Can I keep my project in Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud?

You can, and Verkilo works to protect you if you do: every save writes a complete file and swaps it in whole, and it checks for outside changes before writing anything. But no writing app can make a synced folder completely safe, and we won't pretend otherwise. Our recommendation: keep the project on your local drive, and sync the daily backup folder instead.

What happens if my computer crashes while I'm writing?

Reopen Verkilo. It detects the interrupted session and offers to restore it.

I cut a scene last month and want it back. Can I get it?

If you took a snapshot first, yes — snapshots restore sections, books, characters, and locations exactly as they were. Verkilo also writes a dated backup of your project to your Documents folder every day you write.

What if my whole computer dies?

That's the fear the backups exist for. Sync your backup folder to Dropbox — or any cloud drive — and a copy of your project leaves the machine every day you write. Install Verkilo on the new computer, open the most recent backup, and keep going. The most you can lose is what came after the newest backup.

Product Tour · Your work, kept safe

Built for the bad days

One file on your own drive, snapshots you can restore, and daily backups your cloud drive can carry.

A novel is countless hours of work sitting in one file. Verkilo treats that file with the respect it deserves.

One file, like a document

Your whole project — every book, character, and note — lives in a single file on your computer. Treat it the way you treat a Word document: copy it, back it up, keep it where you can see it.

One project file you can see, copy, and back up yourself
Best kept on your computer’s own drive — the backups, not the project, are what belong in the cloud

The truth about cloud drives

Cloud drives are built for files you open, change, and close. A novel isn’t that — it’s a project that stays open all afternoon. Two things go wrong: the drive can upload a file in the middle of a save, and it can hand you a stale copy. Open your laptop before it has downloaded last night’s desktop session, and there are suddenly two versions of your book.

Verkilo assumes both will happen eventually:

Every save is all-or-nothing — a complete copy of the project, swapped in whole, so a syncing drive never sees a half-saved file
Before writing over the project, Verkilo checks whether anything else changed it. If something did, you get a plain choice — Overwrite, Save As, or Dismiss — before a single word is written
If the project is already open on another computer, Verkilo tells you, instead of letting two machines fight over the file

Even so, we won’t promise a synced folder is safe. No writing app honestly can. Keep the project local, and let the cloud carry your backups.

Snapshots, backups, and bad days

Revisions are supposed to be reversible. In Verkilo, they are.

Take a snapshot of a section, a book, a character, or a location before a big rewrite — label it, and restore it exactly if the new direction doesn’t work out
A dated backup of your project lands in your Documents folder every day you write. Point Dropbox — or any cloud drive — at that folder, and your book is safely off-site without ever syncing the live project
If your computer crashes mid-session, Verkilo notices on restart and offers to pick up where you left off

And the bad day everyone actually fears — the laptop that won’t turn on, the coffee that wins? That’s what the synced backup folder is for. With your backups in Dropbox, the computer can die and the book doesn’t. Install Verkilo on the new machine, open the most recent backup, and keep writing. Your license covers all your personal computers, so the reinstall costs nothing.

Common questions

Can I keep my project in Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud?: You can, and Verkilo works to protect you if you do: every save writes a complete file and swaps it in whole, and it checks for outside changes before writing anything. But no writing app can make a synced folder completely safe, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Our recommendation: keep the project on your local drive, and sync the daily backup folder instead.
What happens if my computer crashes while I'm writing?: Reopen Verkilo. It detects the interrupted session and offers to restore it.
I cut a scene last month and want it back. Can I get it?: If you took a snapshot first, yes — snapshots restore sections, books, characters, and locations exactly as they were. Verkilo also writes a dated backup of your project to your Documents folder every day you write.
What if my whole computer dies?: That’s the fear the backups exist for. Sync your backup folder to Dropbox — or any cloud drive — and a copy of your project leaves the machine every day you write. Install Verkilo on the new computer, open the most recent backup, and keep going. The most you can lose is what came after the newest backup.