Patch releases force document update

Dorico
1

I have a question regarding the Dorico file update prompt during patch upgrades (e.g., from 6.2.10 to 6.2.20). Since patches are generally focused on bug fixes and performance, I am curious why the software requires every file to be updated. As a developer myself, I’d assume this usually isn’t necessary for a patch upgrade.

I often work on dozens of documents a day, so manually accepting this prompt for each file adds up. Additionally, I’m concerned about backwards compatibility. If I update a file to 6.2.20, I assume it can no longer be opened in 6.2.10, which would cause issues when I am traveling and working on a secondary computer.

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2

You can open your file on earlier versions, but might lose things introduced in that new version.

You’ll get this warning

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You could of course update your second computer too :slight_smile:

3

Is this documented somewhere that most of us failed to read for whatever reason?

4

Searching for “earlier versions” in the manual brought me here

5

You can disable this warning in Preferences if you want to. But the good news is that Dorico projects are backwards compatible, and a project saved in Dorico 6.2.20 can be opened in Dorico 6.2.10 or earlier with no issues. Any new features that are present in the project that can’t be understood by the earlier version will not be rendered, but will only be lost if the project is actually resaved in that earlier version.

The reason why you see this message is that Dorico’s file format changes quite often, almost always between every minor update, because we have to load and save some new data. For example, any new engraving, layout or notation option that is added in a minor update needs to have its state saved and loaded, and that requires a revision to the file format.

6

So, yes. I failed to read that! Thank you.