Lost an entire big band chart!
I was working for a few days on a chart, and after I finished it, I went back to put rehearsal letters on it.
When I clicked on 'open recent scores' I clicked on the name of the chart, and instead of the chart I had finished opening up, a trombone part from a previous arr. opened up!
All I can think of in terms of me causing this to happen was the fact that I was looking for something on a flash drive, and I saw another chart that I had done on a previous version of Musescore (Musescore 2.2, I now work on Musescore 3.0), and I clicked on it to take a look at it.
All of a sudden, a message popped up asking me if I wanted to reset the chart so it would fit into Musescore 3.0, and I clicked 'Yes' on it.
Did that cause the trombone part from MS 2.1 to erase my chart on Musescore 3.0, and replace it with this lousy trombone part?
Is there any way I can recover the chart on 3.0 that I recently finished and saved?
TIA
Comments
See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/52116
Yes, recent scores literally shows you recent scores. I wouldn't worry about that list, though. Just go directly to the folder where you saved the score and pen it. Unless you deleted it, or saved a new score on top of it and ignored the warning that you were about to overwrite it, your score is safe sound in exactly the same folder with exactly the same filename as when you saved it - MuseScore never ever deletes your scores.
In reply to Yes, recent scores literally… by Marc Sabatella
I don't know Marc, when I type the name of the chart in, it comes up with the name of the chart, followed by "mscz". I think I must have saved the trombone part on top of it by clicking yes to the question, "do you want to reset this file to fit MuseScore 3, because I had written the trombone part in MusicScore2.2.
In reply to I don't know Marc, when I… by sgcim
Where are you typing the name of the chart? I'm not suggesting you type anything; I'm suggesting you open the file normally. That is, go to File / Open within MuseScore, navigate to the folder where you chose to save the file, then click the score in the list of files within the folder. No typing necessary.
Answering yes to that question doesn't overwrite anything. It doesn't save anything at all, it only changes the formatting of your score within MuseScore. Only if you then saved the score,e and when doing so, chose to to navigate to the same folder as the file you are having trouble finding, and also chose to give it the same name ss that other score, and also chose to ignore the warning that would have come up saying "file exists, are you sure you want to replace it?", could you have overwritten the old file with the new.
Again, almost certainly your score is still there in exactly the same folder you chose to save it to in the first place. What was the name of that folder?
In reply to Where are you typing the… by Marc Sabatella
I mentioned typing in the name of the chart, because you said "Pen" the name of the chart, but reading your message back I think you meant "open" the name of the chart. LOL.
In any event, the chart's name still turns up when I choose "Open Recent Scores" AND when I just choose "Open Scores" and click on the score in the list of scores, but the same darn 1st Trombone part to an older score still appears.
I don't see how I could have given it the same name as the chart I'm looking for, but I might have been afraid of losing changes I made to the chart I was looking for, and clicked yes on "File exists, are you sure you want to replace it", and by doing so, maybe overwritten it.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Folder". I'm very weak on the "file" and "folder" aspect of computers.
My brother understands that stuff much better than I do, and he's coming over tomorrow. Maybe he can help me with the instructions on recovering the chart that the other poster sent me a link to; I can't make head or tails out of it.
In reply to I mentioned typing in the… by sgcim
Another disturbing thing that's been happening since this started has been that when I click "Open Recent Scores" I get choices like scN3356.mscz, instead of the name of the charts I've written.
Sometimes a recent chart will turn up when I click on the above mentioned file names, and sometimes that same damned Trombone part keeps turning up.
When I click "Open Scores" the correct name of the chart turns up.
In reply to Another disturbing thing… by sgcim
What operating system?
e.g., Windows 10?
In reply to What operating system? e.g.,… by Jm6stringer
Windows 10. On a new Acer
In reply to Windows 10. On a new Acer by sgcim
Can you navigate using Windows file explorer?
In other words, can you locate the folder (probably under 'Documents') which contains your MuseScore 3 scores?
You do not need to open MuseScore at all for this.
In reply to Not using MuseScore at all,… by Jm6stringer
Yes, I've tried that before. They all show up, but when I click on the score I'm looking for, that Trombone part shows up. All the other scores are there when I click on them.
In reply to Another disturbing thing… by sgcim
> "I get choices like scN3356.mscz"
Those filenames are those of crash recovery scores and only happen if you crash MuseScore again before resaving them.
If you open one of those (and it is correct) then "Save As.." it to your normal folder and filename.
In reply to I mentioned typing in the… by sgcim
What I am trying to explain is that the "open recent scores" list is not how to find scores. It's an occasionally-convenient shortcut, but it only knows about what it knows about. In the case of the strangely-named scores, those are most likely scores recovered after a previous crash where you answered yes to the question about recovering your previous session, but then never actually saved again.
In any case, again, forget the occasionally-convenient list of recent scores. Just use File / Open and go to the actual folder where you saved the file when you first did so, then scroll through the list of files in that folder until you find the file. As mentioned before, if you saved it, it is absolutely positively still right there in that exact same folder with that exact same filename. Doesn't matter if it also happens to show up under recent scores or not - the file is still there.
