Not a question this time. Just a comment. Several have stated that they are putting Finale out of their minds and just focusing now on Dorico (which is a fine product by the way). But I work with four publishers and they are telling me that ,at least for the next year or two, they will continue to use Finale because of the HUGE music inventories they have that are in Finale. This means I must continue to use Finale at least for the next couple of years until the larger publishers are able to make that switch. I have to learn and remember BOTH programs and really have no choice in that. I canāt āforgetā Finale just yet and that is making the transition that much harder.
Just sayin"
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I think this will be the case for many thousands of users.
Itās the situation at the major publishers with HUGE inventories of Finale files that really intrigues me. They are really going to convert all these files? Why do I have my doubts? And how are they going to handle it if they donāt?
I hear you. Iām in the same boat but Iāve learned Sibelius along with Finale over the years and itās fine, I still remember how to use both. Then to add Dorico along with the other two just makes you more flexible to help make good decisions. I went through something similar with PageMaker going to InDesign, not to mention Quark. Finale will be around a long time due to these archived files and old machines, and some will be converted. The key is to export XML files uncompressed (still debating a combo of 4.0 and 3.1), PDF, and possibly MIDI. Covering all the bases! I understand the frustration but in the end things will settle down. Now start learning MuseScore!! 
(sorry I had too) Good luck to you!
Absolutely not! Even if there was time, thereās no budget for that sort of work. Whoās gonna pay for that?
I think everyone with many thousands of Finale files, or their lifeās compositional output, has come up with a strategy by now. I had a bunch of chats with friends in similar situations before MM backtracked on the one year of authorizations, and we all basically came up with similar plans.
- Just because MM backtracked on the one year promise and said you can authorize āindefinitely,ā thatās not really indefinitely. Youāll probably still be able to authorize in 2 years, but 5, I doubt it. I certainly would assume you wonāt be able to in 10. They are going to want to get rid of any costs related to the authorization server as soon as they can without public backlash.
- Finale has completely ceased development so itās no longer compatible with any future OS updates. For any Finale work in the future, you need a computer thatās essentially frozen in time. Download the Finale installers as they wonāt be available forever either, and set up a barebones computer without an internet connection on by default. Disable all automatic updates. I have a older Dell laptop for this, and I only recently remembered we still have a really old Mac Mini that was the ākids computerā when they were younger, so Iāll clean that one up too.
- Create XMLs of all Finale files. This is thankfully pretty easy as long as you have āinclude subfoldersā checked in your MusicXML preferences. I did find it didnāt keep the folder structure correct, so I broke it down into smaller chunks. I also might have been bumping up against some sort of character limit with multiple folder levels, but in any case Iāve done that for all 14K Finale files I have.
- Create PDFs of everything. Iām slowly working on this. From mid-00s on, I did this anyway, but have about a decade of stuff at least that needs to be done. There are font substitution issues with older files too that have to be addressed. (I used Adobe Multiple Master fonts for a time.) This is a painful process Iām just slowly going through.
- Have a good file management system. With XMLs, PDFs, and the original Finale files, there has to be a system to make sure all 3 formats are completely backed up safely in multiple physical locations and at least one cloud location.
Thatās basically it. An old computer to continue to do revision work if needed, XMLs to convert to Dorico if needed, and PDFs to proof conversions against, all safely backed up in multiple locations.
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Thank you for your Sept 26 posting. There is a lot here for me to think about, being new to Dorico from Finale. Thanks! Shannon
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Might be safest to use a virtual machine for this in addition to or instead of a computer frozen in time. An old computer can always fail and then youāre stuck. A virtual machine could be backed up and booted on another system, so you have more options.
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Iām working with two publishers that are seeking to exactly replicate their existing house styles, and use Dorico going forward where possible, Finale when necessary.
Iām looking at well over 200k of files. Iāve got plans and they do include keeping folder structures in place during XML, etc. exports. Iāve been working through it now and will post when a solid plan is in place. There is someone on the Finale Power users group creating the same thing but doing it with FileMaker to run the process. Looks promising but my tests using the app were not perfect enough to really use it yet. Robert Patterson is starting to do some Lua scripts to massage XML files to help with import, with a welcome for user pull requests. Even stating that it might be written in a way to not need Finale to run. Itās just the start of some help with converting and I expect we will see more as time passes. My plan is to make some slow well thought out, conscious decisionsā no knee jerk reactions. We have a bit of time.
Iām in the process of replicating styles in all books and series so the transition is smooth for customers and the mix and match of using old and new PDFs in books is hopefully seamless.
I still have an old Mac Pro (mid 2010) on Sierra (10.12.6) running Finale 2012 along with other old machines, even OS9 machines and 3.5.2. I never rely that they will be there but it always gives me an option to do quicker edits if need be, so the sky isnāt falling tomorrow or even a few years from now, especially when it comes to opening a file to convert XML or minor corrections. We do need to move on though. Just make sure you have a Mac mini on a shelf, in a box, loaded and authorized. Virtual machines donāt give me the comfort of authorizations always being there. Export the different variations of file formats to not loose the relevant data if reproduction is necessary enough to re-engrave in Dorico. And enjoy learning a new program! Cheers!
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This would be very welcome - do you have any link for details on this? Not sure where this was posted.
For print publishers, Iād argue that having a PDF is more important than a brand new file in Dorico. Some publishers still print their āpre-digitalā back catalogue from scanned images of good copies.
I always create a PDF of every job, from the days when opening a .mus file for printing sometimes produced āvariableā results.
I have some old installers that no longer work, so having the installed files on a backed-up disk is more important. (If the installers have scripts or executable components that rely on older OSes.)
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I would be very careful with Virtual Machines.
I donāt know how the Authorization process in Finale works, but I guess they use some kind of machine ID. I know from other vendors who create it based on hardware information and if you move a VM from one physical machine to another this information will change.
If Finale relies on this kind of ID it will stop working if the VM is moved.
From VMware I know there is either a āmoveā or a ācopyā of VMs, as far as I remember the copy is probably working, definitely not the move.
Finale takes the machine characteristics from the VM itself. I used to run old copies of Finale in a Parallels VM on a Mac, and it worked fine on a new Mac.
It still depends on what characteristics it is based. If Parallels keeps these IDs across physical hardware, then you are safe. But at least VMware is modifying this information, they look into the physical hardware, I donāt know what Oracle VirtualBox is doing here.
In any case, if you plan to do this I would really test it before dropping the old machine.
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You have it backwards:
But moving the VM to another PC wonāt change the uuid unless you say āI copied itā as per that page.
And in VMware it is just based on the UUID. Iāve never heard of any virtualization platform that derives the identifier from the underlying hardware, except as a seed. It would completely break the ability to use the virtualization platform for a cluster, which is one of the most frequent uses of VMs.
Uhmā¦ not enough coffee this morning 