The problem is that I cannot force a down stem to an up stem for two notes imported from an XML file.
John
Instead of fiddling with beaming in Engrave mode, try pressing F after selecting those notes (Flip)
@John_McWilliam, the etiquette and protocol of this forum is not to populate it with repeated topics. Please respect that and constrain your related posts to the same OP. It will help you, help others to help you, and ultimately help other users in the future when searching for the same problem. (That’s precisely why I retitled the first topic you created about this.)
@dspreadbury, should John’s three topics be merged?
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Flip (F) produces the same result!!
Sorry I’m a newbe and my learning curve is not very good. As far as I know I have two active topics one of which has been more or less solved. Should I deactivate solved questions in some way before going on to a new question - I will be having many I think.
Ah. Since you had not marked the other as being solved (check the 
Solution box), and since this post concerned the same passage of cues in your clarinet-part XML import from the other topics you posted, it seemed that they should all be combined. Perhaps this one is better left on its own. (And I’ll add that the “dummy score” method I wrote about in the other topic would automatically take care of the stem-direction issue in your cues.)
I expect you’ll continue to find this forum generous and helpful, but don’t forget about all of the other great ways to learn Dorico, like the First Steps Guide.
To let Dorico do its best with XML you should uncheck all the options in Preferences>MusicXML Import options. Have you tried this?
Yes my import preferences were all removed first.
I tried deleting the two first bars and re-inputting the manually but the result was the same!!
Here I started a new project and manually imported some notes. When I tried the same flip as before using: select notes/right click/stem/force stem up I got the same result:
There must be a preference somewhere which is stopping stem up from functioning as I want it to.
I have found that moving the notes up or down leaves the beam in the middle of the staff (it does not move with the notes. In bar two the same action adjusts the beam normally as one would expect it to do - is this a bug?
The notes can only look like this if the beams were moved manually to the wrong side. This was probably already the case in the Finale original, and Dorico tried to preserve it somehow.
What happens if you select the notes and the 16th rest between them, to be sure and invoke ‘reset beaming’ and/or ‘reset appearance’ and/or ‘reset position’ and/or ‘remove forced stem’? At some point, I guess Dorico will remove the erroneous formatting and revert to its own defaults.
None of the resets made any difference - remember, this is was done in a new project with manual note input and has nothing to do with Finale or XML import.
Can you share the project? Just a picture just says ‘this is wrong’, without shedding light on causes. I’m curious (and I reckon the developers as well) to see if this is indeed buggy, and can be reproduced somehow. TBH, I doubt it, because I’ve never seen this reported or in my own files before. But you never know.
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Here is my file:
Test Stem direction.dorico (646.6 KB)
Alas, three time alas, I think we’ll have to put up with this deluge, which is largely due to MakeMusic…
Patience ; it will pass.
In the meantime, we’ll just have to put up with this disturbance to the peace and quiet of this forum, as befits gentlemen. 
‘Remove forced stem’ fixed it immediately.
Windows 11: Dorico Pro 5.1.
If your version of Dorico Pro could fix this problem all I can think of is a preference which is set up differently in my version - I have the latest update. Should I revert to the defaults or should I reinstall the program?
So, you have Dorico 5.1.60 ? Right ?
Yes, the latest updste.