Saved versions of file lost

• Jan 1, 2017 - 21:50

I have spent the last few days working on a project in hopes of recommending MuseScore to my orchestration students as a free alternative to Finale and Sibelius. I have spent much time trying to type-set the first page of a microtonal guitar piece (working around many apparent bugs in the software), by doing so hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
Trying to open the file now, I am seeing a version of the file that was last saved two days ago. It makes absolutely no sense to me how no trace of my work seems to remain-- as if I've woken up from a very long and tedious dream. I am not able to find the folder containing autosaved versions of the file given the following path (I'm using Windows 10):
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\ where no musescore folder seems to exist.
Is there somewhere else I should be looking or some special way to do it?

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• Jan 1, 2017 - 22:02

I have seen this, but cannot find an "appdata" folder in any of my user-name folders, except for a user called "default-migrated" whatever that means.. but even there, no "musescore" folder appears.

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• Jan 1, 2017 - 22:40

I made one of my "users" disappear (my wife's name, pleasantly enough) by clicking on "hidden" under "properties" of some folder (I know I was supposed to "unset hidden," which I guess I interpreted as the opposite-- since the opposite was already the case). Now that user name in my local folder is forever gone (there is no option to un-hide the hidden), but no matter-- there was never any "AppData" folder in any user folder other than "default.migrated," someone whom I do not know nor care to know.
Thank you so much for the timely responses. I am ready to go back to pencil and paper, tell my students to do the same, and throw my computer and everything it represents out the window.

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• Jan 1, 2017 - 23:01

A feeling that I also feel sometimes... To the point that, as a joke, I made the Warning plate ;-)
But your score might still be there, somewhere. Patiently waiting for some better answer.
(A previous restore point?)

Attachment Size
45.png 15.57 KB

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• Jan 1, 2017 - 23:03

I'm sure this is easily solvable. Unfortunately my knowledge is about the Mac system, and Shoichi is communicating through Google Translate in Italian, but there are absolutely users on this forum who will be able to help you with no trouble at all. Hang in there.

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• Jan 1, 2017 - 23:26

If your issue is a hidden folder then you can
open windows explorer
Select the file tab
toward the right end are 3 check boxes that say "item check boxes" "File name extension" and "Hidden items" Make sure "Hidden items" is checked.

Next, go to the highest folder that could possible hold a file created by a program. On mine and most computers this is the C: drive.

Click the search box (mine says "Search OS (C:)" in gray. Type the name of the file you are looking for. You will then be able to see every instance containing that file name, even if it is hidden. You can then copy that file to the location of your choice.
Right click the new file
Select (left click) "Properties" (usually the last option)
Then at the bottommake surethe square next to hidden is unchecked and click "OK" and you will then have a file you can look at.

Hidden files are a different font, usually a lighter color and sometimes italicized, but are obviously different from visible files. If you know a temp file is in a hidden directory you can do all of the above, except there is no need to copy the directory, you can simply unhide it if you want to, then you can access any file in it easily. Since you can see the hidden folder, there is no real need to unhide it if my memory serves me correctly.

I hope this helps and feel free to ask questions if I'm not clear. I'll normally check for updates about every 15-30 minutes until bedtime.

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• Jan 2, 2017 - 00:06

Thank you so much for the timely and clear response. Interesting that checking "hidden items" actually un-hides the hidden (which makes me feel better for stupidly checking "hidden" and hoping it would do the opposite). In un-hiding the hidden (which on my computer is done on the "view" tab rather than the "file" tab) I was actually able to find the AppData/Local/etc. folder in the user (my wife) folder that previously disappeared, something that gave me some amount of pleasure.
Ultimately though, I found that the most recent autosave file was one-and-a-half days old, leaving me still with much work lost. In trying to execute the search you mention, I'm left with a perpetual "working on it" message, which has running now for at least 30 minutes without a single result.
Most of the time I spent working in the last two days was trying to trouble-shoot many different issues I faced using MuseScore. If my work is lost, which now seems the case, re-doing it won't take as long as before, since now I've learned many of the ins-and-outs of the software. Also I'm glad to have found how prompt and willing to help people seem on this support page.

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• Jan 2, 2017 - 00:24

You are correct about the location of the hidden items box. My file tab is the only one with a blue background and the view tab has a thin line around it that I didn't realize means it is selected.

There are many contributors who monitor this site and several users such as myself who enjoy helping others. Feel free to ask for help any time.

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• Jan 2, 2017 - 00:01

Hard to say without knowing more, but I'd assume you accidentally used "save as" at some point instead of "save" and managed to save to a different folder than the one you are looking in. Try another "save as" on another file and it should default to the same folder as last time, so maybe that will show you where to look. Failing that, do a search of your entire hard drive (Windows can do that for you).

Also, if MuseScore ever crashes while using it, and then offers on next startup to recover your session, when you go to save the file it will *not* overwrite your original but will save a new version, and by default it will be in some other folder than seems to be OS-dependent. The name of the file will have the full pathname of the original incorporated in it - like "C_Users_Marc_Documents_MuseScore2_Scores_MySong.mscz". So be sure to include appropriate wildcards in the filename when doing the search of your hard drive.

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• Jan 2, 2017 - 00:29

Thanks, but I'm still not finding anything.. If I spend any more time looking for the lost document I'm going to run the risk of spending as much time doing that as working on what was lost in the first place. Again, I appreciate all the help. From now on I'll save always in two locations and be sure to not leave the program open and running when I'm not using it.

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• Jan 2, 2017 - 00:42

Hmm, sorry you're having trouble. FWIW, though, I think deliberately saving in two locations is asking for trouble. The problem is undoubtedly that you *already* were saving in two locations, and your most recent saves to one version of the file aren't showing in the other. Not sure what caused that, but it was probably some random fluke mistake. What are proposing makes it much more likely the same mistake will happen again at some point - you'll accidentally save something to one version but not another, then accidentally edit the version without the changes, then save it to the other location and thus destroying your one good copy.

Much better to simply be careful know what folder you are saving to. Or, as the saying goes, "put all your eggs in one basket - then watch that basket". No harm making a backup copy from time to time, but don't confused about your main copy.

Also, leaving the program running while you are not using is fine - there are no issues associated with that.

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• Jan 2, 2017 - 01:04

BTW: I was working on a "custom palette" in a "new workspace" before my work was lost. That new workspace is still there in fact, all remains from my work from the last 36 or so hours.

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