Sibelius - the leading music composition and notation software

I moved my Sibelius scores from DropBox to my desktop. I cannot edit them. The error message I get is:

Unable to open score file... for writing

This has happened only to my Sibelius files, not any other text or music files (e.g. Logic).

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Robin Walker - 25 Jul 09:47AM (edited 25 Jul 09:48AM)

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Is this on Windows, or on macOS?

Check the file-system permissions for the Sibelius files in question, as they might be flagged as read-only, or not possess write-permissions for your account.

Also, check that the things you can see on your desktop are actual files, rather than short-cuts or links to the actual files in DropBox.

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Sibelius 2020.6/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2020.1, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Laurence Payne - 25 Jul 01:54PM

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Just in case you're not all that computer-literate...

R-click on the file sitting on your Desktop. For a start, check out the Read-only box. If it's ticked, un-tick it. Then Apply and OK.

Attachment

Annotation 2020-07-25 145405.png (32K)

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Deborah - 29 Jul 10:00AM

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This is on MacOS. I have permission to read and write these files. They are actual files on my desktop. They no longer exist in DropBox. The only thing that has changed is that I have moved them out of DropBox to my desktop (iCloud). As I said before, the only files that are affected in this way are Sibelius files.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Robin Walker - 29 Jul 10:10AM

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What do you mean by the reference to "(iCloud)"?

Please provide extra diagnostic information as follows:
- select one of the problem files with a single click;
- type "Cmd-i" to open the "Get Info" box;
- in the Get Info panel, ensure that the section "Sharing & Permissions" is expanded into visibility;
- take a screen-shot of the whole "Get Info" panel including the "Sharing & Permissions" section, save the screen-shot in PNG format, and attach it to your next post in this thread.

--
Sibelius 2020.6/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2020.1, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Deborah - 29 Jul 02:57PM

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The iCloud reference is because all of the documents on my desktop are automically in iCloud. Actually, that also changed at the same time that I removed the file from DropBox.

Attached is the information panel for one of the Sibelius files.

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Screenshot 2020-07-29 at 15.54.43.png (541K)

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Robin Walker - 29 Jul 03:20PM

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If you have Sibelius score files in the conventional location (Documents/Scores), rather than on the Desktop, are you able to edit them in, and save them from, the Sibelius application?

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Sibelius 2020.6/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2020.1, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Deborah - 29 Jul 05:03PM

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I just put a Sibelius file into Documents/Scores and when I tried to edit it, I got the same message.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Laurence Payne - 29 Jul 07:24PM

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"I have permission to read and write these files."

I think that assertion might deserve deeper investigation and confirmation.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Robin Walker - 29 Jul 08:07PM

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What version of macOS is on this Mac?
Is there a utility installed in the Mac called "Audio Hijack"?

--
Sibelius 2020.6/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2020.1, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Deborah - 31 Jul 06:44AM

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I have Mojave 10.14.6

I cannot find any utility called "Audio Hijack"

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Deborah - 31 Jul 06:40AM

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Here's the info box with the "read and write" permissions.

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Screenshot 2020-07-29 at 15.54.43.png (541K)

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Deborah - 31 Aug 09:45AM

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Has anyone any suggestions re this problem???

Thanks
Deborah

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Eric Crouch - 02 Sep 05:05PM

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I get this message occasionally when, for no particular reason, a file I am editing can't be saved. The only solution I can find is to save a copy, throw away the original and rename the copy.

--
Eric Crouch; Sibelius 2020.6, NotePerformer
iMac 4GHz with 64GB RAM running Catalina;
MacBook Air 2.2GHz with 8GB RAM running Catalina.
http://www.guitarloot.org.uk

Re: Unable to open score file
Posted by Heine Svendsen - 09 Jul 01:04PM

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Same problem here, but with Windows 10.
Cannot save or open. When trying to opén, the error message is something like "Unable to open file for writing".
Why does it need to be able to write, when opening?
Is it because Sibelius maybe needs to save a temporary file while opening?
I have tryed to open files from all locations and drives.
At one point I was able to drag-and-drop a file to an open Sibelius window, and this file could be saved.
After that I could open other files normally from the file-menu or by double-clicking on them.

I can always open one file though, and that's the "Blank" file in the Quick Start > New Score.
It can also be saved.
Only virus protection is Windows own.
All other programs work flawlesly.

Sibelius cannot be started as administrator. All other programmes can bes tarted as administrator (Right-click and choose start as admin).