Finale Forum

I'm using a brand new MacBook Pro w/ 16GB of Ram and Quad Core Processor, running on Catalina 10.15, finale 26. I cannot use any keyboard functions in Finale for note entry, it does allow me to type text into text blocks but they are not moveable. I cannot enter any notes (speedy or simple entry), articulations, dynamics etc with the keyboard. I have also used a USB keyboard and mouse that I tried using, but that did not work either. I checked the shortcuts to make sure they were set correctly, and all appears to be normal. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Finale a handful of times and that has not worked either.

I'm hoping to resolve this as soon as possible as I have work that I have to prepare for the next semester of my Master's, so I'm willing to try whatever. Thanks

Are you a new user? No offense intended, but is it possible you may be doing something incorrectly?

Otherwise, contact tech support. Something is definitely amiss.

No offense taken, new to the forum, but have used Finale for about 8 years now. I reached out to makemusic well over 3 weeks ago and haven't heard anything. I got a new MacBook as my old one from 2013 died a couple weeks ago, and it ran great on that machine, first time I've had issues with the program.

They’re using Covid as an excuse, so it is certainly taking them longer. But three weeks is ridiculous.

Have you tried installing it in a new user account? Maybe something else on the mew computer is conflicting.

Rest assured, though, it is fixable. There are too many people using Macs for it to be a platform issue!

oh my god, created a new user account on the Mac, opened up Finale, works great! that is relieving and infuriating. Thanks a lot for that idea Miker! life saver!

Glad I could help. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut, sometimes!

kjmurray1593 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:15 pm

oh my god, created a new user account on the Mac, opened up Finale, works great! that is relieving and infuriating. Thanks a lot for that idea Miker! life saver!

That means the problem is with the Finale pref file in your old user account. Go back there, and delete it. (Otherwise, you'll just create a new user account every time you get a user problem....)

I don’t know, BT. If he uninstalled and reinstalled the program as he said in the first post, he would have gotten a new prefs file every time. I’m more inclined to think that there is a conflict with another app.

No: uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't remove user pref files. (Well, it depends how you uninstall: there is no Mac uninstaller, you have to do it yourself.)

If a new user account fixes it, then the installation is fine and the problem is something in the old user account. It could be incompatible apps that are also running, but it's usually prefs. Particularly Finale's prefs, which still rot like grapes on a vine.

"I've reinstalled twelve times, and still isn't working. How many more times must I reinstall to make it work?"