Contacting MuseScore Canada

• Sep 18, 2022 - 16:31

Does anyone know the phone number for MuseScore Canada? It seems to be a secret. It is easier to join FreeMasonary than it is to speak customer service. My problem is when I open a score in the usual manner instead of the files attaching to the program icon in the task bar when I press to open the downloaded file all I get is machine code. Any suggestions out there.


Comments

There is no phone support for MuseScore, so there is no phone number to be found.

It looks like you've got a different program set as the default program to open MuseScore files. Which is why you're seeing the contents of the binary zipped file format instead of seeing the file being opened by MuseScore instead.
You'll have to look up on how to set up file associations for your operating systems so that mscz files are forwarded to MuseScore by default.

In reply to by jeetee

Hi jeetee are you being deliberately obtuse? I know I can contact MuseScore Canada by first contacting MuseScore.com in California who will transfer me to the Canadian Customer care department, and I know that they would be of far more help to me than this apparently useless and defeatist response of yours. So, what's it to be, are you and your cronies going to help me or not. As for financial compensation I will take that up with the accounts department where I will also report this response of yours. As I understand the situation, MuseScore are not in the best of health financially, so I hope you have enjoyed your time with MuseScore so far because I don't think you have it much longer after I contact the German HQ office, which I have done before and got excellent service from them. I will give you and your boss one more hour to come up with a fix to this problem. Roy

Sorry to hear you are having to trouble! To reiterate what others are saying and clarify: there is no form of official technical support for MuseScore outside of this forum. It's free software, supported by volunteers like those of us trying to help you here. We are very happy to help, and we try to treat each other with politeness and respect.

jeetee actually gave you what I think is the correct answer, not sure if you misread it or didn't understand it but - you probably need change the default file association for MSCZ files in your OS settings. Since you didn't say what OS you are using, nor did you specify what is your "usual manner" of opening files, it's hard to be a lot more specific. But if you are able to describe the problem further, we continue to be happy to help.

I'll make some guesses meanwhile. I'll guess your "usual manner" of opening files isn't with File / Open as it might be for others, but perhaps involves opening a third-party program like "Explorer" in Windows, or "Finder" in macOS, or your window manager's file browser on Linux, and then double-clicking a file there. That program is then responsible for choosing what program to use. Normally that gets set up automatically, but any number of things could possible mess that up, including OS updates, other programs conflicting with MuseScore, etc. So, to restore the proper file association, you'd need to use the facilities provides by your file browser. On many file browsers, for example, you can right-click (or Ctrl+click) any MSCZ file and then click "Open with..." or "Choose a program..." or something similarly-named. And then you'll usually get a dialog box that lets you pick MuseScore, and normally there would also be a checkbox to make that the default.

If that doesn't help, again, just explain your problem in more detail and be sure to say what OS you are on, so we can understand and assist better.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hello Marc, my usual manner is to open files using the Help dropdown, typing in a search for a composer or musical group or artist then to download my choice and open the file. As already explained that no longer works for me. Something has obviously gone wrong with that method. If I am not doing it properly, please explain my error and stop beating around the bush. I have used the method to access files since I started using MuseScore and it has always worked until 3 days ago. Can you help or not? Roy.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

I see that there (on muscescore.com) you favorited a couple 'Official' scores. Those indeed cannot get downloaded, not even with a Pro account (which you apparently have there). The explanation why that is is given there via the ? icon:

This score is provided to us directly by
the copyright holder. Under the contract
terms, we can only demonstrate it within
the MuseScore website or MuseScore
iOS/Android applications.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

I'm not beating around the bush - I'm trying my best to help, and to explain what additional information we need in order to provide better free assistance to you.

So, there is no search facility in the Help menu in MuseScore - the free notation software that we support here on this website. Maybe you are talking about something else, like some feature of the commercial score-sharing website musescore.com, or one of the commercial apps they provide? For support on those, see the link on the bottom of any page over there on that other website (musescore.com). here we deal with the free, and open source music notation software MuseScore, not that other commercial website. So sorry, if your problem is with that website, no one here is able to assist; you need to contact them directly.

But, if you are saying you have successfully downloaded a file from some website or other and are now trying to open it within Musescore - the free and open source music notation software on your computer - then again, what we would need in order to help you is to know what OS you are using and how exactly you are trying to open that file. As I said, the normal way is to use File / Open from within MuseScore. If you are trying to use a third party program like your OS's file browser to open it for you and it is not choosing MuseScore to open it, the instructions I have you previously should solve that. But if that isn't the problem, again, we need you to explain more clearly what you are actually doing after downloading the file in order to open it, and most importantly, to tell us what OS you are on.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

Roy, there are two separate websites:

musescore.org (here), which supports the MuseScore music notation editor - which works on Windows, MacOS and Linux but not online. You can get help about using the editor here on the .org forums.

musescore.com, which is the score-sharing website where you can upload your own scores and download scores from other people. Help is from support@musecore.com - or possibly on the forum https://musescore.com/groups/improving-musescore-com

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

We would love to help, but we continue to need you to answer the questions I have asked. They are two very simple questions:

1) What OS are you one? There are basically three possible answers here: Windows, macOS, or Linux.

