Crashing
Please forgive the tone of this message but I am not a happy person. About six months ago and for a year before that I had prolonged discussions with your team regarding MS crashing on start up. We got nowhere. Now, the crashes are still happening (3.6) with most of my scores, despite a new install of Windows 10, a new hard disc and a re-install of Musescore.
This is extremely frustrating. I pay my due, I contribute regularly, I submit several pieces of music on line and only stay with Musescore because it is relatively inexpensive.
I have tried ALL the workarounds you (and other users) have suggested, to no avail. The technician who installed my latest operating system maintains that it is your responsibility to sort my difficulties out - the problem clearly lies with the software, I'm afraid, NOT my PC. It seems that you are unable to use Teamviewer to log onto my system and see what is occurring. Similarly, submitting crash reports via your interface is just nonsense, isn't it? Why is that channel not helping me to send you useful information on the crashes? Please help.
Comments
Sorry to hear you are having trouble!
But to be clear - MuseScore isn't "relatively inexpensive" - it is free. 100%, completely free - there is no way to pay for it even if you want to. I suppose you probably have a paid subscription on the score-sharing website musescore.com, but that isn't really related in any way to the behavior of MuseScore or the level of support we volunteers here on musescore.org provide to all users, whether they happen to have paid subscriptions to some other website like musescore.com or Netflix or anything else.
But, since this is free open source software, provided and supported by a large and diverse team of volunteers, it is important to realize that no one has any "responsibility" to sort out problems you are experiencing on your system. We try our best to help all users, but we rely on users to provide the necessary information for us to reproduce the problems they are experiencing, otherwise there is nothing we can do - even though we very much want to help and are volunteering a considerable amount of our time to do so.
Anyhow, if you can attach a specific score that crashes for you, and precise step-by-step instructions to reproduce the problem, we're happy to investigate. As I recall, in the past you were unable to find a reliable way to reproduce the problem. That is what makes us suspect the problem is actually something very specific to your system - a conflict with some hardware or other software on your system. So if you continue to have trouble and find yourself unable to come up with precise steps to reproduce the problem, it would be useful for you to try updating drivers, uninstalling other software, etc, seeing if you can determine which is the culprit causing the conflict.
If on the other hand you are able to find precise steps to reproduce the problem reliably with a specific score, again, please let us know, so can begin the process of helping you as we've helped so many thousands already!
Still crashing for me - no change to previous circumstances, all scores, all entry points. About 50% of the time. I accept that for a free application I can't expect perfection, and I admit it may have something to do with my set up. Could I merely ask - re. the window that comes up offering to receive a report after the crash has occurred - it is obvious that this is not of any use to anyone - could it be disabled please? But if you ever do find that you can meaningfully interrogate a log after a crash has occurred, please let me know. I would willingly pay for the services of one of your technicians. All the people I have spoken to at home recommend that I offer this.
In reply to Still crashing for me - no… by Ali Wood
As always, the moment you are able to provide a sample score and precise steps to reproduce the problem reliably, someone here would then be able to help. If there is no way to do find a score and steps to reproduce the problem reliably, then unfortunately there is nothing anyone here can do to help you understand or resolve the problem on your specific system that is causing this.
If there is truly no specific reliable way to reproduce the problem, then most likely it's another application or device drive causing a conflict. Updating all drivers, and uninstalling other applications one by one, might help. That sort of system administration help should be available locally, just do a web search for computer consulting services. They don't need to know anything about MuseScore, they just need to show you how to do the things I described. And anyone in that business would know how.
In reply to As always, the mjoment you… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. I would say that two months ago I installed Windows afresh with a new hard disk. My device drivers are all up to date.
You have not answered my point about the crash reporter. Should it not be disbanded? The fact that Musescore is actually monitoring for failure could be hiding the problem. Sure it might be another application with a conflict; but how do your guys investigate crashes - surely by looking at a log - but if Musescore detects the crash then this might not be seen on my system log.
Also, there was previous advice about not starting Musescore from the shortcut, rather click on a specific file. This seems to make no difference either way. So why the advice, if it was a thought that one way of starting MS was safer than another? Or is that no longer the case?
Two independent technicians have both told me to ask you for support - it is your software. My computer does not have any other evident issues.
Yes, you can forget the sample score - the fall-over seems totally independent of the score I am in.
At least give me a clue as to where to look on my PC. Or where your technicians would look if they were in my shoes.
In reply to Thanks. I would say that two… by Ali Wood
The crash reporter helps when a lot of reports come in and point to the same area of the code being involved. If that were the case for you, the crash itself would probably be reproducible. Seems that's not the case here, though, so I doubt there would be any way to track any particular crash report to you. Which is as it should be, really - for privacy reasons you probably would't want that.
There is an option in Edit / Preferences to disable telemetry reporting, not sure if that controls the crash reporter as well.
