In-program method to Revert to Factory Settings

• Dec 20, 2015 - 16:15

The vast majority of errors are solved by following the steps to revert to factory settings from the command line. However, many users are not familiar with the command line and may struggle to do this, especially on Windows or Mac systems. (MuseScore is automatically added to the users PATH environment variable on Linux, but not Windows of Mac, so more commands are necessary than a simple "mscore -F".) Since reverting is actually a relatively common task (I have had to do it after every MuseScore upgrade) I think it would make sense to make it available in the GUI.

A "Revert to factory settings" button could be added to Help -> About. This would trigger a warning dialog, followed by an "Are you sure" type message to avoid accidental usage.

The code could potentially be as simple as restarting MuseScore with the "-F" option.

Any thoughts?

Comments

• Dec 20, 2015 - 20:57

I'm not opposed to adding it to the GUI, but I'd disagree it a "relatively common task". There have been exactly three upgrades in the past three years, and in any event normally you do *not* need to do the revert when upgrading. Only if you choose to do something unusual in your installation, like install to a non-default folder. It's not actually something the average user is ever likely to need to do. But still, sure, for those rarte cases where it does become necessary, it would be nice to have an easier method especially for the benefit of those users not already comfortable running things from command lines.

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• Dec 20, 2015 - 22:05

I had to revert after each 2.0.X patch release too (of which there have been 3 in the last one year) on both Linux and Windows. I never did anything non-standard on Windows because I usually use Linux, but I still had to reset because it wouldn't start, there was no sound, or the display looked strange.

I don't mean to sound critical though, I know its extremely difficult to make improvements without breaking it for someone. I also realise that most of the posts on the forums are going to be from people having problems rather than from those who are using it quite happily without problems. However, when someone does have a problem there's no denying that it is the go-to solution.

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• Dec 20, 2015 - 22:18

Would be interesting to find out what went wrong in your particular case, but really, there were no changes at all between 2.0 and 2.0.1 or 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 that should have have required a revert unless you installed to a non-default location. And 2.0 didn't use the same location for settings as 1.3, so there could not possibly have been any conflcit there. And that's all the updates there have been in the last three years :-).

Anyhow, again, yes, it would be good to make it easier. But not *too* easy, because again, for most people, it will never ever be necessary, and you'd hate for people to do it accidentally and lose settings.

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• Jan 28, 2016 - 03:26

I completely support this! I find comments like "I disagree it a relatively common task" very irksome. It is *the* first line of troubleshooting most MS issues.

Now, the only time this wouldn't work is when MS won't start, Then either a CMD/script file could also be included in the BIN directory, or people have to revert to command line.

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• Jan 28, 2016 - 15:30

Sorry if my comment irked you. I guess I have a differen notion of what "msot MS issues" means. Most issues people have are, they can't figure out how to do something. Or maybe they find a bug. THe average person will never in their life need this command, but they will indeed have many many many issues solved by other means, like reading the documentation, asking for help here, etc. That's what I mean.

Still, that doesn't mean I don't support adding the option - I just want it made clear it is not something to do any time you can't figure out, say, why you can't delete a rest.

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