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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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?
Shouldn’t be. If you want to be super safe, put the project that you’re converting in a local folder, not connected to any cloud service. But it shouldn’t matter.
Sounds like a proper paranoia of Beta software. I don’t go to that extent for most of what I do, but if I’m working on something critical, I compile after I’m done for the day. I also set up a synchronization directory for each project. Those are all in one directory so I know where to look for them.
I would too.
Now, you can fix this. If you look in your working directory (the directory in which your project directories sit), you’ll find the old version, likely named Project_backup.scriv (so if my project is Anye.scriv, the backup is Anye_backup.scriv). Open it with the old version of Scrivener, and there are your scenes. You can pull them out, one scene or chapter at a time, and drag/drop them where they should be.
But this is a bug, obviously, in the conversion routines in Scrivener.
So far as I know, they interoperate acceptably well. Unfortunately, I cannot reassure you on this, because I don’t use a Mac and cannot test it. But others do on this forum, and they haven’t reported any issues with interoperability recently, to my recollection. (which could be faulty, of course)
If you use Dropbox, the project folder needs to be inside the Dropbox folder, rather than the other way round. You shouldn’t use Dropbox to keep program files or Windows system files in sync; only user created files (documents, photos, etc.)
I’m a Mac user and have been collaborating with a Windows using friend with v. 3 Beta for some two years now with very few problems, and those were the usual ones of not giving Sync (alternative to Dropbox which we can’t use!) time to sync fully before shutting down or opening the project.
I haven’t experienced any problems with that myself.