Does that file have .mus (2011 or older) or .musx (2012–current) at the end?

If not, append the name with the right suffix and see if that does it.

Thanks for getting back to me. None of my files were opening. I was also getting an Error ID=-35, which I couldn't identify either. Eventually, I gave up and rebooted the computer. It works fine now. Finale is a querky app.

http://makemusic.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5694/~/id%3D--35

Ahhhh . . . . . . ! ! ! ! ! ! Thanks!

If I try Mike Halloran's link, I get the following.

---

Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.

We can’t connect to the server at makemusic.custhelp.com.
If that address is correct, here are three other things you can try:

    Try again later.
    Check your network connection.
    If you are connected but behind a firewall, check that Firefox has permission to access the Web.

---

Wayback Machine doesn't have anything for that domain.

Was there some magic fix?

Th link worked a year ago and helped someone. This year, it’s changed. 

I no no longer remember what it said. 

Ken,

You could try asking your question via the "Submit a request" link at the top of the page.

Already did.  Thanks all!

This thread dealt with two different error messages. One of us might know the answer but you have given us no clue as to the problem. 

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/215729367-General-Discussion-House-Rules

I've had many instances where I have a project open in Finale 25.5.0.259 (as well as older versions) under macOS 10.12.6 and any attempts to save (garden variety musx document) or Export as Finale 2012 (mus document) fail with an Error Occurred ID -2 message.  If I leave an arrangement open on Finale idle for a day or so, it seems to fail consistently. My work around is to screenshot it (or PDF or save as musicxml or save as midi - can't save as Finale 2012), reopen the last saved version, and hope I hadn't made a lot of changes.  I'm getting used to closing out Finale and reopening before I do any work as well as saving much more frequently, so I've been coping.  My desired result of asking for help is to get to a state where Finale just saves any file anytime I ask it without popping error messages.

Relatively fresh install of OS and Finale.  No issues in any other software.  The Finale issue has been happening for months, but I've been so busy with other things that I haven't had a lot of spare cycles to figure it out.  I did just put in a support ticket or whatever, so hopefully that gets an answer.  Either way, if I find something useful, I'll add it to the thread.....

Thanks all!

Knowing what goes on inside a computer while "no one is using it," I would never leave Finale or any other program open when I wasn't at the computer. If people do and suffer no ill effects, I am happy for them; but "dormant" computers are not static.

-2 is a generic OS error that says you don't have permissions to write to (fill in the blank here). If your folders are not in the default location on your boot drive, there's about a 99% chance that a connection went to sleep — if on a USB remote drive, that goes to 99.9999999%. 

It's not the only possibility, however, and, if your temp and Finale folders are in the correct locations...

If it always happens, delete the preferences and that will fix it. This only happens after inactivity, however...

Knowing what goes on inside a computer while "no one is using it," I would never leave Finale or any other program open when I wasn't at the computer. If people do and suffer no ill effects, I am happy for them; but "dormant" computers are not static.

What Adrian says.

I've had many instances where I have a project open in Finale 25.5.0.259 (as well as older versions) under macOS 10.12.6 and any attempts to save (garden variety musx document) or Export as Finale 2012 (mus document) fail with an Error Occurred ID -2 

That could be caused by a memory leak. Many apps and plugs and all browsers have them. A Mac should be booted once a day to keep the effects to a minimum.

App Nap is often the culprit. Like a memory leak, it doesn't have to be Finale that is having the issue—something else can be the culprit. Unless you are on a portable and conserving battery power is important, disable App Nap globally. Many apps do not play nicely with it.

Disable App Nap in Mac OS X

Copy the following command and paste into Terminal.app then hit <Enter> or <Return> key.

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled -bool YES

Type your Admin password when prompted then  <Enter> or <Return>

Reboot or close and restart applications

Re-Enable App Nap in Mac OS X

defaults delete NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled

Reboot or close and restart applications

Once apps have been relaunched or the Mac restarted, you can confirm that App Nap is disabled by backgrounding a couple of processes or hiding inactive applications for 30 minutes or so, and then checking the “Energy” panel in Activity Monitor. Look under the “App Nap” sort section and everything will be listed as “No” including the app that was backgrounded. This is really an advanced setting to toggle off and most users should leave this feature turned on, specifically because it benefits those concerned about energy usage or maintaining the longest battery life possible.

HA!  My computer is never "dormant", even when I'm not sitting in front of it.  That said, Finale is the only software that I've ever had problems leaving open.  Fortunately, it's also one that loads quickly and has an easy "Open Recent" dropdown on its launch window.

Below is what support suggested.  I left "com.makemusic.finale.fprf" in place (looked like just my MIDI settings and stuff), but changed my "Temp Files" folder to something inside of home directory ("~/Studio/ZZZFinaleTemp") instead of in the default "/private/tmp/" location.  I then left open my latest arrangement all night and just tried to save it.  Success!

Thanks all!

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First, if you have work to save and are unable to try using MusicXML as an alternate saving method:
1. Open your document.
2. Click File > Export > MusicXML.
3. Save your document as an XML file to your Desktop.
4. Quit Finale without saving.

Next, I'd like to start by clearing Finale's preferences:
1. Quit Finale.
2. In the Finder program toolbar, choose Go > Go to Folder.
3. Type or copy & paste the following location: "~/library/preferences" (without quotes).
4. In the Preferences folder, find a file named "com.makemusic.finale.fprf" and drag it into the Trash.
5. Empty your Trash.
6. Restart your computer.
7. Relaunch Finale.

Now that we have cleared Finale's preferences:
1. Create a new folder on your Desktop or within Documents named "FinaleTemp".
2. Open Finale.
3. Close the Launch Window and any other messages you may see, then choose Finale [your version number] > Preferences.
4. Select Folders along the left.
5. Check and select Temp Files, then select the folder you just created.
6. Click Apply.
7. Click OK to close Preferences.
8. Close and reopen Finale.

To recover your work from before:
1. Click File > Import > MusicXML.
2. Import the file you just saved from the Desktop.
3. Save the new file under a new name.
4. Now you can delete the XML from your Desktop and continue working with the newly-saved Finale file.

If I had to go through any of that to recover, I'd be even more likely to close the program while I was away from the computer. :-)

(I am fortunate that I have a new computer that loads the Garritan sounds really fast.)

On my mac (OSX 10.11.6 El Cap, Finale 25.5) I wound up restarting in developer mode (reboot with cmd-s) and forced a file system check (when the screen stops listing things, type in fsck -fy, when it's done, type reboot). Several bad blocks on the boot SSD were found, so the file system was modified, ie, repaired. On reopening Finale, the files opened instantly from the cached version.

Is TRIM enabled on that SSD?

Yes, the SSD is TRIMmed. it's a busy 'disk,' though, and i expect most of the difficulty is thrown by the partition reserved for photoshop scratch space. only takes one bad block on an SSD's boot partition to kill an application though. 

: )

What drive utilities do you use?

D'oh! - never followed up with my root cause.

For some reason, mdworker on my Mac was running as a different user id than my user (uid 501 for mdworker, uid 500 for my user) and somehow ownerships for files were getting flipped.  If I worked on a project for short amount of time, I was fine, but if I left it up overnight, it'd be broken the next day. 

I don't remember exactly how I fixed it.