Today I recieved the email from Finale stating that the Mac OSx will update and that Finale may not work. Suddenly I realise that I need to transfer my .musx files sooner rather than later… I have 5328 Finale files…
Could people please share their workflows for prepping their Finale files for Dorico Pro?
E.g.
Will you open every folder, look for the original .musx and export only it?
Will you do a search for .musx files and then export only the originals?
Will you delete Finale’s parts .musx?
Will you move Finale’s parts .musx to a removable HD just to be safe?
Amy, provided you’re not planning to install macOS Sequoia on your system, you have nothing to worry about. (There’s also a good chance that Finale 27 will actually run fine under Sequoia, but the team at MakeMusic are taking the precaution of warning everybody that they should exercise caution about installing the latest version of macOS, since if it turns out there are big problems with Finale under the new OS, there will be no way to fix them.)
So my advice would be to disable automatic updates on your Mac:
And then take your time to convert your Finale files to MusicXML and PDF format. You might find our blog post on this subject helpful:
Thanks. The article was very helpful and I did get some questions answered.
As for the sheer logistics… I think I will either do:
Open every known music folder. Open the original .musx file and export it to .xml.
Rename the original .musx file as Name_Converted.musx.
Delete remaining parts.musx or move them to a removable HD.
Once all known folders are completed, do a search for .musx in Finder to see whether I have extra files hiding in school curriculum folders, dump folders, etc. PROS I don’t get overwhelmed by 5328 files. CONS I might accidentally miss files.
OR I might just…
Keep two windows open. In one, do a search for .musx files (5328 of them).
Command+click to enter its encasing folder and convert the original to .xml
Drag/drop the parts.musx onto a removable HD. PROS I’ll be less likely to miss files. CONS I might get overhwelmed by 5328 files.
I want to work smarter, not harder. I just don’t want to be on file 1586 and have someone say, “You know you could have batched that, right?” (grin)
But you can, actually batch this. And, you can even have it do subfolders automatically, if you like.
In Finale, first go to File/Export/MusicXML Preferences to set any preferences. When you get there, here is what the screen will look like (in V26 in my case, so you should have updated options in V27, at least in the MusicXML version):
I didn’t need it to do subfolders on my system (I had different folders with different original sources of files that I wanted to keep separate), but you would check that field if you want it to do that.
Then you pick the Translate function from the same menu:
That will ask you to pick a folder, after which it will do the batch translation of all .MUS and .MUSX files in the directory you pick (and subdirectories, if you’ve chosen that option). It will warn you that any MusicXML files in those directories with the same names as the Finale files will be overwritten with the newly translated files (so if you’ve manually put any MusicXML files in those directories that you want to keep, you’ll want to move those elsewhere first). The MusicXML files go in the same directory as the MUS/MUSX files, but you can always sort by file type later and move the MusicXML files elsewhere if you like.
I didn’t have anywhere near as many files as you have, but it was pretty quick in translating the batches I did have (I think my biggest batch was between 70 and 80 files, with some additional smaller batches).
And, you can even have it do subfolders automatically, if you like.
