XML import does not work at all

[rory]

(I sent this question to tech support with a trouble ticket but got back the message from Yanina Adao that all tech support questions should be emailed to dorico-auf-deutsch@steinberg.de. I had not heard that tech support trouble tickets were no longer the way to get tech support…)

I created tens of thousands of Music XML files from my Finale files, thinking that, though there might need to be some tweaking done in Dorico, I could import and work with them - but I have been working on using and learning Dorico since I got it, and never previously explored importing MusicXMLs. Now that I have tried (with *many* different files), they all fail - it has never yet worked to import one of them. On rare occasions, I get an error message (“ERROR - Element ‘root-step’: [facet ‘enumeration’] The value ‘’ is not an element of the set {‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘E’, ‘F’, ‘G’}.
At line 2157 of /Users/rory/Dropbox/rorystuart/Music Stuff on dropbox/finale charts/RJ originals/Waiting To Be Kissed folder/Waiting To Be Kissed.musicxml
ERROR - Element ‘root-step’: ‘’ is not a valid value of the atomic type ‘step’.
At line 2157 of /Users/rory/Dropbox/rorystuart/Music Stuff on dropbox/finale charts/RJ originals/Waiting To Be Kissed folder/Waiting To Be Kissed.musicxml”
But, almost always, I get no error message, but just see nothing appear in Dorico from the import. Wondering if there could be something wrong with the MusicXML files, I tried importing one into MuseScore, and it immediately worked perfectly.
Can you offer me any suggestions for why my Dorico Pro (Version 6.0.0.6026, running on Apple M2 Max running OS 13.2.1 ) fails to import any MusicXML files and what I can do to try to fix this? (The only not helpful suggestion would be to update to latest Mac OS - I need to be able to at least successfully import MusicXML files before I can do an upgrade that will completely stop Finale from functioning!) Thanks!

(I can attach to this forum post Finale-generated XML files that will not import, but since none of them will, and they import fine to MuseScore, I’ll be surprised if there is anything you can get from looking at the XML files themselves)

p.s. - For the Forum - I also can not test whether the newest release of Dorico solves this problem - In the past, tech support tried to help me but could never get Steinberg Download Assistant to work, so I went through the process of downloading each element by hand - with tech support telling me exactly what I should and should not download, in what order, etc… Ideally, I’m hoping someday they get Steinberg Download Assistant (apparently it works for some people, and one user told me it is a problem with my computer but could not offer any help in figuring out what the “problem” is - so maybe I should say “on my machine”!). But for now, I do not want Dorico to stop working again because of things I did not know I should or should not download to upgrade to Dorico 6.2.30, from my current 6.0.0.6026. Since tech support would not answer this question, do any of you Forum users know exactly what I need to do to upgrade (obviously, without using broken Download Assistant), and if that should work on my current machine and OS?

[Andro]

Well I think your principal problem is the Steinberg Download assistant. Fix that first. Uninstall it and reinstall it. Do not forget to reboot. Use whatever mac remover program that removes ALL the components.

I am not saying an update to 6.2 will magically fix your issue, but there’s clearly something broken with your installation.

Here is where you can download the very latest version. Notice there was an update on August 27 2026.

Steinberg - Creativity First

[k_b]

@Andro

Uninstall it and reinstall it. Do not forget to reboot. Use whatever mac remover program that removes ALL the components.

Andro, thank you for your help.
Yes, this is how the thread starter should proceed - except your advice about uninstalling. That’s actually not necessary and even not recommended on a Mac. Especially using “remover” apps..

[k_b]

Mr. rory,
if you could post one of your 10.000 troublesome xml files here, we can check whether we can open it with or without problems. Yes, there can be issues with Finale producing bad .xml files. But I wouldn’t expect this to happen to almost all of your files.
So if you could post one of them here, we will check.

[Vadian]

@k_b

except your advice about uninstalling.

Why not? Steinberg even provides a dedicated app in /Applications/Steinberg Download Assistant/ (on Mac) to uninstall the download assistant.

[k_b]

Yes dedicated application uninstaller scripts are fine of course, but not these “Mac remover” or “cleaner” apps. They count on the ignorance of unexperienced users paired with half-knowledge from the Windows world - and quite often do more harm than real improvement.

[MarkSealey]

There is a big difference, though, between bespoke uninstallers and – I agree – extremely dubious, ‘cleaning’ apps, which Yes, usually do more harm than good.

