# Conflict copies

> When two devices move the same project forward, neither side is thrown away.

Source: https://loomworld.ai/docs/conflict-copies

## How a conflict happens

A conflict has one source: the same project moved forward in two places. Usually a device kept writing while offline, or the same project was edited on two machines without a sync between. On reconnect, unsent local work and a newer cloud copy exist at once, and Loomworld will not guess which half to keep.

Heartbeats do not edit under your fingers: reconciliation happens when you come back or the page regains focus, so a conflict always surfaces at a moment you can see it.

## What the system does: keeps both

- Refreshes the current project onto the newest cloud copy—at resolution it pulls once more, and only falls back to the cached conflict-time copy if that pull fails.
- Saves your unsent local draft safely as a separate conflict-copy project, with no cloud link, as its own local project.

Neither side is overwritten. The price is that merging is handed back to you: prose that needs judgment is not something the product will auto-merge.

## How: merge the words back

- **Do not dismiss the notice**Choosing “use the cloud version” runs the flow above; “Not now” applies to that project only—open another conflicted project and it asks again.

- **Find the copy in the lobby**There it is: a project without a cloud link, named with its origin. It is a normal project—you can open, edit, and export it.

- **Read both side by side**Copy the passages only the conflict copy has back into the right place in the main project. Structural additions (new chapters, scenes) deserve line-by-line checking—do not paste whole blocks over each other.

- **Then clean up**Once merged, deal with the copy: move it to the trash or remove just its record. On desktop a copy is only a local project; removing a record touches nothing else.

## What a real conflict looks like

You write three chapters on a plane, then close the laptop without connecting. Next day at the office you open the same project: the cloud still holds the pre-flight version, and those three chapters were never uploaded. When the plane laptop finally connects, both sides have moved on, and the conflict is real.

What you see: a notice that the cloud is newer; confirming leaves the open project on the cloud state, and the three chapters appear in the lobby as a conflict copy. So you open the copy on the office machine and move the chapters back scene by scene—copy the content, do not replace the project, or the office’s two days of edits are what you lose next.

## Habits that avoid them

- Wait for “Synced” in the top bar before closing a device you are leaving.
- Write continuously on one device at a time; use the others for reading.
- After a long session, export a project pack—your third copy.

## Limits and troubleshooting

A conflict copy is an ordinary project: it never rolls anything back and never merges itself, and it does not change as the main project moves on. Unsure which side is newer? Compare timestamps in the top bar, chapter word counts, and recent edit traces. Want both for now? Export two packs before you start cutting and pasting.

Sync order and heartbeats: [Cloud version and local cache](https://loomworld.ai/docs/sync-model).