Lost work and backups
Where lost chapters usually still are in the tool you use, how to get them back, and what protects a book in Tabularia.
When a chapter goes missing
These answers start from the moment something is gone. A Scrivener project that stopped opening. A Word file that AutoSave rolled back, or that a crash took before AutoRecover caught it. A Google Doc showing a white page, a draft missing from a notes app, or a book saved over by accident.
Most of that writing still exists somewhere, whether in a backup the app made without being asked or in a version history nobody had opened before today. Each page names where to look in the tool you use. The first step is nearly always the same: stop editing, on every device, until you know which copy is the good one.
Each also says what Tabularia keeps and where it can still lose work. Its sync can go wrong too.
The answers
- Scrivener sync lost my chapters. How do I get them back? — Backup zips, conflicted copies, and Dropbox history, then Snapshots.
- My Scrivener project won't open — Incomplete packages, backup zips, and the RTF files inside a project.
- Word AutoSave replaced my chapter with an older version — Version History in Word and OneDrive, and why a second device causes it.
- Word crashed and AutoRecover didn't save my chapter — Recovery files on Windows and Mac, and the settings that keep more.
- I saved over my manuscript by accident — Undo, cloud version history, File History, and Time Machine.
- My Google Doc went blank. Is my novel gone? — Version history, Drive Trash, and the offline-editing caveat.
- My draft disappeared from my notes app — Evernote, OneNote, and Apple Notes, one recovery route each.
- My writing app lost work after syncing — Freezing the damage, where copies survive, and how to write to support.
Try it on your own manuscript
Nothing is metered: as many projects as you like at any length, the outline and minimap to move through them, drafts and markup mode for revising, snapshots to return to, sheets and timelines beside the page, and export to DOCX, PDF, EPUB, HTML, Markdown, plain text and Fountain. Bring in what you have already written and read it back as a book.
The Cloud plan is $18 a month, or $172.80 a year, and adds backup, sync across your devices, sharing a manuscript for review, and publishing your work as a web page — the readers and collaborators you invite do not need a paid account of their own. Tabularia is in Public Beta and shipping steadily; the release notes record what has landed.