[rory]

Thank you much for your replies! First the good news: after using their uninstall on the old version, I followed your advice and was able to successfully reinstall the Steinberg Download Assistant and, even more stunningly, to use it to install the latest (6.2.30) version of Dorico! This was a very happy surprise - the first time the Steinberg Download Assistant ever worked for me! The not-so-good news is that I still get nothing in Dorico when I tell it to import a MusicXml file - it asks me if I want to “Create All New Players” or “Merge with Existing Players Where Possible” and, whichever I choose, there is no error message, but nothing appears in Dorico after I do this. I do now notice that the file I try to import is grayed out in that dialogue box, and there is nothing I can seem to do to make it ungrayed so I can check the (also grayed out) check box. I’m hoping there is something obvious that I am stupidly missing! I am attaching an example of a file where I have this problem:

Synechdoche in Schenectady-Eb.musicxml (44.4 KB)

Thanks for any help/guidance you can give! - Rory

p.s. - I finally found this advice online, but surely importing into Musescore and then again saving as a musicxml file, which one subsequently imports into Dorico, can not be the necessary and only way, right?

“open the file in MuseScore or a similar free notation editor, re-export it as a fresh MusicXML file, and then bring that new file into Dorico.”

[Vadian]

On my Mac with the latest Dorico version the file could be imported without problems.

Please try the following:

Open Preferences (⌘,), select MusicXML and uncheck all checkboxes in the import section.

This ignores some Notation and Engraving Options of the XML file and follows its own options/rules.

[benwiggy]

@rory

“open the file in MuseScore or a similar free notation editor, re-export it as a fresh MusicXML file, and then bring that new file into Dorico.”

You might see whether the XML file opens in Finale again, and how successfully.

But your example file opens for me in Dorico without error.
Synechdoche in Schenectady-Eb.dorico (1.5 MB)

[rory]

@Vadian

select MusicXML and uncheck all checkboxes in the import section.

Wow, both of you are able to import it, and I can not even though I now have the current version of Dorico … I tried opening Preferences, selecting MusicXML, and unchecking all checkboxes, but I still have the same problem. I get to this screen, it does not let me select and check the (grayed out) file name under “import flows”, and nothing imports. Am I correct in assuming that the filename is not grayed out for you and allows you to put a check in the checkbox before you click “okay”? Can you think of anything else that could be causing this problem?

[TonH]

I see the same as you when I try to import (Mac D6.1.10), but if I just open (instead of importing) the XML I have no problem

[benwiggy]

Yes, you’re importing the XML into an existing document. Try opening it instead.

(Also – the XML was just one instrumental part. Do you not have a Finale score of all the instruments that you can export/import?)

[rory]

Wow, amazing! Importing them always failed, and it did not even occur to me that, in importing MusicXML files created in Finale, one should not “import” - when I do “open” within Dorico, the Finale-generated MusicXML actually does open! I never thought to try this, and never saw anything about it on the web - thank you SO MUCH for your help and this pointer!!!

[rory]

No doubt that Dorico having in the file menu “import” and one of the import options being “MusicXML” tricked me into thinking that would import a MusicXML But I so appreciate your help, and knowing that “open” is the solution! Thanks again!

[benwiggy]

There should be no difference between the two. I’ve just tried importing your XML into an otherwise empty Dorico, and it still opens.

So we’ve still no idea why it was failing for you.

[TonH]

@benwiggy

So we’ve still no idea why it was failing for you

Maybe the OP was confused the same way as I was.

The import dialogue won’t let you select the flow to import.

But if you press OK nevertheless, this file is imported.

But if you don’t realise it is imported as a new flow, it was not obvious for me I had to navigate to the extra flow to make the contents visible.

So for me the confusion had two parts

• not being able to select the shown flow
• xml being imported in an extra flow which wasn’t visible (without scrolling) after the import.

For the first part: it seems the same dialogue is shown when you try to import flows from another dorico project. Flows in that case are selectable.

Flow Import Options dialog - Dorico Pro - 6.2

[Spielmann_M]

I suspect that if Dorico does not recognise multiple flows in the source (i.e. the source contains only ONE flow), then you cannot tick the box.
When I try to import the *.dorico file provided by Benwiggy above, it looks exactly the same, and I can’t tick the box there either, because that file also contains only ONE flow.

It seems that flows can only be selected if the source file actually contains multiple flows.

Do you understand what I mean (translated with deepL)?

[Janus]

@rory

No doubt that Dorico having in the file menu “import” and one of the import options being “MusicXML” tricked me into thinking that would import a MusicXML

It does!
Importing always adds the imported file as new flow (at the end of any existing flows in the score).

Also, an xml file can only contain a single flow, so flow selection for the import will be disabled.