I’ve run into an issue where Dorico sometimes hangs when I enter Print Mode, across multiple different files (with the circling beach ball, on a Mac). I then need to force quit Dorico and reopen the program. In an effort to try anything and everything to resolve this issue, I’ve discovered that if I remove my printer from my computer I don’t have this problem. At least that allows me to create PDFs, but it’s obviously not a fix.
I don’t know if the problem has something to do with my files or not, but if it were specific to the files I’m not sure why it would sometimes happen and sometimes not, and also why removing the printer from my system resolves the problem. I have noticed that the longer that I’ve been working in a file, the more likely it is to happen. Sometimes, but not always, the issue resolves after a restart of Dorico or a restart of my laptop.
I thought it might have to do with my printer being a network printer, so I tried physically connecting it over USB, but that hasn’t helped either.
I should note that I have seen other posts that mention similar issues, but haven’t found anything that presents a solution. I’ve seen some talk of using generic drivers or a direct USB connection on windows machines, but that hasn’t provided any relief in my case.
I had also read on other posts that some people have had similar issues due to problematic paragraph styles, but I haven’t seen any way for me to troubleshoot that.
@dspreadbury sorry to tag you on this, but I know you’ve had some input on other cases. I did have a chat with a Steinberg support person, but their input was unfortunately not all that helpful. They essentially suggested starting with a brand new file, but had no thoughts on how to prevent this in the future. We have been working on fine tuning our templates for months to transition from Finale to Dorico as an office. It’s not practical for us to start over, especially when we don’t know if we’re going to end up right back here where we started.
Here is the transcript of my support chat for reference.
Is it possible that your printer driver is a current version while your macOS is not? I’ve been a Mac user for 20+ years and I have encountered odd software crashes when my printer drivers are not matched to my OS. If you cannot upgrade to the current macOS, I would make sure that the printer driver version is compatible with the macOS that you use.
That’s an interesting thought. I did download the driver specifically for OS 14 recently as part of my troubleshooting for this, but interestingly enough whether I select OS13, OS14 or OS26 on their website it points me to the same driver. This is certainly a possibility.
We’re actually delaying upgrading our OS because many of our clients still send us Finale scores, and we’re trying to keep that software stable while we shift. If this turns out to be the issue we may be stuck in the middle and have to pivot to another approach. Unfortunately I’m not sure how to troubleshoot that as a possible fix, but open to ideas.
@NFevola , you could use Mac’s Disk Utility to create another APFS volume to the disk and then you can install a newer OS and install Dorico and printer driver in order to see if the problem gets solved. After that you can delete the volume, leaving everything else intact.
Like this: Click View - Show only volumes. Collapse the disk menu on the left side so that it looks like in this picture and click to highlight it (here Macintosh HD),
Create the new volume using the + button. The disk space gets freed and dynamically allocated for you, you don’t have to define the “Size Options” during volume creation.
After your testing reboot the Mac to the current (here Macintosh HD) volume, select the new testing volume (here Tahoe) and click - button and confirm the volume deletion. As simple as that.
I have a further update on this. It was suggested to me by our tech team for me to “Reset Printing System” on my laptop, which is done by going to the Printers & Scanners section of System Settings, right clicking on any printer, and selecting that option from the context menu. This process removes all printers from the computer, and I assume also resets some things under the hood.
If I then add my printer back and immediately open the file in Dorico, I can enter Print Mode and create a PDF or print without issue. However, if I come back to that same file some time later, the problem recurs.
It seems to me that there is some issue with the way Dorico is speaking with my printer. Perhaps for some reason if the printer has remained idle for too long whatever communication that needs to happen between Dorico and the printer when entering Print Mode cannot take place, which causes the program to hang. To clarify, I do not have this issue when printing from any other software.
I would love to get some input on this from the Dorico team. I’m now on OS 14.8.4. I don’t have the means to create the second disk partition with a newer OS at the moment to test things as we’re in the midst of a project and need to keep moving forward, but I will do so eventually if going to OS 15 seems like it could solve this issue based on feedback.
I have another update on this issue, and it seems a temporary fix. I discovered in the printer settings for my printer (an Epson WF-7310) there is a button that says “Find Printer.” It seems that as long as I hit this button immediately before switching to Print Mode in Dorico, my issue is resolved.
This seems to confirm my suspicions that the issue has something to do with the way Dorico communicates with or “wakes up” the printer when entering Print Mode. Again, I do not have this issue with any other software.
@dspreadbury tagging you again as it seems there might be something under the hood here for the team to evaluate. Thanks for all that you do!
Happy to report that I’m no longer dealing with these crashes that have been derailing my workflow though, and I hope this can help anyone else dealing with similar issues.
