Hi, I used dorio app in my ipad pro for a while (version is 5.1.51.2131), yesterday I switched out of the app and return back, the working project suddenly can’t be opened, it simply poped up “Error Opening File” , I tried to dump the project file to mac m1 pro and use mac dorico (5.1.32.2114 ) to open it, it still no luck and stop at 21%, can somebody take a look at it? Thanks!
Petal_Christina 6.dorico (387.5 KB)
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Welcome to the Dorico forum.
I tried opening your file in Dorico versions 5, 4 and 3. Sometimes using an earlier version can open a problematic file. No success this time - all attempts returned “error opening file”.
Next, I duplicated the file (cmd-D on Mac), changed the file extension on the duplicate from “.dorico” to “.zip” and then opened it with a file decompression app (once I found one that worked). Amongst the files inside the resulting folder is one called “preview.pdf”. In case it helps you to re-enter the notation (unless one of the Dorico development team can repair the project), I have attached that PDF here.
preview.pdf (87.7 KB)
Thank you very much! I can use this PDF to restore my project, that saved me 2 weeks of work, may I know what caused the the problematic file and how should I prevent that happen next time?
I’m afraid I can’t help with that. I’m just a Dorico user like yourself, Hopefully someone from the Dorico Development team will have a look at it. They, being the creators of Dorico, have the diagnostic software to examine the “internals” of a file. Also, they are super-clever and super-helpful. The chances of the file being recoverable will depened on what caused the damage and how extensive the damage is.
I had a bit of spare time, so I thought I would save you some.
I used PhotoScore & NotateMe Lite (comes with Sibelius, which I still have but scarcely use since I purchased Dorico) to “read” the PDF and export it to a music xml file which I then imported into Dorico. Given that every notation-related software has some limitations (and occasionally quirky behaviour) with either (or both of) exporting and importing xml, there were surprisingly few things to correct or edit. Here you are. I can’t guarantee that everything is accurate, but on a quick check through it I did not notice anything outstandingly incorrect, although I left out the final cluster chord in the last bar. Also, you might want to adjust the layout to suit how you want it.
Petal2.dorico (933.7 KB)
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I’m afraid the zip archive itself is damaged, which is why Dorico can’t open it, and why most file decompression utilities are also unable to unzip it. I can’t say for sure why this might have happened, but it suggests that the save operation (or possibly a sync operation if the project was located in a cloud folder) was interrupted.
Many thanks to @StevenJones01 for taking the time to reconstruct the project for you. Steven, that’s very generous of you, and greatly appreciated, at least by me!
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This morning, I have exactly the same problem on my Dorico for iPad 5.1.51.2131
I‘ll check tonight if I can still open it on my mac, otherwise I‘ll post the file here. Unfortunately no backup.
Added 8:53:
Just found an xml export I did recently, so I can restore it from there.
La Familya, Op.1 No.1 2.dorico (267.1 KB)
I am now having the same issue being unable to open my file. I left the app open for several days and thereafter it showed “error opening file.”
@Pereodele Done with what I described in my previous posts in this thread, here are the rescued preview.pdf file and a reconstruction in Dorico.
The Dorico reconstruction is basically only the notes, so you will need to redo slurs, pedal markings, tempo indications, articulations, fermatas, etc. But at least you will have something to work with.
preview.pdf (90.7 KB)
La Familya reconstructed.dorico (867.8 KB)
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@StevenJones01 This is super helpful. I followed the thread and tried to zip and decompress but I didn’t succeed. I really appreciate your effort saving me time.
[Uploading: Into The Fire.dorico…C()
Hi, I’m having a similar problem and couldn’t get the zip trick to work. Can you help? Thanks so much!!
The upload of your file did not work. Can you try again, please?
Whether the “zip trick” works or not depends on how badly damaged the file is. Also, some decompression software handles the decompressing better than others. If one doesn’t work, I just keep trying others that I have on my computer. Sometimes, none of them work. There have been occasions when the decompression worked but there was no preview.pdf inside.
[Uploading: Into The Fire.dorico…C()
Hopefully this works! I’m a relatively new user, so it might not let me upload files.
[Uploading: Into The Fire.dorico…C()
The upload again did not work.
When you dragged the file, did you wait for it to indicate that the upload had finished?
Another method to try is to compress the file into the .zip format and upload that.
If the file is above the size limit for this forum, it might be worth putting it on a cloud storage site such as DropBox, OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive, etc., and post the link here. If you do that, make sure that it does not require a password to access it.
Dorico project files are already in Zip format. The forum does accept them.
But yes, you do have to wait for the upload to finish before sending your reply.
Yeah, I think it’s just not letting me upload files. Here is a Google drive folder with the file in it: Dorico problem files - Google Drive
Thanks so much! Sorry for all the back and forth!
Before I even did the “zip trick”, I noticed that your Dorico project was only 108 bytes in size. Most Dorico projects are hundreds of kilobytes ranging up to a few megabytes for larger projects. When it unzipped, the folder created was titled “supplementary_data”. This is usually one of the folders and files inside the overall project folder. Inside that there was one empty folder called “xound”.
The attached screenshot shows a typical example of what one would see after having unzipped a Dorico project. This particular project was 1.5 megabytes in size.
As what is left of Into The Fire.dorico is basically empty, I’m afraid that there is nothing that can be done to recover the information (because the information is not there).
Typical contents:
I was afraid of that. It still shows as 108 bytes on my iPad as well. Oh well, thanks for your help!
The Dorico development team are very aware of this problem, but apparently have not been to able to replicate it on demand as it seems to occur at random. Once they are able to pin down what is causing the issue, they will then be in a position to devise a “fix”.
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I made a comment on the ipad app store, and the Dorico developers responded that this has been fixed. So far I haven’t had any issues with this file corruption since then, almost 2 months. It used to happen if I didn’t close out properly of my file, whilst using the ipad for other things for long period, but not anymore.
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