Scrivener For Dummies

Setting Up Automatic Backup Preferences

Scrivener is set up to save your project to your hard drive two seconds after user activity stops. So, every time you stop typing or working with a menu, Scrivener saves the project. It also automatically backs up each project to your hard drive upon closing, maintaining five versions. Although you’re unlikely to lose any work if your power goes out or you encounter a fatal error, you could very well lose your work if the hard drive starts smoking and the data can’t be recovered.

Never fear, automatic backup is here. Before I get into how to set it up, keep the following in mind:

You can choose only one location for all Scrivener file backups. If you’re like me and you keep your projects organized into nice hierarchical folders, it might annoy you that your backups can’t be organized in a similar way. Just remember that all backups are in the same place, and you’ll be fine.

If you want to backup your project to more than one location — which I highly recommend anyway — you have to find a way to schedule one of the backups to run on its own or remember to do it manually. This is where the companies that provide backup software come in handy. You can include your Scrivener files in the list of those to backup offsite automatically, then use the ...