If you are getting either the “project is incompatible” message or the “Scrivener has encountered a problem and needs to close” message, this is how I work around it.
My fix for corrupted projects:
1.) Open your corrupted “Project” file by right clicking the project file Scrivener icon (the yin yang “S” file) within your project folder and selecting to open with wordpad or notepad or another simple text editor. (*Alternatively, open the project file from within the text editor by selecting the “open any file” option when browsing your project.scriv folder.)
2.) In word pad, “cut” or “copy” everything out between and .
3.) Open Scrivener from a non-corrupted tutorial or other project file. If you have no noncorrupted tutorials or files to open it from, you will have to redownload a Scrivener beta and open it from the tutorial. After opening Scrivener successfully, create a “dummy project” – just an empty project for the purposes of creating an uncorrupted base project file.
4.) Open the dummy project file in wordpad or notepad. Delete everything between and .
5.) Paste in the stuff you cut/copied between and that was in your old, corrupted project file. Save and close.
6.) Move the dummy project file to your corrupted project folder. Replace your old project file, or back this project file up in a separate folder before replacing.
7.) Your corrupted file is now replaced and your binder should open as it used to.