Files recovered after crash

• Jun 15, 2016 - 17:54

I have a major problem and hope someone can help me find eight lost files that MuseScore has apparently saved in a hidden directory somewhere.

While doing page makeup and formatting on a major work--three movements, eight parts, and score--I encountered a 'bug' which caused the program to crash several times in a row. I will go into the bug itself another time; I am up against an impossible deadine and that can wait. I NEED to find those revised files because the print version, which must be delivered tomorrow, needs a few additional revisions. But all I can find are the last versions saved BEFORE the crash. I have PDFs of the revisions, but the MuseScore files from which I generated them have gone missing. It took most of two days to make all those revisions, and it is impossible to re-do the page makeup, formatting, and edits they contain in the time available.

After a crash, on rebooting MuseScore the program asks, "Restore previous session?", and I clicked Yes. As usual, Musescore opened all the files (score and parts) showing the full file path name. I had had open the score and all the parts, but the parts had each been saved as individual files under new names because I had to 'unlink' them from the score for formatting and page make-up. All those files opened in the restored session.

I did the revisions on those files, being careful to save frequently, and (thank bog!) I even generated the PDFs from the finished revised versions before closing them. The file path showing in the tabs was correct in all cases, but now that I've closed them, I can't locate them where they should be.

Does anyone have any idea where MuseScore might have saved these files? I am running Win7 pro.


Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thanks, Jojo, but I knew most of that. The file names showing on the tabs in the 'recovered' session were not backup files; they were regular mscz files, but shown with the COMPLETE directory path as the file name. In other words, C://Users/OWNER/Documents/DOCUMENTS/SHEET_MUSIC/MUSESCORE_FILES/RICHARDS/CONCERTO_1/Concerto_in_F_Major_v19_PROOF_violino_del_concertino.mscz

When I saved the revisions I had done to each file, I used either CTL+S or the 'Save' icon on the main toolbar. I did not think to save each file AGAIN to a new name, because from what I saw in the long name in the tab, the file was in the correct directory.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

You've got no idea where those files might have been saved, then? I will try running searches on the entire drive using keywords I know are in the file names, showing hidden files and all that, but I'm worried they might have been given auto-generated 'temp' file names. And even if Win7 Search can find a file by keyword contained in Staff Text (something I am doubtful about), there are several thousand mscz files in this drive, most of which contain a lot of the same staff text words....

In reply to by Recorder485

What generally happens after a crash is that the recovered score gets renamed into something that encodes the original full pathname into just the filename - like C_Users_Marc_MuseScore2_Score_MyEightyFifthScore.mscz. When you hit "save", MuseScore pops up a dialog asking you where to save it, just as if you had done a "save as". So unfortunately, only you are really in a position to know what you told MuseScore. [ EDIT - no, I'm wrong, it just saves - seems this might have changed at some point? ] But I think in most cases, the default is whatever folder MuseScore is running in - could be your home directory, could be the MuseScore2 folder under your Documents directory, could be somewhere else. Might depend on your OS and how you installed MuseScore though.

So I'd look in your home and your MuseScore2 folders first, then if you don't find it there do a search based on the original file name but with widlcards before to account for the pathname info that was prepended.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi, Marc--

Sorry for the delay in replying; I was away performing at a three-day early music weekend and got back late last night.

The files are not in any of the usual MuseScore directories in this computer, so I'm going to have to run a system-wide search and see if they got stuck in some temp directory somehow. Thanks for the hint about using 'wildcards'; I wouldn't have thought of that. I'll let you know if I manage to turn them up, and if so, where they were saved.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thanks, Jojo--You are right; what happened to TimothyW is exactly what happened to me. I'm running a search with wildcards as Marc suggested, and I'll let you know what I find. It'll take a while; this computer has more junk/abandoned versions of mscz files in it than I even want to think about, and I'm going to have to sift search results manually....

I agree wholeheartedly that something needs to be changed to prevent MuseScore from doing this in future. But as different OSs seem to remember the 'active' directory differently on SAVE, I might suggest that after a crash recovery, MuseScore use a TWO STEP popup before saving.

First-- 'This recovered file already exists under another name. Do you want to save it as a new file and preserve the older version?'

