"starts/ends voice" question

I don’t think I understand exactly how this works. for some reason, I can get it to work in some instances but not others, so there’s something about the function that I’m not grasping (ie: how and when it can be used.)

I have a measure of cellos.
The first note is played by the entire section.
The 2nd note is played by half the section.

I’d like rests to appear in the upper voice (to indicate that it’s the lower voice that is playing at that point.)
I change the lower voice note to down stem voice 1 (to differentiate it from up stem voice 1).
But now rests appear beneath the first note of the measure as WELL as above the 2nd note of the measure.

When I click on what should be the 1st note of the divided section and try to apply “starts voice” to it, nothing happens, the switch just goes back to being in “off” position.

If I remove the rest at the beginning, it adds another rest in the previous measure.

so what am I not doing right? or misunderstanding?

(the idea is that the F# on beat one is tutti, then the D on beat 4 is inside desks for the next couple measures, before the outside desks rejoin the group but in an actual divisi)

Select the rest you don’t want to see, then go Edit > Remove Rests. Always the most reliable way to hide rests.

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yes, except when I do that, it adds an unwanted rest in the previous measure.

is there something wrong with my file, maybe? like a voice that was never told to “end”, somewhere before this particular measure?

AH AH AH!!!

I added a new voice (instead of switching to voice 1 down stem) and it worked perfectly!

somehow, I was under the impression that voice 1 down stem was like a different voice than voice 1 up stem.
it SEEMS to act as such in other contexts.