Transitioning to 3.0
Hi -- I switched over to 3.0 yesterday. Every time I open a file I get a message box about 'reset the positions of all elements.' I click Yes but still get the message each time. Is this supposed to happen?
Also, I lost several hours of work after switching over. I've read the threads and did all that was suggested regarding searches, including of hidden files and folders. I find lots of files, even from last year, but none saved yesterday. I saved my file regularly as I worked along. The last time I looked (and listened) I didn't do any work on the file at all, but I think it asked if I wanted to save changes. Since there were no changes I answered no. After I saved it it disappeared.
I'm sure the mistake is mine but if there's yet another path to finding a lost file, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Dave
Comments
Opening a 2.x file in MuseScore 3 is considered an import, so the save is actually a save as. If you then explicitly save over the existing score a) you get warned that you are overwriting an existing file (hint: don't do this, rather rename or save into a different folder) and b) no backup gets created. But by default it would save into a differtent folder.
If you don't save, but just open the same file again, it still is a 2.x score, so you still get thet 'reset positions' dialog
In reply to Opening a 2.x file in… by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks! I'm not sure what happened although the work the was lost was on a file that I started on 2.0 and worked on in 3.0 (or so I thought). I can believe I might have overwritten a file but the strange thing (to me) is that the last file I opened and listened to (which was the file I'd been working on) had all the work on it. It played perfectly, and at the end I closed it. There were no changes so I don't think I got any prompts about saving. Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'm going to save stuff to several folders.
In reply to Thanks! I'm not sure what… by dshiflett
Hey JOJO -- thanks for your earlier help. and it did help. i made 'save as' saves and put them into another folder. and i avoided overwriting any scores. however, yesterday i did a lot of morning work. i saved regularly. all was fine. in the afternoon i did a few hours more. i also did a 'save as' to another file, and sent a copy to my gmail drive file.
when i went back to work on the project this morning, a lot of the afternoon work hadn't been saved, even though when i closed the file i hit the 'save changes' button and there was no warning of overwriting existing files. more interesting (at least to me) the 'save as' file that i put in another folder contained only a title page. this was the same for the gmail drive file. this page often comes up when i open musescore. it's a title page template. for some reason, that was all that was saved from the afternoon work.
any idea what might have happened? i'm sure it's my fault but like i said, the process you suggested worked in the morning. many thanks for any insights!
In reply to Hey JOJO -- thanks for your… by dshiflett
Maybe you did a Save Selection rather than a Save As?
In reply to Maybe you die a Save… by Jojo-Schmitz
I don't think so. The 'save as' is pretty much at the top of the cue and i've used it several times since you gave me the heads up on 'save as.' For some reason only that title page template was saved from the afternoon sessions. that title page was showing up every time i opened the muse3 program. i have since removed it. i searched the computer for saved files but could find none that were saved after the morning session and several saved from the morning session. as i recall the musescore backup files are saved only if there's a crash, and there was no crash. if you know of a secret place the saved stuff might have ended up let me know!
In software engineering we deal with protecting our work against hardware failure, crashes, and human mistakes. I won't go into the whole version control repository thing... However, I can give some simple advice re Musescore.
As an example, suppose you have a folder called MS2, which contains lots of version 2 .mscz files and things, possibly in various subfolders. Make a copy of the whole of MS2, and call it MS3. Now, when you open up an .mscz file under MS3, save it in place under MS3. Never open a file under MS2 using Musescore v3.
Don't use "Save as" when migrating important work. There is too much danger of making a mistake and saving over top of something you want to keep. In sofware engineering, where the files are a vital company asset, this would never be done.
"Save as" is fine for lightweight screwing around. Always operate under the principle that if you screw up and wipe something out, you have a backup.
A variant of the above is that you make a folder somewhere called "ms_archive_apr_2019" and put a whole copy of MS2 or whatever, under it. Then you can screw around with "Save as" on your originals while having a backup. Other variants are possible, but you get the idea.
In reply to In software engineering we… by MikeN
MikeN made some very good points. I have one more piece of advice. If your score is complete and you're happy with it in version 2, don't port it to version 3. This is especially true if you did a lot of customized placements in the version 2 score. In my opinion it is too much work to fix what isn't broken.
In reply to In software engineering we… by MikeN
FWIW, I agree. If a score is already completed and you've spend time getting it to look right MuseScore 2, then there is no real point worrying about importing that particular score in MuseScore 3. The main reason to import it would be if you want to make non-trivial changes so you're going to be spending a fair amount of time revisiting this stuff anyhow. Or maybe there is some specific notational feature you really want to take advantage of, like say the MuseJazz font, or system dividers, or cutaway staves, etc.