Syncing with Scrivener makes the timeline non "cross-machine"

Bug Reports
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#1

Platform & OS Version

Platform: Windows
OS Version: 11
OS Language Setting: it-IT

App Version

Version: 3.0.13
Application Shell: 3.0.13

Problem Description + Screenshots

If I sync the timeline with a Scrivener project, the path to the project is saved as an absolute path, forcing me to continuosly relocate the mapping pressing “My project has moved” and that’s a pain in the… hand, if you switch device a lot like I do.

image
The blacked out part is the user account name. I configured the sync from my office workstation and reopened the timeline when I got back to home, but the sync link is broken because the user account name is different (and potentially the whole path to the configured OneDrive folder).

There should be a way to set a relative path, this way I can continue my work on any device without any path issue.

While paths can be broken in a lot of ways, I think that relative paths might be more reliable and less error prone.

Matt

#2

Matt,

have you tried mapping your working directory to a drive? This might allow you to create the same synchronization path on different computers.

Cheers,
Peter

#3

By the way, it does not have to be a relative file path in your particular case. Under Windows, the path to the user directory can be abbreviated with “~”, e.g. "~\Documents" instead of "C:\Users\Topolino\Documents".
With Aeon Timeline 2 you can hack this by search and replace in the unzipped .aeonzip file. With Aeon 3 I have not tried it yet.

#4

Yeah, you are right about that, but in general Aeon should work with non-absolute paths for better reliability. Also, I don’t know either If it’s possible to hack the file with Aeon 3.

No, not yet. This might be a good workaround for now. I’ll give it a try.

Still, the bug exists to me, unless the devs point out some caveat I didn’t think of.

Thanks Peter for answering,

Matt

#5

Matt,

basically I support your wish for relative file paths. For me it would even be enough to be able to edit the file path in the selection dialog.
However, I think it’s a bit harsh to call the lack of this feature a bug.

It looks like you can edit .aeon files with notepad++. However, I don’t have an example of saved sync paths because I don’t use Scrivener anymore. Maybe you can try it with a copy and share the result?

Peter

Edit:
I have since made various changes to the .aeon file using notepad++. In some cases it worked, in other cases the project was not accepted by Aeon Timeline 3 afterwards.
After changes with Windows Notepad, Aeon Timeline 3 crashes upon opening.
Conclusion: Better not to tamper with the .aeon file.

#6

Yeah, you are right. It may be a bug depending on how you work on that file, but as I already said it’s not a breaking bug/lack of feature.

Matt

#7

We agree that having relative paths for Scrivener syncing would be helpful in this case, and have made a ticket to look at adding this.

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