Multi Bar Rest issues in Music XML import

[sezna]

Hi! I hope this is the right place for this.

I’ve been on-and-off using Dorico since 2024, really trying to get the hang of it. Recently, a full part was delivered to me in Sibelius and MusicXML formats. When I import the music XML, it largely looks good. However, there is one exception: multi-bar rests.

Here’s one excerpt. Rehearsal 44:

In Dorico, this shows up as:

I read online that maybe typing “shift - B” and “rest” in the empty bars would fix it. So, trying that, I get one bar fewer than I’d expect:

There should be three bars of rest before the key change. So I’m not sure what’s going on there.

---

There’s another place I’m having an issue too – reh 49 should look like this:

But it got imported as this, once again just omitting the rests. Note that the measure numbers are correct, so I know Dorico is aware of the bars:

If I type Shift+B rest on bar 49 now, I get an even crazier result:

Everything seems accurate except for the multi bar rests. Does anybody have any tips on improving import quality, or just how to fix these multi bar rests?

Thanks!

[sezna]

As an update, I tried turning off “rest visibility” as suggested in another post here and got this weird import result:

It appears that a bar is missing, even though the bar numbers reflect the correct count

[asherber]

Can you upload your Dorico file here, so someone can take a look?

[sezna]

Yes! Thank you. I’ve attached it here.

I also noticed in the “engrave” mode I can see that indeed a measure is missing:

prokofiev-romeo.dorico (1.1 MB)

[sezna]

Update: I clicked the red 4/4 button, it pulled up the time sig text box, and then I hit “enter” without changing anything. It caused the hidden bar to appear, in both places! Huzzah!

[asherber]

If you got where you wanted, that’s great, but I think there’s still something off with this import.

What happens if you go to Preferences > MusicXML > Import, untick everything (except maybe Text Items) and try the import again?

[sezna]

There are still other issues, indeed. I will try what you said and report back.

I’ve attached the musicXML file if you want to experiment, as well.

Sergei Prokofieff.musicxml (1.1 MB)

[sezna]

This is what that section looks like with everything unchecked:

[asherber]

Do you have the Dolet 8 plugin installed in Sibelius?

Dolet® 8 Plugin for Sibelius - MusicXML

If you already have that, or if it doesn’t help fix the issue, you might have better luck importing the XML first into MuseScore, exporting from there, and then importing into Dorico. I understand that MuseScore can be more forgiving of oddities in the XML.