Saving scores in two formats
I've been creating scores here for some time in conjunction with my efforts to learn piano. I've accumulated quite a few, which are basically arrangements of pieces I am trying to play. When I save a score, it is automatically saved as both MSCZ and Compressed Musescore File. Is there a reason to save the MSCZ score? It seems to me that I can do my editing or whatever using the CMF and in fact, my computer typically shows a message that it cannot open the MSCZ format.
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Welcome
MSCZ is the compressed MuseScore format, so I don't quite understand your question. Anyway, see https://musescore.org/en/handbook/file-formats for more info on file formats.
EDIT: Also, MuseScore should only save one file and only in .mscz format, so if your computer doesn't do that, something strange is going on for sure.
I guess what you call MSCZ file really is a MSCZ, file (comma) , which is a backup file
Thanks for the responses, and sorry to confuse the issue. If it matters, I'm running MuseScore 2.1.0 on a Dell desktop.
Just looked back at several of the scores I have saved. When I save a score, there are automatically two entries in the folder, one that is called MuseScore File in some cases and MuseScore Compressed File in others, along with another entry that is called MSCZ, (I previously missed the comma). I have also saved most of the scores as PDFs, in order to email them to others. I have not seen the MSCX designation recently, but there was a time when that format label did show up. The link kindly provided by Louis Cloete seems to say that saving the two files per score is the normal procedure.
Just checked my saved scores, and for some reason, about 2/3 of them show a date of 12/8/2016, even though many of them are several years older. Could that be due to a MuseScore update?
Anyway, I'm back to my original question- do I need to save both files for each score?
In reply to Thanks for the responses,… by [DELETED] 389906
You probably looked through a bunch of them on that date looking for something and it created .mscz, files for each one you opened.
In reply to You probably looked through… by mike320
Possible, but I don't think so. Could that have been the date of a MuseScore update?
In reply to Thanks for the responses,… by [DELETED] 389906
As mentioned Already, these MSCZ, files are MuseScore backups. Created when you modify a score. Also they are hidden, so you only see them if you configured Windows Explorer to show hidden files, which not the default.
In reply to As mentioned Already, these… by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks, I think I understand that. But, to rephrase my question, which files should I keep, for scores that I will not be modifying, and which to keep for scores that I might modify at some point?
As you can probably tell, my tech abilities are fairly limited!
In reply to Thanks, I think I understand… by [DELETED] 389906
If your disk is nowhere near being full, keep the backups, you may be glad you did someday if something goes wrong. One thing about the .mscz, file is that they are the same as when you opened the file last, as opposed to when you saved them last. So any changes you made are saved only in the .mscz file (with no comma). If you need the disk space then you can delete any or all of the .mscz, files and everything will continue to work as expected. You just risk the possibility that the original file gets deleted somehow and losing it if it's not saved somewhere else.
In reply to Thanks, I think I understand… by [DELETED] 389906
You need to keep the .mscz (and .mscx) files (you may not see these extensions, as by default Windows Explorer doesn't show known extensions, a dangerous and stupid MicroSoft mistake, one you should correct by switching that option off), MuseScore Compressed File and MuseScore File, respectively , you can delete the .mscz, (and .mscx,) files.
Thanks all for the suggestions. As there is plenty of room on my hard drive, the strategy to keep both formats looks like the best move. My original question was just a space-saving ploy, for the foreseeable future unnecessary.
In reply to Thanks all for the… by [DELETED] 389906
esp. as these files are usually pretty small, up to some hundreds kB. If you're running out of space, videos and pictures are a better delete target :-)
In reply to esp. as these files are… by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks for your assistance. Now, if only I could take advantage of some of these scores to produce piano playing worth listening to!
In reply to Thanks for your assistance. … by [DELETED] 389906
Sorry, can't help you with that ;-)