The advice about starting MsueScore from a file was a way of bypassing the Start Center, because there were some known cases in some older versions (long since fixed) where the Start Center could cause problems in some systems. So it was a valid workaround for those particular systems, and then once you started MsueScore that way, you could turn it off more permanently in Edit / Preferences / General. meanwhile, because people were able to tell us exactly how to reproduce the problem, we were able to fix it, something like a year or so ago I think. So no, we wouldn't be suggesting that as any sort of workaround anymore, unless someone tells us that on their system even with 3.6.2, the Start Center specifically seems to be the problem, based on their tests and their ability to reproduce the problem reliably (eg, every time they open the Start Center, the problem occurs, and the problem never occurs if they don't open the Start Center).
As I said, the problem is almost certainly an interaction with some device driver or other program. Most likely something related to audio or perhaps the display. So as I suggested, you could try removing other programs one by one. meanwhile, if your system is already several months old, definitely be sure to update your device drivers.
Unless your independent contractors are intimately familiar with MuseScore source code or were able to find precise steps to reproduce the problem that have nothing to do with other installed software or hardware, there is no way they can know the problem is with MuseScore alone and not caused by interaction with other software or hardware. Anyone who knows anything at all about software would realize that if your system is the only one with this specific problem - and by all accounts, yours is indeed literally the only one out of millions of users with this specific set of symptoms that I have seen reported here - the problem has to be something unique to your system. And given that, it absolutely postiviely needs to be diagnosed on your system by someone with access to itm who can test all the possible combinations of other programs and system settings that might be triggering the problem. You don't even need to be a software expert to understand that; it's common sense. Sounds like they were just trying to avoid doing the work of actually diagnosing the problem, I'd try someone who has a better reputation for thoroughness next time.
Good luck!
In reply to Still crashing for me - no… by Ali Wood
You wrote:
Still crashing for me - no change to previous circumstances, all scores, all entry points. About 50% of the time.
When the crash happens, does Windows Event Viewer report anything?
In reply to You wrote: Still crashing… by Jm6stringer
Thanks jm6stringer - well I've looked at most of the event logs - nothing obvious to see - but the event viewer has many different folders. I've searched on Critical and Error levels. If Musescore is monitoring for it's own crashes (as per the error window) then would anything get as far as the event log?
Still crashing after 3 years of operating with Musescore. If your team cannot offer help by remote assistance (which I am sure would resolve the problem) then may I offer to pay one of your technical team you to do so?
In reply to Still crashing after 3 … by Ali Wood
There is no formal process for this, but perhaps someone here will see this and contact you offline. However, since the problem appears to be unique to your system, I think a much better use of your money would be to spend it on someone with general system administration experience, so they can help pinpoint which device driver or other component that is present on your system but present on other systems (where this problem doesn't occur) is leading to the issue. That's simply not anything that anyone here would have expertise in. I'd love to see you solve this problem, and that's why I'm trying so hard to direct you to the best resources. A professional system administration consultant experienced with a wide variety of audio and graphics device drivers etc - that's the type of person who would be able to solve this problem that is unique to your system. Someone experienced only with MsueScore won't be of nearly as much help, because again, the problem is triggered by someone component unique to your system that none of us have expertise in.
In reply to There is no formal process… by Marc Sabatella
Thankyou for your comments.
Even if the problem is unique to my system, it does not prove that a device driver or other component is at fault. (Having replaced nearly everything on my computer in the last 2 years. )
Surely one of your engineers is sufficiently equipped / familiar with Windows? To say that the issue is triggered by some component unique to my system is an assumption. If, as we have tried to do, it were possible to monitor the problem at its source, (namely the point at which it fails), we might find that there is a system (Microsoft / device) failure, but because your program attempts to monitor for this and puts out a general purpose error window, it is impossible to find out. There's the nub of the problem. That error window must surely be within the knowledge of Musescore teams?
In reply to Thankyou for your comments… by Ali Wood
For Windows, see if you can open MuseScore reliably (100% success) using safe mode.
See:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-…
In reply to Thankyou for your comments… by Ali Wood
We don’t know that it is a device driver specifically, but it’s has to be something unique to your system, or else everyone would have the same problem. So it’s not a core OS component, but either a device driver or another application or other optional component or setting. This isn’t an “assumption”, it’s a pretty obvious common sense theory with probably a 95% likelihood of truth based on the evidence.
I would really like to see you solve this problem, so I’m trying hard to encourage you to take the steps that are bfar most likely to produce that result the most cheaply and quickly. But it’s your time and your money. I’m trying to save you both, but you don’t have to take my advice.
In reply to Still crashing after 3 … by Ali Wood
When MuseScore crashes, note the time. Something will be logged in the Event Viewer as some kind of error. The entry will tell you what process caused the problem. It might not be caused by MuseScore, but some other thing. Event Viewer tracks so many things. You have to know what you are looking for. The time of the crash is just the start. Do you have any interfaces hooked up to your computer? If so you might try unplugging everything. Speakers. MIDI keyboard, audio interfaces. bluetooth anything. Disconnect from your printer and the internet. I have recently completely wiped and reinstalled Windows on three different computers without issue from MuseScore.
In reply to When MuseScore crashes, note… by bobjp
@Ali Wood, maybe you could try downloading the 32-bit version (https://musescore.org/en/download/musescore-32bit.msi ) or use the Windows compatible mode.