Very long startup time (around 3 minutes), with no MDL and no non-default soundfonts

• May 4, 2020 - 00:38

Hi y'all,

I'm very happy with MuseScore, it is great and I love it.

However, since sometime ago (few weeks), the startup time has become really, really long.
I just timed it, twice, and both times it was around 3 minutes (1 time was a little less than 3 minutes (around 2:50), the other time was a little over (around 3:10)).

I do not have MDL, I have never used it, it is not installed on my machine, and never was.
I only have the default soundfont installed: MuseScore_General.sf3.

I have uninstalled and re-installed MuseScore, but this did not change the startup time.

The only thing I can think of that has any potential link to MuseScore is Reaper, via rearoute.dll.
I only know this because when MuseScore is open, Reaper will not install until I close it, because of rearoute.dll being locked.

Is this normal?

Is there any log file that I can have a look at to see what is actually going on?

Many thanks,

Matt.

Comments

• May 4, 2020 - 03:34

Try a nightly build of MsueScore 3.5 - click Download above, then software, then scroll down to find the nightly builds for your OS. It shows some useful status messages while loading. I suspect your theory may be correctly, though.

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• May 4, 2020 - 19:19

Hmm, probably really the only thing that has changed is the nightly uses its own preferences and other settings. So you definitely don't have any non-default soundfonts, it could be something else in a workspace (a palette full of huge graphic files?) that you now simply aren't able to use because it isn't being loaded. Or if you had enabled JACK or some other non-default audio configuration on the release version but not in the nightly, that could be it.

Could be worth Help / Revert to Factory Settings in the release version, if you don't have settings you would;dn't want to lose (eg, shortcut customizations).

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• May 4, 2020 - 19:50

> Hmm, probably really the only thing that has changed is the nightly uses its own preferences and other settings

I noticed (of course) my settings had gone, but they were minimal, really only:
* Dark mode;
* A little palette with merely copies of standard elements from the standard palettes, i.e. simply things I frequently use, such as e.g. the bass and treble clef, staccato dot, fermata, those sorts of things.
* The positions of panels like Palettes, Inspector, Mixer: I prefer them on the right.

> So you definitely don't have any non-default soundfonts

Nope, only the standard MuseScore_General.sf3.

> it could be something else in a workspace (a palette full of huge graphic files?)

No, nothing like that.

> that you now simply aren't able to use because it isn't being loaded.

No, everything I need is there :)

> Or if you had enabled JACK

I did experiment with JACK in the past (in order to get video and audio file playback in sync with MuseScore, so I could more easily score for films, transcribe music, etc), but as I couldn't get it to work within a reasonable amount of time, I abandoned the attempt, uninstalled everything JACK related, set my audio output back to Port Audio, which then thankfully worked again.

NB: It could very well be that it was around that time that the long startup times started… I am unable to say for sure.

> or some other non-default audio configuration on the release version but not in the nightly, that could be it.

Everything was back to normal: Port Audio, which worked, and works, as expected.

> Could be worth Help / Revert to Factory Settings in the release version, if you don't have settings you would;dn't want to lose (eg, shortcut customizations).

I think I'll stick with the nightly, it might be called "unstable", but seems very, very stable indeed :) :) :)
(and yes, I do backup often, so I am prepared for any mishap)

Many thanks again :)

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• May 4, 2020 - 20:17

Interesting information! Well, if the problem returns, the new splash screen will help diagnose it.

And yes, the current nightlies are very stable indeed, because we are just about to release an "alpha" of 3.5, so what you are seeing now is very close to what that will be. So much so that I might otherwise say, don't bother install the MsueScore 3.5 alpha, just keep using your nightly. But it would be interesting to see if the problem comes back with the alpha.

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