Sync with Scrivener Gets Stuck on Green

[ScottyDM (Scott)]

One Book, three Acts, many Chapters, many more Scenes…
Acts 1 and 2 are perfect. All scenes within act 3 are broken.

I’ve been flirting with danger.

First, within Scrivener I dragged all my scenes into a single folder, as I was doing high-level editing and wanted to see subplots at a glance. Added subplots as Scrivener keywords. When I went to sync I had some problems, but got them straightened out. I seem to remember losing Events in Aeon and having to regenerate them (painful). Also, Act and Chapter folders were set to ignore in Aeon. Since I could not do Subway View using Scrivener keywords, I duplicated all my keywords as Arcs and Subway View became beautiful. After much editing and shuffling or deleting scenes, developmental edits were complete.

Second, I wanted to reassemble Acts, Chapters, and Scenes into their original hierarchy, which is where I am now. As I selected each Act or Chapter in Aeon (left side) I reset the “ignore” status (right side) and selected the proper item from the list. Act 3 was on the list, but none of the Chapters within it were. I had to tell Aeon to make new Folders in Narrative.

Weird stuff: Scenes in Act 3 do not show up in Narrative, but they are there in Timeline and within Scrivener’s binder. I can select a Scene in Timeline, and tell it to create a Narrative Event. The Corresponding Scene has been in the proper Chapter Folder in Scrivener, but Aeon wants to put it directly under my top-level folder in Scrivener. When I sync, Aeon moves the scenes within Scrivener to the top-level folder. If I drag them back in Scrivener, Aeon wants to sync. When I do the Scenes vanish from view on the left side of Aeon, but are in the right place in Scrivener. Oh, the scenes are still in Timeline (but not in Narrative).

I tried putting Scenes into Narrative as Events, then dragging the Scenes within Narrative from the far right, into their proper Chapters in Narrative. When I sync, the status goes from green to green and tells me to sync. Of course no amount of syncing will ever make the green go away.

In short: I select a Scene in Timeline and tell it to become a Scene in Narrative. I sync. If I try to drag the Scene to the correct Chapter in Scrivener, the Scene vanishes from Narrative and the left zone in Aeon, but is untouched in Timeline. If I try to drag the Scene within Narrative, it works but wants syncing. When I sync, the status stays green (wants to generate a new Scene), but does not Sync.

Info in the right column appears identical between Act 2 and Act 3 (except for the names).
Info in the right column appears identical between the last Chapter of Act 2 and first Chapter of Act 3 (except names of course, and Position says “Book 1, Act 2, Chapter 44” versus “Book 1, Act 3, Chapter 45”, which seems perfect).

Help!

I suspect Aeon has some internal status it’s not showing me (and is messed up). And this makes Sync act broken.

Thanks a million.
Scott

[ScottyDM (Scott)]

Additional Investigation: It’s the Chapters.

In Scrivener I dragged all the Act 3 Scenes from Chapter folders and put them in a linear pile below the Chapters. After sync in Aeon the Scenes appear on the left-hand list (what might be called Aeon’s Binder). I shuffled things around in Scrivener, putting Scenes directly below their corresponding Chapter folders. In Aeon I Sync again and all looks good.

Here’s a screenshot of Aeon’s “binder” (Sync control window):

Note that in Act 2 the Scenes are within the Chapter folders. In Act 3 they are not.

Further experimentation reveals that the Chapter folders in Act 3 are broken. When I drag Scenes into their Chapter folders in Scrivener, they do not appear in the new location in Aeon’s “binder” and when I Sync the Scenes vanish (but still exist in Timeline, and in Scrivener). If instead, I drag Scenes into their Chapter within Aeon’s Narration, they’re there in Aeon’s “binder” and when I sync they look great, but are green and want to be synced again and again.

I tried moving Chapters 45 and 46 (plus their Scenes) into Act 2 using Scrivener, and the problem stays with the Chapters. It is not anything within the Act folders.

Here is the right-hand “inspector” panel for Chapter 44 (good chapter):

And here is the same view for Chapter 45 (bad chapter):

I can see no reason why this doesn’t work.

Thanks for your help.
Scott

[ScottyDM (Scott)]

SOLVED

I got to thinkin’. If the problem is only a few chapter folders in Aeon, then why not delete and remake those folders.

1st, backup all.
2nd, delete folders within Scrivener, but not the scenes.
3rd, sync Aeon with Scrivener—folders vanish in Aeon (but not the scenes).
4th, recreate chapter folders in Scrivener and put the scenes into their chapters.
5th, sync Aeon with Scrivener.

Perfection! And both Timeline and Narrative are now correct.

Scott