Musescore can't handle big files- help!

• Jan 22, 2019 - 02:28

Hi.

I am currently in the midst of composing a musical. The thing is, I've put so much into one file that the MuseScore I'm using now goes slow, lags, and keeps on not responding when I open the file. This was a problem when I used MuseScore 2, but it was not at the point where it was unbearable (I could still highlight large portions of the score at once, and the lag was just a minor problem). However, when I opened the file in MuseScore 3, it became completely unmanageable when I opened the file, and it's now at the point where I can barely move the score or highlight even a tiny portion without it lagging. This means that I can't even remotely copy and paste different sections into different scores to be able to avoid the lag.

I am at a loss on what to do. I have worked on this musical for months now, and I don't want to give up on it entirely. Please help.

(Also note this this only happens when I open my musical up. MuseScore 3 works perfectly normal with other scores.)


Comments

For very large scores, its always best to break the score into multiple files. I'm writing a piece that I expect to be 2.5 - 3 hours long and will break it into 15 parts to prevent any one file from getting too big. The 15 files is an obvious choice for my project, you will need to find a logical way to break your project into files of less than about 200 measures if possible. This should keep the slowdowns manageable.

In reply to by TornadoDog33

Since Save selection is broke in version 3, I suggest to decide on logical break points in your project and delete all measures you don't want in a file, then use save as, open the large file and repeat until it is in manageable sized files. I would then create a blank file of about 100 measures to use as a faux template. When I need a new file started I would load this one, and use save as on it with the name of the next file in my project.

At the end of the project you can do one of two things. If the Album feature is back you can use that to join the files. If it's not back and you need a printed copy, you can export each to its own PDF. If you need them all in one file, there are a number of free PDF management tools that will allow you to combine your PDFs into one file.

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