editing and saving an unrolled score
I am new to Musescore and tonight was my first time working creatively with it. I unrolled the score so I could hear the changes in repeats. I started working on the unrolled score. I saved it and when I reopened it it isn't there and nothing I did to the unrolled score seems to have been saved. Please tell me there is a way to recover that work.
Comments
I assume you mean you used Tools / Unroll Repeats? This creates a totally new copy of the score, not your original. So, saving the original doesn't save the new unrolled copy. The copy hasn't been saved yet but is given a new default name with the word "unrolled" appaneded. So when you save it, that should be the filename used, not the original.
Actually, depending on your OS perhaps, you might get an error if you try to just "save" the unrolled score, so you may have actually done a "save as". In that case, you had an opportunity to choose a new name and folder, and wherever you choose to save that unrolled copy in, that's what you need to open now.
In reply to I assume you mean you used… by Marc Sabatella
Thank Marc. Unfortunately I pressed Save and it looked like that had worked - there was no error thrown in Mac OS but apparently no file saved. I wasn't given a Save As.. dialogue box.
I aim obviously forewarned now but the work seems to be lost..... it may be prudent to have a warning box there.....
I will persevere with Musescore but it was a blow in my new journey!
In reply to Thank Marc. Unfortunately I… by tommybanana
Can you reproduce this problem? I cannot, nor have I heard of this happening before. Are you absolutely positive you pressed Save on the unrolled score? If you can reproduce this with a new score, please attach the score and give the exact steps to reproduce the problem so that we can investigate further.
BTW, the error I sometimes get involves writing a temp file, so do be sure to use Finder to search the folder (and include hidden files) to see if there are any temp files present that might contain the info. Also, if you have Time Machine enabled, it might be able to recover something. Normally MuseScore also autosave your work every two minutes, but that file is deleted on a successful exit of the program - it's there for crash recovery only. So if you've closed MuseScore since doing the work, that file would be gone. But if you left open MuseScore open, there could be some hope, see https://musescore.org/en/node/52116 for more info (the part about autosave specifically - the backup file is probably just the original score before the unroll, although I guess that's worth checking out too).
In reply to Can you reproduce this… by Marc Sabatella
Definitely pressed Save on the unrolled Score.
And I can reproduce easily.
See here:
https://youtu.be/EK8RN8bikEY
There are two bug reports mentioning this called:
Can't Save After Tool Unroll Repeats
and
Save error with unrolled repeat version of score
In reply to Definitely pressed Save on… by tommybanana
BTW also did it it with a brand new score created entirely in Musescore and same thing happened.
In reply to Definitely pressed Save on… by tommybanana
Hmm, the existing reports describe the same as what I reporte - if you don't do a "save as", you may get an error message involving temp files. I don't see anything about a case where it just silently fails, so this does seem unique to your system as far as we know. Maybe someone else on macOS can try to verify? Anyhow, I also followed there in the issue report where you posted.
Meanwhile, try looking in your main folder again but be sure to enable display of hidden files and folders, and check both there and in the backup folder that will now become visible, for any file with the word "temp" in the name. Also, I note when you first tried "save as", it was suggesting your home folder, not your MsueScore folder (at least I think that's what I was seeing), so do the same experiment there.
In reply to Hmm, the existing reports… by Marc Sabatella
(Came here via a web search) I just got started with MuseScore and experienced the exact same problem as described in the video. Unrolled a score, started working on it, and saved it (at least I thought so). The unrolled version does not get saved anywhere to the file system and is gone when MuseScore is closed. I am using macOS 11.6.
In reply to Hmm, the existing reports… by Marc Sabatella
Same problem here: I lost an hour or so of a new harmony for the end of an unrolled score. I have an exported MP3 for a reference, but … unfortunate.
The solution is to "Save As…" after you've done the unroll (and with the "unrolled" score tab active!) and treat it as a separate score.
In reply to Same problem here: I just… by dland
This just happened to me as well. Still unresolved ?
In reply to This just happened to me as… by calm2170
There have been no updates since 3.6.2. There does seem to be a Mac-specific bug with the Save command after unroll, where for whatever reason, the save operation fails but the OS neglects to inform MuseScore of the failure, so MsueScore doesn't put up a dialog as it does when the save fails on other platforms. Solution remains to use Save As instead of Save immediately after the unroll, and Save works normally after that.
In reply to There have been no updates… by Marc Sabatella
Not only does it not put up a dialog, but it removes the asterisk and allows you to close Musescore entirely without it even warning you that you have unsaved work... Please fix this, or at the very least disable the ability to create an unrolled score on Mac without first choosing a location for it.. :(
In reply to Not only does it not put up… by normanc44441
Currently unroll repeats is indeed disabled in MuseScore 4 builds.
Same thing happened to me.
In reply to Same thing happened to me. by rdunn7111
So, are you saying you've read the responses in this thread and now realized that you have two copies of the score, and you simply need to open the second copy? Assuming you remembered to save the unrolled copy. If not, just go back and unroll again, and this time be sure to sure that second copy.
In reply to So, are you saying you've… by Marc Sabatella
One thing I've been taught in software is to avoid the words "simply" and "just", especially when dealing with users. This is a clear usability failure. And the only reason I'm unrolling the repeat is that there's no support for choosing which repeats instruments should play in.
In reply to One thing I've been taught… by bkv_ykf3wdq-QHK3pzv
As a software usability professional, I recently tweeted that when a developer says "The user can just…," it's a blunt admission by the developer that they've decided not to do their job.
It's different in a forum context: we're here as a community of mutual support, not as a professional representatives of Musescore (None of us is Tantacrul, as far as I know), so the expectations are not as high: "they've decided not to do their job" doesn't apply 🙂.
That said, a common support-forum-red-flag is the phrasing, "assuming that (the user) 'simply' [did a thing], of course," because never assume: if people are losing work because they didn't "just" [do a thing], the problem is that the software failed to make it clear that they have to [do that thing].
The issue is really a bug. Saving the unrolled file doesn't do anything other than the asterisk disappears just like saving a file. You need to "save as" or lose all the work.
In reply to The issue is really a bug… by balleceronald1
Are you on macOS? Indeed, it has recently been discovered that a bug on macOS causes a save failure to not get reported to MuseScore, so no failure is reported to the user. It's true that Save As is the workaround.