File did not save!!!

• Oct 13, 2015 - 12:38

Hello, I am semi-new to this software but had just spent over four hours working on an arrangement for my a cappella group. I had a file that my friend was working on and thought that by pressing the "Save" button, the document would automatically be overwritten. When I got the whole arrangement the way I wanted it (PERFECT), I exited out of the software to go to sleep (being very tired at this point). I them thought I'd open the file just in case to see if it was all there... it wasn't. I checked the app data folder for the program but there was nothing in there either! PLEASE HELP!


Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

I am an occasional user of MuseScore. Last time I used it about a year ago I had this same problem. The way round it was to "save as" using a different filename each time. I came back to MuseScore yesterday, installed the new version and found exactly the same issue. When I "save" it creates a temporary file in the target folder during the save process then this file is deleted and the original "old" version is still sitting there in the folder. The only way to get an updated version is to "save as" a new filename. I find it baffling that this is still an issue that hasn't been resolved by the developers. The reply when I posted about this before and the replies on this and other threads attributes this behaviour to user error or a problem with the installation but from the number of people reporting this and its recurrence with a new installation on my computer, I suspect a program defect.

In reply to by 50h9j

What is baffling is that so far none of the developers have been able to reproduce this behavior on their system and that for most of the users (mind you, an extreme minority of the total number of users) that reported this it actually *was* a user error…

That being said; let's try to find out what makes your situation unique enough for this behavior to pop up and try to figure out the bug, so that developers might actually attempt fixing it.
When you perform a normal "Save", you state a temporary file is created instead of the original being overwritten. How temporary is that file? Do you just see it appear briefly during the safe and almost disappear equally fast? Does it remain there until the next save attempt (possibly auto-save, which runs every 2 mins by default)?
Anything special about the filename, because it obviously has to be differently named from your original file? Or the file extension?

Which operating system are you on?
Which version of MuseScore are you running (2.0.3 presumably)? Installed / Portable / AppImage?
From which directory do you run MuseScore?
In which directory do you try to save your file?

In reply to by jeetee

A temporary file is created during the save. It is the same as the filename but with .temp at the end. The temporary file disappears after the save is finished. It is noticeable on a big file when the save take a non-negligible amount of time. There is nothing unusual about the filename as it saved fine the first time and by adding digits after it I can "save as" successfully.
I am running Windows 10. MuseScore 2.0.3, just installed yesterday using the default folder. I am saving the file in a folder that is not the one for scores in Preferences. Depending on the project I would save the file to that folder rather than only use one folder.

In reply to by 50h9j

Do you see an actual problem using 2.0.3? You said you had a problem around a year ago, but that probably wasn't with 2.0.3.

If you are *currently* see a problem - using 2.0.3 - please post *prercise* step by step instructions to reproduce the problem you are seeing - including telling us the permissions on the folder you are trying to save to and the file you are attempting to overwrite.

Again, in all known cases, saving currently works perfectly; thus far no one has reported a problem with 2.0.3 that hasn't turned out to be a misunderstanding.

What OS? What version MuseScore?
Upon exiting MuseScore (being very tired), how did you answer the displayed question: 'Save changes to the score...before closing?'

Also, see:
https://musescore.org/en/node/52116
for info. on where backup files may reside.
Note: the auto saved session files will have cryptic, alpha-numeric names - e.g. scbY5276.mscz - so you need to open in MuseScore to find the correct one.

Regards.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

I have MuseScore 2.0.2 on Windows 7. I had opened up my friends arrangement from my downloads folder and then moved it to the desktop. While working on it, MuseScore crashed a couple times and was able to recover my work. When I was finished and decided to exit out to go to sleep, there was no pop-up asking if I wanted to save changes before closing. When I go to the MuseScore file folder in my documents, I don't see any files in the folders. I tried your advice on trying to see hidden files and yet there are still none.

http://prntscr.com/8qywnd

In reply to by Arzt Lecker

The good news is that, as you say, MuseScore was able to recover your work - so backups were definitely accessed. However, session backups are not saved in the My Documents/MuseScore2/Scores folder, which your screenshot shows is empty.
You need to access the MuseScore2 folder in 'AppData', not in 'My Documents'.
For Windows Vista or later: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\MuseScore\MuseScore2\
is where to look.
AppData is normally hidden, so you will have to click on the radio button "Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
See:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-see-hidden-files-in-wi…

Here's my particular folder in Windows 10 - very similar to Windows 7:

test

Regards.

Attachment Size
Session backup.png 41.94 KB

In reply to by Arzt Lecker

I've had the exact same problem. Worked last night for hours to finish a score and saved a thousand times. Once done, saved, turned off the computer and went to bed. Today, when I reopened MuseScore, I played with it a few times and it showed me like I had unmodified changes. I thought I had accidentally modified something and since I was certain to have saved it many times, I closed without saving... and it went back to the version I had many days ago. So basically, I probably lost like 4 hours of work. Checked the %AppData% folder and found a few saved session but unfortunately none containing my score. Any other idea? I REALLY do not want to have to do it again. Thanks

In reply to by tristof

If you've saved the changes and didn't overwrite them again and if there was no crash, it should be somewhere on your system. Use your file explorer or your search engine of your desktop environment, search for mscz files on your whole system, sort the results by date and I hope you'll find your last modified score.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

>>What do you mean by "unmodified changes"?
There was a star at the end of the file name written on the tab. In the end, I kept googling and found the link you just gave and, miracle, found another session crash in the folder C:\Users[User Name]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\MuseScore 2\bin
containing the very last version. I'm so relieved, thanks a lot! I'm still a bit surprised that this keeps happening to users but has been reported multiple years ago. As far as I'm concerned, I;m working on Windows 10 using MuseScore 2.1.0. Thanks for your fast reply, I appreciate it.
Christophe

This happened to me too. So frustrating!

v2.1.0 - Mac OSX 10.12.6
Here's how I recovered it:

Go to Finder and search by ".mscz" for recent items, which will yield recent files with the musescore extension. Try to locate your item by time last opened/modified.

My program stored it in the applications folder with a file name like "User_folderdestination_projectname".

In reply to by philoneuropsyc…

For the record, in versions before the current 2.2, this was known to happen if there was a crash (either of MuseScore or your computer), and then you opted to restore your previous session afterwards, but did not use "Save As" when saving the recovered version of the file. For 2.2, this behavior changed, although I can't for certain how it will work on Mac.

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