App makes folders in my documents
Hello,
For some reason whenever I open Musescore 3 it creates a bunch of folders in my documents without asking me. These folders do not have anything in them and it is really annoying that I have to constantly delete them. Is there a fix for this?
Regards
Gio
Comments
Don't delete them - MuseScore uses these folders. For instance, when you create a new score, MuseScore looks at the contents of your MuseScore3/Templates folder for custom templates, or when you add soundfonts, it looks in MuseScore3/SoundFonts, etc. If you do delete them, you'll need to create new versions elsewhere and tell MuseScore where in Edit / Preferences / General.
In reply to Don't delete them -… by Marc Sabatella
But I do not want it to make these folders in my documents. It is the only app that I know of that does this
In reply to Don't delete them -… by Marc Sabatella
Can it not make these folders elsewhere?
In reply to Can it not make these… by Giordano Battistel
I think it should be the case that if you set the preferences to look elsewhere, it will create the folders there.
In reply to I think it should be the… by Marc Sabatella
Ok, how do I do this?
In reply to Ok, how do I do this? by Giordano Battistel
Go to Edit->Preferences, Tab General and edit the pathes under "Folders". Click on the folder icon at the end of each row. Or type new path in the input field.
![preffolders.png]( "preffolders.png")
In reply to Go to Edit->Preferences, Tab… by Pentatonus
That would make MuseScore use those as the defaults, but still might create the 'original' default directories.
In reply to That would make MuseScore… by Jojo-Schmitz
No, it doesn't. At least not on my system : Linux Mint 20.2 with AppImage.
In reply to No, it doesn't. At least not… by Pentatonus
OK, good.
In reply to OK, good. by Jojo-Schmitz
It doesn't make new ones but for some reason it won't let me redirect the soundfonts folder. The others can be redirected fine
In reply to It doesn't make new ones but… by Giordano Battistel
Soundfonts are searched for in multiple directories.
In reply to Soundfonts are searched for… by Jojo-Schmitz
But when I changing the location and reopened the app the app would not load
In reply to But when I changing the… by Giordano Battistel
That shouldn’t happen. Do you have write permission in the folders you chose? and did you see any error messages? Try starting from command line so you can see console output. And be sure you don’t override the internal default folders, only your own user folders. Also be sure you are using the official supported AppImage and not some third party build you obtained from elsewhere.
In reply to That shouldn’t happen. Do… by Marc Sabatella
I do have permission, yes. I am the computer administrator. I tried uninstalling musescore and re-installing it but it still does not work. Now I am completely stuck. What can I do??? I cannot even change the preferences of musescore now because it won't open
In reply to I do have permission, yes. I… by Giordano Battistel
I don't mean permission in the colloquial sense of meaning you won't get in trouble for it. I mean the specific technical sense of the permissions on those folders (read, write, execute for user, group, other). Presumably you aren't actually logged in using the superuser account - not recommended for using user-mode applications, for general security / system safety reasons. If you are logged in as superuser, best to log on and log in with a user account instead. Then make sure that specific user has actual write permissions on the folder you are specifying.
If some change you made is now preventing the program from starting, try using "-F" on the command line to revert to factory settings (do that as the user you are going to be logged in as "for real" as well).
In reply to I don't mean permission in… by Marc Sabatella
Sorry but I don’t know what you mean about a super user. Thank you for being patient with me on this. I also don’t know what a command line is or how to access it (I am using Mac). When you say revert to factory settings you only mean the app, not my entire laptop factory settings, correct?
In reply to Sorry but I don’t know what… by Giordano Battistel
Superuser is the Linux term for what in Windows would be called administrator account (not sure what macOS calls it) Sorry, I misread one of the previous posts and thought you said you were a Linux system administrator.
Anyhow, I was assuming all along with you an expert Linux system administrator and had created some complex custom filesystem configuration and that is why you were wanting to change the default folders. So now I'm confused - if you're not an expert user with highly specialized needs, why complicate life by trying to change these defaults when the defaults are designed to work perfectly right out of the box? I'm not asking to be rude, but really, this sort of customization is not something the average user should ever have reason to do. But if you do have some sort of unusual reason to need to, the methods we describe - changing the preferences to point to folders that your account has permission to create - do work.
In reply to I do have permission, yes. I… by Giordano Battistel
Do not worry, I just fixed it by following these instructions https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/revert-factory-settings#instruction…
However, I would still like to know if the app can move those default folders when I open it. It jsut seems silly that they create them in documents and that I cannot move the Soundfonts folder
In reply to Do not worry, I just fixed… by Giordano Battistel
As explained, you can, by changing those preferences. if you mean somehow change the preferences without ever opening MuseScore - immediately after installing, sure, I guess technically you could edit the .ini file by hand. Or copy it from another installation. But, since it's something you do once and then never mess with again, doesn't seem like it should be a particular hardship to just do it the way we are saying: changing the preferences from within MuseScore. Then you can delete the old default folders.
In reply to Do not worry, I just fixed… by Giordano Battistel
@Giordano Battistel
On the Windows version you can indeed move the SoundFonts folder: I have done so and it works just fine so I'm surprised that this is different on Linux. Did you have any actual soundfonts in the new location?
It's quite common for software to create sub-folders in your Documents folder so Musescore is not unusual in this respect. You don't have to delete them at all, just ignore them if you don't want to use them.
In reply to Ok, how do I do this? by Giordano Battistel
@Giordano Battistel
Are you using Linux?
...or another OS?
No, those are the default folders for plugins, scores, Soundfonts, etc