Scrivener Syncing
It’s not just the format itself, but how it is used. Because Scrivener projects comprise many files, it’s important that any given project is synced in its entirety and not piecemeal. If an updated binder structure is downloaded, it’s not much use if none of the new files it references are yet available, for instance. Dropbox gives us the control we need in this regard.
This is also the reason that the sync needs to be invoked manually rather than continually happening in the background. With background sync (which iCloud always uses), there is no control over which files appear when, meaning that important structural files could download without the files they refer to or vice versa. This is an even more serious problem when the connection is lost part-way through a sync. All too easily this could put a project into an inconsistent state that could wreak havoc, and we’d rather have users complaining that they don’t like manual sync than that they have just lost four hours of writing or structural changes!
