I’m using the latest version of Dorico for iPad. Files are saved to iCloud.
I created a project with a song title like “Exercise 12 Chapter 2”. I finished that project and closed it.
Then I created another song with a title “Exercise 12 Chapter 2” because I’m tired and misread the textbook page, so there was a duplicate title.
Just giving a new work the same name as an existing one seems to have overwritten the old file, deleting it without warning or notification.
I tested the behavior again with a new file and got the same result.
Expected behavior: two songs with the same title should be two different files. I’m filling out a field named “Project title” not “filename”. Even if it were called “filename” I would expect a warning before it deletes my data. Actual behavior: creating two songs with the same title silently deletes the older work.
There app should protect against deleting old files when (accidentally or intentionally) reusing a song title. There doesn’t appear to be a way to organize the files by folder on the iPad, so there are bound to be duplicates after a while.
Please go into the Files app on your iPad.
You will probably be able to find your second file at another location.
Either do a search, or look under those places:
if you have setup a special folder for your project, look there: iCloud Drive/…
It isn’t in either of those places or anywhere on the iPad. I’m not sure why Dorico would move anything. I closed the file and then immediately created a new project with the same title.
I was able to reproduce the problem by creating a test file, adding content, and then creating a new piece with the same title. The content in the first piece was deleted without warning or notification.
That is strange, because since the last update of the iPad version I have rather heard of the opposite behaviour: Dorico is automatically saving a duplicate copy to the Dorico folder on the iPad even if iCloud is set to be the saving place in the General Preferences.
[edit] linking to one of the descriptions if that issue: Duplicate scores
But thank you for your description, I will try to reproduce later.
[edit] yes, I can confirm, that’s a way to lose a project. Give it the same name as an existing project, close the new project by going via the top left bit:
The project will overwrite an existing file at iCloud Drive/Dorico
I also experienced another quirk, whilst experimenting:
I saved the project file to a different location on the iCloud (via Share->Dorico Project), then closed the project. I would think there to be 2 entities of the same project (I had notated a few notes in Eb Major).
Now I opened the project via the hub (without knowing, which of the two files I opened) then Selected All and deleted the music. Then entered a few notes in C Major and closed the project.
Now the strange thing: when reopening the project via the hub, it opened the Eb Major project. I went to the other location, and that file had also be turned to the Eb Major version. The music I input as C Major had been gone.
I noticed something like that too, but I didn’t investigate it yet. I have two versions of one project (two different files in different locations), and it seemed like changing one of them changed the other.
I’m not sure why two versions appeared on the iPad, because I only created one of them myself. It seemed like one of the files just spontaneously appeared in the home screen.
I am getting the overwrite warning here (step 6). If I choose Cancel, the project title remains “Test 1”, but the file is still named “Untitled Project 23” and nothing gets overwritten.
Dorico version 6.0.22.6040, iPadOS 18.6.2, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)
I think it is not about renaming a project.
Normally on iPadOS if you close a project, it will be saved automatically (to a default location).
If you start a new Dorico project via the hub, give it the same name, it does not ask you “Do you want to overwrite…?” because the file is still
in the stage of being created. You can then close the new project with the same name - without any complaints, overwriting an existent file.
The critical moment is, when you close the new project (=there will be no warning).
It looks like Dorico isn’t watching the filesystem for changes and/or hasn’t released the old version of the file file, so even though the old file doesn’t exist on the drive, Dorico is still holding it in memory and then saves it to the old location. (Just guessing.)
I don’t think Dorico should prevent duplicate titles for works, because there are cases where someone might have multiple songs with the same title. (The title is also displayed on the score itself.)
Maybe there could be filename collision detection, and an incrementing number could be added to the ends of filenames to prevent deletion of other pieces with the same titles?
For example, if the file, My Song.dorico, exists, then save the one titled “My Song” as My Song__1.dorico. It could check for __n where n is an integer. The double-underscores would prevent auto-incrementing the version if someone writes a song like “Etude 5” (creating the first file as Etude 5.dorico and the next ones as Etude 5__1.dorico, Etude 5__2.dorico, …). It’s probably rare that people create pieces with titles ending in __<int>.
Ah, I see. The overwriting happens when you name the project in the hub, before creating it. I am able to reproduce it that way. It is indeed a very nasty bug.
Actually, the old project is already overwritten when you click “Create project”. You can confirm this by killing Dorico after creating the second project, instead of closing the project with the back button.
Here’s another related problem I just encountered.
I start a project on Dorico iPad.
I name it “Experiment 1”. It creates a file Experiment 1.dorico in iCloud.
I open it in Dorico SE 6 on MacBook and then close it. That adds it to recent files on the MacBook.
I open Finder and rename the file according to my naming convention 2025-08-23-experiment-1.dorico, but I leave the file in iCloud so I can edit it on the iPad later.
Then I decide that the sheet music shouldn’t display “Experiment 1” but should be titled “Etude 1”. On iPad, I change the title of the work to “Etude 1”, and suddenly, the filename 2025-08-23-experiment-1.dorico becomes Etude 1.dorico.
That also removes it from the recent files in Dorico SE on desktop (though that part isn’t critical).
The main problem is that there’s no control over how Dorico on iPad is silently overwriting files and changing filenames.
(I otherwise love the program. I’m just reporting some bugs.)