2) How exactly are you trying to open the file? Here, my guess is, you are finding the file in your favorite file browser and double-clicking it. And if so, I've told you exactly how to fix it (e.g., right-click, open with, select MuseScore, set as default). So if that's what you are doing - double-clicking the MSCZ file within your favorite file browser - then simply follow the steps I already gave you. If that's not how you are opening the file, we need you to explain what you are doing.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Marc, my platform is Windows 11. Marc, I search the web using Bing to find the artist etc. then copy and paste into the MuseScore help dropdown if I get a downloadable result, I attempt to open it in the usual manner but attempts to open the file are futile. May I make a suggestion, send me a file via email that will allow me to download, say MuseScore 2 that will not associate itself with MuseScore 3 and if that works then all is well. Roy

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

There is no search box in the Help menue!
But there is a search box in the start center. So activate with Edit/Preferences the check box "Show start center". Then the start center will appear every time you start musescore.
Or if musescore is already running, click File/Start center or just use the F4 key.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

Thanks you for answering the first of my two questions. But we are still awaiting your answer to the second: how exactly are you attempting to open the file you have downloaded? We're not interested in how you downloaded the file; that's your business. We are interested in how you are trying to open it. Yu keep ing you you are using your usual manner, but we simply don't know what your usual manner is. We need you to tell us. Here, for instance, is mine:

1) open MuseScore
2) go to File / Open
3) nagivate to the folder containing the downloaded file
4) click Open

If that fails, we'd need you to attach the file that fails to open and tell us exactly what goes wrong for you when you follow those steps.

Another method some people use is this:

1) open Windows Explorer
2) navigate to the folder containing the downloaded file
3) double-click the file

If that fails, then this is the problem I have already explained how to fix. So if you continue to have trouble, you'd need to explain further what went wrong after following those steps.

Another possibility is that your web browser itself - not a separate file browser - is showing you an icon for the downloaded file and you are clicking that to open the file. In that case, we'd need to know which web browser you are using in order to help you fix the file associations.

Again, we really want to help you, but we need you to answer the questions we are asking in order for us to be able to understand what is going wrong and then help you fix the problem.

I think that by now you probably realize that most responders and you are not talking about the same thing; the MuseScore desktop notation software.

Please share a screenshot or small recording of what you're seeing, so we can try and understand and see where to go from there.

Asking for financial compensation and from a free product and threatening the non-existent job-security of a volunteer without a boss was a nice touch though; slightly more distinguished than the usual Canadian friendliness on the internet ;-)

And the 2022 award for most patient and polite MuseScore support person goes to: Jeetee, Marc and Jojo. I am honestly so impressed.

@Roy, these guys are doing their best to help you with very little specific detail from yourself and I am sure that they will get to the root cause, at which point you will hopefully recognise that you need to eat some humble pie.

In reply to by yonah_ag

Well, yonah ag I really do hope you are correct but so far things don't look promising. I have been asking for help on this matter for almost 2 full weeks. I have taken my computer back in time to the day I brought it home from the shop and then my MuseScore worked like a dream. 2 weeks ago, the program failed me, I reported it immediately but not one bit of help has been offered so don't get on my back, speak to your friends in support and persuade then to help, otherwise keep your comments to yourself. If I sound angry, you bet I am. I have been totally left out in the cold. I could send you the C+ program I get when trying to open a downloaded file but it is way too long for this form. If you really want to see it request at roy113@cogeco.ca (I will not be eating humble pie, but I'll bet Germany will not be best pleased when I send then my report on the topic.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

Actually, you only posted to this forum for the first time a day ago, not two weeks ago. It isn't clear who you contacted back then ago - the support personnel for the commercial score-sharing website musescore.comn, perhaps? - but as explained, that is not the place to get support with MuseScore. this forum is the one and only official place to get support. So it isn't surprising that contacting people who don't know anything about the actual MuseScore notation software wouldn't be able to help you with it. The people who are able to help are here.

Anyhow, as I explained above, we are still waiting for you to provide the precise steps to reproduce the problem. Tell us exactly what you are clicking on in what order that leads to the error - everything that happens after downloading the file but before the error occurs. Once you provide the information we have been requesting, we can understand and assist further.

We don't need C++ code, all we need is simple steps to reproduce the problem. If the problem involves a specific MSCZ file, then that includes attaching that MSCZ file.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

What is it about Germany you're talking about?
MuseScore is not not based in Germany at all.

And just stop trying to threaten us, it won't work, as mentioned: we're unpaid volunteers, and there is not contractual obligations for anyone to help you here. That might be different on matters regarding your pro account on musecore.com, but there's nothing like that here on musecore.org.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

I'm slowly starting to be entertained by someone not willing to eat humble pie and calling us "deliberately obtuse" whilst at the same time refusing to believe what already 4 people have been telling you and not responding to the actual issue at hand with the information requested..

We clearly are not seeing the same thing as you are, so PLEASE show us.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

@Roy
I do not personally know these support guys but have been helped by all of them on many occasions over recent years. I am honestly amazed that they haven't just cut you off. Your attitude stinks, you do not respond with appropriate detail when asked and you can't even get your facts straight on several points.

Example
"Germany will not be best pleased"? What nonsense you are spouting! Germany have nothing to do with this so I don't know what this allusion is all about, but do feel free to send your diatribe to anyone in Germany if it makes you feel better.

You come steaming in like some over-entitled, spoiled brat and start demanding instant support for a free piece of software and from a volunteer manned help forum.

So, I suggest that you calm down, stop ranting and give concise, accurate answers to the questions that you are asked. You could, of course continue with your current mode of operation but then you really would deserve to be left out in the cold.

In reply to by roy113@cogeco.ca

For the record, it is true the original developer of MuseScore - who retired years ago - lives in Germany. To my knowledge, there has never been any sort of company office in Germany nor is there any other connection between MuseScore and Germany. There was for a while a mailing address in Belgium that may or may forward to the real office, which last I heard, are in Cyprus.

Anyhow, we volunteers here on the one and only official support forum for MuseScore remain eager to help you, and the moment you answer the second of the two questions I have been asking you repeatedly (please, provide precise steps to reproduce the problem - and if it involves a specific score, please attach that score), we can continue.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.