Known incompatibilities

Updated 2 years ago
This page shows old instructions for MuseScore 3.
For MuseScore 4 users, see Known incompatibilities.

Hardware incompatibilities

The following software is known to crash MuseScore on startup:

Software incompatibilities

AVG Internet Security hangs MuseScore

MuseScore requires access to your internet connection with AVG. MuseScore doesn't need an internet connection to function, but if AVG blocks it, MuseScore hangs.

If AVG prompts you, Allow MuseScore and check "Save my answer as a permanent rule and do not ask me next time."

If it doesn't prompt you anymore,

  1. Open the AVG user interface (right-click on the AVG icon, close to your clock -> Open AVG User Interface)
  2. Click on Firewall
  3. Click Advanced Settings
  4. Click Applications
  5. Find MSCORE.EXE in the list and double-click it
  6. Change Application Action to Allow for All

Font problem on macOS

MuseScore is known to display notes as square when some fonts are damaged on macOS.
To troubleshoot this issue:

  1. Go to Applications -> Font Book
  2. Select a font and press +A to select them all
  3. Go to File -> Validate Fonts
  4. If any font is reported as damaged or with minor problems, select it and delete it
  5. Restart MuseScore if necessary

In this forum article, a user believes to have found the font "Adobe Jenson Pro (ajenson)" to be the culprit, regardless of not being reported as broken, or problematic as per the above validation, and solved the problem by deleting that font, so this is worth checking too.

Font problem on Linux

If the default desktop environment application font is set to bold, MuseScore will not display the notes properly.
To troubleshoot this issue (gnome 2.*/MATE users):

  1. Right-click on your desktop and select Change Desktop background
  2. Click on Fonts tab
  3. Set Regular style for Application font
  4. Restart MuseScore if necessary

For GNOME 3/SHELL users

  1. Open the shell and open "Advanced Settings"
  2. Click on the Fonts option in the list
  3. Set the default font to something non-bold
  4. Restart MuseScore if necessary

Save As dialog empty on Linux

Some users reported that the Save As dialog is empty on Debian 6.0 and Lubuntu 10.10.
To troubleshoot this issue:

  1. Type the following in a terminal

    which mscore
    
  2. The command will answer with the path of mscore. Edit it with your preferred text editor and add the following line at the beginning

    export QT_NO_GLIB=1
    

Launch MuseScore and the problem should be solved.

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