Opening more than one score launches several instances of the app
Once a single score has been opened, press Cmd-O to open a new one and ... a new instance of MuseScore 4 will be created, instead of opening the score as a tab of the existing window.
This is not a new window of the same app, rather a new app launch.
I now have 4 scores open, and 4 MuseScore icons in the Dock.
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Comments
This is a known issue, and will hopefully be fixed in a future version.
In reply to This is a known issue, and… by ThePython10110
Not sure that's the plan, for now this is by design
In reply to Not sure that's the plan,… by Jojo-Schmitz
I guess what I meant by "It will hopefully be fixed" is "I hope it will be fixed."
@jeetee said, "It is currently mandatory to integrate the new playback engine. There is some work ongoing to try and consolidate it into a single instance possibility again, but no definitive outcome yet."
I have the same issue, and while it is innocuous, it's irritating. I don't understand the comment that it is "by design." No other OS X app behaves this way, so I see it as an error. We (our tech lab) will return to MuseScore 3 until it is fixed.
In reply to I have the same issue, and… by tbdkktj2cc
Indeed, macOS is pretty limited in its support for multiple instances unfortunately. i do hope someone reports the issue to them, because it would be far easier and more effective for them to fix that.
But for the record, there is a reason why MuseScor enow allows scores to have their own windows - this also allows them to have their own sounds rather than all being forced to use the same soundfonts. Which in turns makes VST instruments and Msue Sounds possible. Also MU4 has far better engraving and other advantages. You'll have to decide if it's really worth giving up all the major improvements in MU4 over a macOS limitation that is merely "irritating", but of course, it is your right.
In reply to Indeed, macOS is pretty… by Marc Sabatella
I agree with the above poster: no other macOS app launches a separate instance of the program for every document it opens. I am afraid you are mistaken here, it is not a problem with macOS, yet a precise design choice from the MuseScore team. There are two main ways: every document opens in a separate window (of the same app instance) or in a tab within the same window (if you have that enabled in System Settings). MuseScore way is a 3rd, custom way. Again, this is not a macOS limitation. If you think otherwise, why doesn't the MuseScore team report it directly to Apple? As a company, they are for sure more in touch with them than an ordinary user can ever be.
I understand that your way allows different sounds, but I wonder how many users are taking advantage of that while being unable to open two scores in tabs, which would help productivity much more in my opinion.
On the "far better engraving", I respect your opinion, but while you certainly needs to talk highly about your product, an objective look returns a different result.
In reply to I agree with the above… by Michele Galvagno
As explained previously, the separate instances are the only solution anyone has found to an important problem. Perhaps there are other solutions that macOS can handle better, but it remains the case that all other OS's handle this well, so it is a macOS limitation as well, and macOS could certainly be improved in this regard, and it is worth suggesting to Apple. And yes, it's possible that MuseScore could also be improved if someone more clever than any of the people who have worked on this so far are able to come up with a solution that solves the original problem without doing something macODS can't handle.
As for how many people take advantage of the ability to have different sounds for different scores, that number is hard to count of course, but it's really to imagine how one could effectively use VST instruments and Muse Sounds otherwise.
If you only have two scores though, I'm not understanding the productivity issue even on macOS. Cmd+Tab switches back and forth very simply, does it not? It's really only the case where you have lots of windows open where macOS's failure to combine the icons into one with a list of open documents like a other OS's do starts to be more problematic.
In reply to As explained previously, the… by Marc Sabatella
I'm sorry Marc, but I cannot agree with you.
When you open multiple documents on macOS, you can right-click on the app's icon and access all open documents. If you have multiple app instances, then each instance has its list of open documents. Sibelius doesn't allow to have more than one app instance (launching a second one silently fails). Dorico allows it, as long as they are different builds. Adobe apps do the same. The way MuseScore works is unique, for the good or the bad, and while I don't like it, it's not my place here to judge what seems to have been a thoughtful choice.
