what is the safest way to open old 1.9 files in Win 3.0 beta?

Thanks

[kewms]

I am on windows 10 BTW. Not that should matter. I may try to repeat this with old content just to see. Not sure what caused this odd result.

Katherine, what is the safest way to open old 1.9 files in Win 3.0 beta?

Thanks

Make sure the project is fully synchronized with any other devices. Make a backup in Scrivener 1.9, then close it. Then just open the project. Expected behavior is for Scrivener to make its own backup, then convert the project to the new format.

Katherine

[rscottfarrell]

I followed the guidelines and installed Win 3 beta in its own unique directory, but the project are in the same directory, a dropbox folder not within either Scrivener directory. Is that an issue?