Second--For idiots like me who often click reflexively before having read the whole warning--'THIS FILE WILL BE SAVED IN DIRECTORY XXX/xxx. Are you sure you want to save it there?' Those 'are you sure' popups usually slow down an overly-quick trigger finger....

Update on this mystery.

After a hard re-boot of the computer, four of the missing files showed up in the usual directory, but five were still MIA. So I ran a Win7 search of the entire hard drive and that finally turned up four of the five missing files. The fifth isn't showing up anywhere. I'm relieved I won't have to redo by hand the page makeup and corrections for all five. Re-doing the continuo part will only take a short while.

But MuseScore saved those files in a place I'd never have thought to look: C:\Program Files (x86)\MuseScore 2\bin. I hope this information may be of use to anyone else with a similar problem running Win7 Pro.

I have no idea why MuseScore saved four out of nine recovered files in the usual USERS\OWNER\MyDocuments\DOCUMENTS\SHEET MUSIC\MUSESCORE FILES\... directory, and four others in the x86 program files directory (and one, apparently, in a silicon dust mote in the rings of Saturn...) (EDIT: It has turned up in a manual inspection of the Program Files directory, but did not show on the search results). I didn't do anything different (that I can remember) when saving them; when working like that, I generally hit CTL+S after every change to the active document. The \\DOCUMENTS\SHEET MUSIC\MUSESCORE FILES\ directory is the default directory I set up in PREFERENCES, and I hadn't opened any Program Files directory for months so I really can't figure out how those files wound up there.

One thought occurs to me: Is it possible that having UNINSTALLED a completely unrelated Microsoft program (Office 2010 Starter Package, which was generating annoying UPDATE ME!!!/BUY ME!!! popups) could have created a temporary default path to the program files directory for the next Save? I do remember having to do that at some point that day; the damned popups were driving me mad and I was on a tight deadline, so I took a few minutes to dump that useless program and get on with my work.

In reply to by Recorder485

As I said earlier, "in most cases, the default is whatever folder MuseScore is running in - could be your home directory, could be the MuseScore2 folder under your Documents directory, could be somewhere else. Might depend on your OS and how you installed MuseScore though". I guess you are probably on Windows? If you start MuseScore from a program icon, you can right click the icon and view its properties to see / change the folder that MuseScore is run from. I have no idea what Windows does if you start MuseScore by double-clicking an MSCZ file - might start in the same folder as the MSCZ file, might start somewhere else. A program really don't have control over what folder it is started in - that is up to the OS / user.

Of course, that is not to *excuse* the current behavior, just to *explain* it. I think we shouldn't be affected in any way by the folder we happen to be running - I think we should choose a more appropriately to save these recovered files.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I use a program icon to start MuseScore, either the one placed by the program on the desktop during installation, or the copy of it which I pinned to the taskbar for convenience. They both run the program from the x86 program files directory.

I started the program that way, then created a new test score and clicked SAVE to see where the program wanted to put it, which turns out to be the parent MUSESCORE FILES directory under DOCUMENTS, right where I would expect since I designated that directory as the default one in Preferences.

That's for a brand new score, never before saved. When saving such a score for the FIRST time, I expect to navigate to the appropriate composer's subdirectory, and thence to the opus sub-sub directory, and so forth.)

I shut the program down again, then double clicked an mscz file in the DOCUMENTS directory where all my scores are (should be) housed. That opened the program, and when I looked at where the program wanted to re-save that opened file, I found that this time that was in the right subdirectory (DOCUMENTS\MUSESCORE FILES\composer\opus\workname) path, at the proper level (i.e., the level at which it is stored).

Finally, I shut it down yet again, and double clicked one of those 'fugitive' files in the x86 program directory to start it back up. Again, the program wanted to re-save the opened file--even though it came from the x86\MuseScore2\bin folder--in the DOCUMENTS\MUSESCORE FILES\... parent directory.

That's all I can tell you. The conclusion I draw from all this is that something REALLY odd happens when the program recovers files after a crash.

In reply to by Recorder485

Where the program offers to save a fule has nothing to do with what folder it is being run from. A save of a new file happens in the last place you performed that operation from, I believe. That is, Save As and Save of a previous unsaved score both pop up a dialog prompting for a filename and folder, and the default location offered will be wherever you last navigated to in this dialog.

What I was saying about MuseScore defaulting to the folder the program runs in *only* applies to files recovered after a crash.

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