MuseScore 3 and earlier didn't have this "issue", so this must have changed in v4.
In my case it was a whole set of parts that because 20 apps ... a truly poor UX. Also, you need to open them one by one, multiple-file-opening is not supported (another unique feature!).
In reply to I'm sorry Marc, but I cannot… by Michele Galvagno
Yes, it has been changed with Mu4, and for a reason, as Marc said:
But for the record, there is a reason why MuseScore now allows scores to have their own windows - this also allows them to have their own sounds rather than all being forced to use the same soundfonts. Which in turns makes VST instruments and Muse Sounds possible.
In reply to I'm sorry Marc, but I cannot… by Michele Galvagno
You aren’t disagreeing with me, you are illustrating my point nicely: macOS does not handle multiple instance well like other systems do. And that is a reason the team is actively investigating workarounds to that unfortunate limitation.
In reply to You aren’t disagreeing with… by Marc Sabatella
Maybe it would be possible to add a toggle option for macOS users? That way everyone could choose how they want it. However, I can imagine it may well just be unnecessary clutter for most people (like me) who don't really care and get along with both options very well.
Another thought would be to give the option of opening a new tab in the same window or opening a new instance of MuseScore. I think that would work best.
In reply to I'm sorry Marc, but I cannot… by Michele Galvagno
Two observations.
My Sibelius 7.5 opens each score in a separate instance of the program. Just like MU4. And I can have several open.
I, for one, do not have a single instance of any scores using the same instrumentation or sounds. Each is unique.
Contraversial statement - while this issue is annoying, at least for me when it comes to closing documents, it does make it easier to switch through the respective documents with CMD+Tab on a Mac.
In reply to Contraversial statement -… by MrUsidore
It's unclear to me why this is being framed as an issue only on macs, when the multiple windows thing happens on windows as well. Or perhaps I misunderstand.
For the record, I too wish this behaviour had not been introduced; I much prefer tabs to multiple windows of the same app.
In reply to It's unclear to me why this… by sunup
On Windows there is no inherent advantage to using tabs over multiple instances, because Windows handles multiple instances very well - showing just one task bar icon with multiple documents, flipping between then with Alt+Tab easily, etc. Windows was designed from the beginning to support multiple windows well - which is indeed why it’s called Windows and not Tabs :-). It really does work very well and efficiently.
But macOS doesn’t handle this nearly so well. It handles multiples Windows only if they all belong to a single “instance” of the program. Which is not the case for MuseScore. And that means you end up with not just one dock icon, but one for each open score. And worse, the icons don’t it clear which icon goes with which score, nor do you see this info when flipping between open windows via the keyboard shortcut.
So on Windows the experience of using multiple windows is really quite excellent even if subjectively some people happen to prefer using tabs for whatever reason. But in macOS the multiple instances causes the experience to be objectively worse. A single instance with multiple windows would work OK, but that would defeat the purpose of why the change was introduced - it would mean going back to the bad old days of all open scores being forced to use the same sounds. Or else waiting for sounds to reload every time you switched between open scores. Neither would be acceptable in a world with VST instruments and Muse Sounds.
In reply to On Windows there is no… by Marc Sabatella
I see. Thank you for the explanation. I will learn to cope with multiple windows.
What I can't cope with is clicking File/Edit/View etc and having the drop-down menu options appear on the other monitor instead of next to where I clicked. Hope that gets fixed soon.
In reply to On Windows there is no… by Marc Sabatella
"On Windows there is no inherent advantage to using tabs over multiple instances"
Not sure about that :
"Palettes save automatically as part of your workspace. Do be careful not to have multiple instances of MuseScore open when doing customizations like this, or they can overwrite each other."
In reply to "On Windows there is no… by frfancha
I would say that’s a quirk of the specific implementation in MuseScore, not an inherent advantage of one over the other. Other settings like those in the Preferences dialog get synced automatically - so changes in one window immediately take effect in others. This just hasn’t been implemented (yet) for palette customizations.