OK... so using Windows file explorer can you find a folder named .mscbackup?
In Windows, you should enable show hidden items. See image:
See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/52116#1.-Last-saved-version
You should also check the box 'File name extensions' (above 'Hidden items' box).
You will have to delete the trailing comma in a backup file to open.
In reply to OK... so using Windows file… by Jm6stringer
I can't find the file .mscbackup on any searches on file explorer, even when I have Hidden Items enabled.
In reply to I can't find the file … by sgcim
As jeetee mentioned earlier, another type of file is the cryptically named autosaved files (having names like scN3356.mscz).
See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/52116#2.-Autosaved-version
In Windows 10 file explorer you navigate to:
C:\Users\ your user name \AppData\Local\MuseScore\MuseScore3\
Once you see those sc files listed, you can open each one to see what they contain. Perhaps a usable copy can be found among them.
But, as of MuseScore 3.5, you should have a separate folder named ."mscbackup".
If you are using an earlier version of MuseScore, look for a file named ".filename.mscz," (starting with a dot, ending with a comma). Ensure that Windows 10 is set to show file name extensions so that you will see, for example, "Big_Band_Score.mscz or ".Big_Band_Score.mscz, (with the trailing comma).
See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/52116#1.-Last-saved-version
especially Note 1 and Note 2.
What's the name of the chart you found on the flash drive, and what's the name of the big band chart you are trying to recover?
In reply to As jeetee mentioned earlier,… by Jm6stringer
The Chart I found on the flash drive (a first trombone part) is "What I Say", and the big band chart I'm trying to recover is "Enchanted Flying Machines". Thanks for all the help; my brother is more computer savvy than I am, and should be able to help me carry out your instructions better than I can.
In reply to The Chart I found on the… by sgcim
My brother came over , and he's just as much a doofus as I am about recovering files! LOL!
It's lucky it's not a complicated chart (other than the piano solo I transcribed, but I wrote it down in pencil, so I should be able to redo it), or I'd be going nuts over this one.
In reply to My brother came over , and… by sgcim
Did you check all the file names in both folders? You had a crash so you should also scroll down looking at the "sc" files by renaming them and removing the dot and comma.
@sgcim
How to avoid that kind of issue in the future:
[A] learn how to "play" with files and folders out of MuseScore:
Suppose you have created a folder called sgcim_Scores and you have saved 4 scores in there: mozart1.mscz mozart2.mscz bach1.mscz bach2.mscz
=> try/learn/discover that you can create 2 folders "in" the sgcim_Scores folder (they are called sub-folders), let's name these folders mozart_scores and bach_scores
=> move the 2 mozart scores into mozart_scores and the two bach scores into bach_scores
=> rename the scores, e.g. using A/B instead of 1/2 to get mozart_A.mscz mozart_B.mscz into mozart_scores and bach_A.mscz bach_B.mscz into bach_scores
=> finally open MuseScore, do "open score" and navigate to these places to open one of these 4 scores
[B] When you save a newly created score from MuseScore, never blindly push save/ok without being well aware of WHERE you are saving it. Select your OWN place to save your scores (and remember it)
[B'] Use rather "Open" than "Recent" to open scores. Using open and navigating explicitly where your scores are saved avoid "surprises" that "Recent" may point to a back up score that you checked during your last session and is not the "current" score on which you want to work
[C] If you don't already have a system of automatic copy/back up/duplicate of disk then do yourself a regular manual backup of the folder where you save your scores. The minimum could be to copy the folder on a USB stick (once a week?) Use 2 sticks: week 1/3/5/... first one, week 2/4/6/... the other one
TEST that you can read a score from these sticks (at least once a month)
[D] NEVER answer yes when MuseScore asks confirmation to overwrite a score. MuseScore should only ask that when a V2 score has been read using MuseScore3. Well then do not overwrite the V2 one, use one of these 2 methods: put V3 scores in a dedicated folder (partitions_V3 ?) or keep V2 and V3 scores mixed in the same place but then call all V3 files by adding _V3 at the end of the name (or rename all your V2 scores adding _V2 before starting MuseScore, then saving with MuseScore3 you will remove the suffix _V2)
In reply to @sgcim How to avoid that… by frfancha
Thanks for the advice!
In reply to Thanks for the advice! by sgcim
Those of us who have been around software that saves to folders for later use understand where those folders are. If everything is working as it should, you don't really need to understand about them yet. Though it would be good to experiment.
I think your trouble started when you plugged in the flash drive. MuseScore operates from the last place that score was loaded (or saved). In this case, the flash drive. If you hit SAVE, the score went back to the flash drive. If you pulled the drive before hitting SAVE, MuseScore gives a warning because where it wants to save to doesn't exist. And if you close the score and hit open recent, the root folder in Program Files opens because MuseScore doesn't know where to go. I'm not saying this is bad. Just how it works.
If you had let the MuseScore installer do its thing, it creates one folder called "Scores". You can find it by having you computer search for that word. Search at least the Documents folder.