Troubleshooting

Saving

“Sorry, the document has not been saved”

A screenplay is saved as a .fountain file, and the name you gave ends in something else. Give it a name ending in .fountain. To make a PDF, a Word document or a Final Draft file, use Export.

“Cannot write … because it is open in another program”

Another program has the file open and locked, typically a PDF open in Adobe Acrobat while you export over it. Close it there and try again, or choose another name.

“Cannot write to that location: permission denied” or “the destination is read-only”

The folder or the drive does not let the app write there. Use File › Save as and choose another place. Your text is safe in the app’s backups in the meantime.

“Cannot write … because it is read-only” or “because it is locked”

The file itself is marked read-only (on Windows, in its Properties) or locked (on a Mac, in the Finder’s Get Info). Clear that setting and save again, or use File › Save as to save under another name.

“Cannot write to that location because macOS is not allowing Calmly Script to access it”

macOS keeps some folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, external drives) private until you allow an app in. In System Settings › Privacy & Security › Files and Folders (or Full Disk Access), turn Calmly Script on and save again, or save somewhere else.

“The destination no longer exists”

The file, or the folder it was in, has been moved, renamed or deleted since it was opened, or the folder chosen for new screenplays is gone. Use File › Save as to save it again, and if it was the default folder, choose another in Settings › Saving.

“The file was changed outside the app…”

Automatic saving found that another program (or another device) changed the file, and left it alone rather than write over that version. Your changes are in the app’s backups. When the app asks about the change, choose which version to keep; both are kept in File › Version history. See Changes made outside the app.

“No autosave folder” (Android)

Automatic saving is on and no folder has been chosen for new screenplays. Select folder chooses one, and the screenplay is saved there. Close without saving leaves it in File › Backups of closed documents only. You can set the folder at any time in Settings › Saving.

“Dropbox has not synced this file with its server yet” (Android)

Dropbox does not take writes to a file until it has synced it, which can happen when the device is offline. Your changes are safe in the app’s backups. Save again once the device is online and Dropbox has synced the file.

A file whose name ends in .fountain.bin (Android)

Some storage services on Android add an extension of their own to a file an app creates. Calmly Script reads past it: the file is still your screenplay, in Fountain, and the app goes on saving to it.

Google Drive on a Chromebook

ChromeOS lets Android apps read a file opened from Google Drive, but not write to it. When you open one, Calmly Script says so and offers:

• Save As…: save a copy, on your device or in Drive, and go on working in the copy. Automatic saving then works as usual.
• Open read-only: read it. Your changes stay in the app’s backups and are not written to that file; to keep them, use File › Save as.

Opening and importing

“This file type is not supported for opening”

File › Open opens .fountain files. A Final Draft file, a PDF or a Word document is brought in with Import.

“The PDF could not be imported. It has no text in it”

The PDF is a scan or a picture of a screenplay: there is no text in it to read, and Calmly Script does not read text from images. A PDF made by a screenwriting program or a word processor has text in it, and so does a scan that has been through OCR (text recognition); read such a scan closely after importing, since recognition mistakes come in with it.

“The PDF could not be imported. It is password protected.”

Remove the password in the program that made the PDF, and import it again.

Lines with [[Check: …]] after an import

These are notes the import left on the lines it was not sure about, because Leave a note on each of those lines was ticked when you imported. They do not print. Read each line, fix it if needed, and delete the note. See Importing.

Writing

The spell checker does nothing (Android, Chromebook)

On Android and ChromeOS, spell checking is done by the device’s system. It may not be available on some devices or Android versions, and the app cannot turn it on there.

The trial has ended

After the 14-day trial on Windows, macOS and Linux, you can still open, read and export your screenplays, but not edit them until you enter a license key (Help › Enter License Key…). See Trial and license.

App windows

“This window stopped working” or “This window is not responding”

On Windows, macOS and Linux, a window that stops working asks whether to Reopen it, which brings it back at once with what was in it, or close it. One that stops responding asks whether to Wait for it or close it. Anything not yet saved is in its backup, except perhaps the last few seconds, and if you close the window it comes back the next time you open Calmly Script.

Backups

A closed screenplay is not in “Backups of closed documents”

Closed screenplays are kept for 15 days, and the backups are deleted if you uninstall the app. See Version history and backups.

Still stuck?

Help › Send Feedback… shows the address to write to with a bug, a question or an idea.