Dragging a file to the MuseScore icon causes to forget last session

• Aug 29, 2019 - 07:42

If MuseScore is closed after Continue last session has been selected in Edit / Preferences / General, the files that were open at the moment the program is closed will open automatically when the program is restared. However, if with the program not yet launched we drag a file from the explorer to the Musescore icon on the desktop, the last session is forgotten and only the dragged file will open after the program starts.
The expected behavior would be that the new file opened in a new tab, preserving the old session's files open.
I'm using 3.2.3 on Windows 7 Home Premium.
Is this a bug?


Comments

No, by design, as far as I can tell. "Continue with last session" only works when MuseScore gets started direktly, noever whan starting via double-clickins a score or draging a score onto the icon (which is the same thing under the covers), and as far as I can this is happening intentionally.
It also is a good workaround if any of the 'last sessions' scores causes a crash on open, so I'd rather keep it that way.

The current behaviour seems the correct one to me.
Dragging a file to MuseScore icon is like writing an explicit command "open that specific file".
So the "continue last session" parameter can be read as:
-if I want to continue to work on previously opened file(s), then I don't need to bother to reselect the file(s), I just need to open MuseScore.
-if I want to work on another file I just need to open MuseScore from that file.
-And if I want to do both, first open MuseScore then open the additional file from MuseScore.
Makes perfect sense for me.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

#menot

Sorry, it's been bothering me for a long time. By the way, when opening an mscz file via double-click or drag and drop under macOS, the old session is kept when restarting MuseScore!
The problem probably only exists under Windows.
If one has selected "continue old session", why should one want to forget the old session when opening another document?
Let's say MuseScore is your desktop where you are currently working on several documents. Now you have another document that also belongs to your project and you open it by double clicking on it. Unfortunately you didn't think to start MuseScore first and the old session is gone.
Of course you can use Open Recent to restore the old documents, but not all of them always appear there. You also want to find your desk the way you left it when you're working on a bigger thing.

It would be really nice if MuseScore's "continue old session" works under Windows as it does under macOS (and Linux?).

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

If opening a score causes the crash, then it won't be part of the last session. Anything else causes the crash and you probably want that same score opened again so you can discover the reason for the crash. I've never had to revert to factory settings to open musescore due to a corrupt score.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

That's true, but crashing scores are really an exception and (hopefully) nothing that happens all the time. You shouldn't castrate a function (which I really appreciate otherwise) for that.
Furthermore, after a crash you will be asked if you want to restore the last session, you can confirm this with "No".
And last but not least it works in macOS and there scores can also cause a crash.

In reply to by enkidu

Personally I prefer it as is - different behaviors for different ways of starting the program. However, if you have continue last session checked, then you start a new session by activating a specific score, it's debatable as to whether that session should then one included as the last session on next start from scratch, or if it should remember your previous session. That is, if I am using remember last session, and I've got a whole bunch of scores I have loaded, then I close, then double-click a single score, I'm very happy to only get that single score, but next time I start from the icon, I kind of want my previous scores back.

Probably there is no single behavior that would please everyone.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Strictly speaking, there is no "as it is" because the macOS version of MuseScore handles it differently. No idea what it looks like with Linux.
It's no big deal to close the scores you don't need anymore within MuseScore. But it's annoying when all the open scores of the last session have suddenly disappeared with a double click, only because you didn't pay attention if MuseScore is already open.
"Open Recent" does not always contain all files from the last session, but only those that were opened last. Among them you can find some files that have already been closed again. So it's not always so easy to restore the last session, but it's easy to close files you don't need anymore.
In order to restore a session safely, a menu command "restore last session" would be necessary or alternatively, when opening a new score and MuseScore was not yet started, you would be asked whether the score should be loaded additionally (to the old session) or exclusively.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

A possibility is that whenever the last session is not opened, it be still available somewhere, with an automated procedure such as autosave. If your session disappers for whatever reason, a menu item called "restore last session" would allow to recover your desired state. Going a step further, sessions could be officially saved with a user's name and then selectively load them, so you can continue with a task that you left to do anything else. Suppose you are this week working on three movement symphony, but nex week you need to work on a set of songs. Then you just save your symphony session, close it and start with the song session. Afterwards you can retrieve your original status and keep working on your symphony. Note that a complex job might include several documents, such as ideas, themes, etc. so it is not as easy as opening again a score.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

For instance, you can have one ore more drafts open, a piano reduction, a long movement split into several sections to prevent the slow-down effects of large scores and so on. If because you just wanted to take a break after having closed the application and open another score by double-clicking all that stuff is gone, it is very disappointing. As said above, for some reason the recent file menue item not always lists all you had been working on before closing. That's why a Save session feature would be handy (saving not only the files but also the position, zoom state, selected items and possibly undo history).

In reply to by enkidu

I had repeatedly "last session closed unexpectedly" messages when I double clicked an mscz file while MuseScore is open with other score(s). I use MuseScore 3.6.1 portable.
My current work-around is "never double-click an MSCZ file while MuseScore is already open"
I did not report an error by now because I'm not yet able to reproduce the behaviour reliably.

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