Scrivener

I’ve used a few different writing apps and this one does everything I need very well. The Dropbox integration with the desktop app seems to work well and I haven’t had any issues with losing work because of sync conflicts. Having iCloud support would be so much better though.

I don’t use Dropbox and iTunes no longer exists, so I’m finding it extremely difficult to load and save the projects I created on the Mac version. Scrivener need to implement drag and drop of projects from the iPadOS Files app, and file sharing. Once I can share my projects with my Mac via my preferred cloud providers iCloud and pCloud, this app is deserving of 5 stars. But iTunes? Seriously? This is 2024 not 2014.

I absolutely love the Scrivener desktop app and, having switch to an iPad to do all my writing on, I thought it would be straightforward to use Scrivener on the iPad too. Unfortunately, not only did I have to pay again (the licenses are not transferable) but the iPad app is missing a lot of the features that made Scrivener so useful to me. Some, like individual chapter length targets, are ‘nice-to-haves’ that I can live without, but others are more fundamental. The most crucial missing/incomplete feature is compiling. Unlike the desktop app, the iPad app doesn’t properly handle front and back matter, can’t populate variables like book title or author name, and has only a fraction of the customisability needed to get your book looking the way you want it when you export it. Bluntly, I don’t think the iPad app is sufficient for the majority of authors wanting to compile and export their novel in a format ready for self-publishing via, for example, KDP. That’s a huge let-down given this is one of the key benefits of using a tool like Scrivener. For me, I’m now stuck doing all my writing on my iPad and then borrowing a laptop with the desktop app installed to do the final compile and export. That’s a pretty poor solution, and even worse for people who didn’t already have a desktop license so would have to buy one specially just so they have the necessary features to prepare their book for publishing.

I feel like I’ve wasted my money. I use one drive to sync my files. My projects are on my iPad from that so why can’t scrivener access them? If I use Dropbox I have to manually sync that to one drive. The UI is pretty poor too to be honest. Looks very basic and too dissimilar to the desktop app. Edit: after using iTunes to manual copy a project, I have discovered that because the font I use isn’t available on my iPad it has changed it in the project with no warning. There is also an issue with bullet point indentation, where from a second level item I press return, it shows a first level bullet on iPad but when I copy it back to windows it shows as a second level bullet. This is not the quality software I expect as a long-time user on windows. If these issues are resolved, I will update this review accordingly. As it stands I’m considering requesting a refund.

Brilliant stuff , makes writing a book a breeze !

The majority of help available does not seem to be applicable to iPad users.

I like scrivener a great deal, however I do not enjoy working on pc writing or Mac so iPad is fantastic for me. I have used the windows version and in my opinion the interface is a lot nicer to use, as others have noted on this iOS version, however many features are unnecessarily cut out. It’s been a long time since release and things should have been added and long overdue. It is great in many ways however, you can’t transfer files between projects which cripples it on iOS. This is a basic feature - i asked about it previously and was told rather shortly that on iOS it’s not meant to be a full version, buy it for desktop :/. No. I have no interest whatsoever in scrivener desktop as is the case for vast amount of iOS users -it’s a much better wrutung device for many reasons. Other missing features - free form Corkboard (was again given short shrift about this) - full organisation functions like arranging stuff by colours etc I feel I wasn’t spoken to particularly nicely by dev as a paying customer and long time user and lover of the app. Maybe under pressure I don’t know but no excuses - ipad run on m1, run Davinci resolve, Logic Pro etc. It’s a professional production device no need for a cut down version of an app that is only dealing with text files or basic files. Please add the above features and I’ll up the rating. Also essential to add at least ICloud support.

I’m a big fan of Scrivener on the Mac, and I save all my files on my iCloud Drive, so that I can work on my projects across both my desktop and laptop, max, and was excited to be able to do the same on the go with my iPad. I was dismayed, then to discover that the iPad app doesn’t support iCloud at all, only syncing via dropbox, which is completely bonkers on an app with Mac and iOS support where it makes no sense at all to only support sinking via a third-party app which is entirely unnecessary when we have iCloud built-in to the Apple ecosystem!!! I’m afraid that makes the iPad app completely worthless to me, wish I hadn’t bothered now, waste of my money..

Come on devs. Scrivener is the best writing app/software there is. Please implement iCloud support for the desktop and mobile apps. Dropbox isn’t freely available in all locations and I can’t access it without enabling my VPN. File syncing should be seamless and not require the user to drag/drop items. That said, the rest of the app is a solid 10/10. If not for the clunky syncing it would be 5-stars.

For MacOS the software is helpful but the transferring through Dropbox is clunky and has lost significant amounts of work (it synced with the old version on the Mac, losing everything changed on iOS). Not fit for use - Pages with iCloud backup is a much more reliable method if transferring between Mac and iOS. Note: customer support were unable to retrieve my lost work or resolve this issue. I was advised MacOS Monterey has known issues, and signposted to articles about the Dropbox use which to me still doesn’t remove the risk of losing work.