File suddenly will not open!

Alex-Belobraydich wrote on 10/12/2025, 5:34 PM

I had almost completed a song I've been working on using my Music Maker 2020 Plus Edition program, and after simply restarting my computer one day now I suddenly cannot open that file! I constantly get an error message saying "File C:// ... etc. Cannot be opened." My other saved music files open just fine, and I have done all the updates. I've tried restarting my computer and even uninstalling/reinstalling the Music Maker program and all updates-still unable to pull up this file. I don't want to have to start all over again!!!! Is it still possible to recover this file?

Note; This happened to me once before a few years ago, and by uninstalling/reinstalling the program it was fixed. But none of that seemed to work this time.

Comments

gjonny wrote on 10/15/2025, 1:21 AM

@Alex-Belobraydich I've been away from Music Maker for awhile. But as I recall, the program creates backup files of a project every few minutes. I believe these files are stored in the project folder. hth

Alex-Belobraydich wrote on 10/16/2025, 9:27 PM

I tried going into the project folder and now I get this response:

What does this mean? That's the same file I've used to open my song before-how can I fix this?

Alessandro-Arfasatti wrote on 10/17/2025, 8:26 AM

"C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\Screenshot 2025-10-16 185041.png"

Alessandro-Arfasatti wrote on 10/17/2025, 8:26 AM

what can i do ?? Help me please

emmrecs wrote on 10/17/2025, 9:05 AM

@Alex-Belobraydich

@gjonny suggested you look for backups of your project file. Did you do this? With what result? With reference to the file named in your screenshot, I suspect it may, unfortunately, be corrupted and so not readable by MMM. If it is corrupt and you do not have any backups I think your project is permanently lost, sorry.

@Alessandro-Arfasatti

I assume you intended to post an image but you have actually shown where the image is saved on your computer, which obviously we cannot access. Please post the actual image if you wish for help from other users. We assume the problem you experience is the same as that shown by @Alex-Belobraydich, i.e., a file can no longer be opened? If yours is a different problem it should be posted to a new thread and your posts here hidden.

Jeff
Forum Moderator

Alex-Belobraydich wrote on 10/18/2025, 11:25 AM

@Alex-Belobraydich

@gjonny suggested you look for backups of your project file. Did you do this? With what result? With reference to the file named in your screenshot, I suspect it may, unfortunately, be corrupted and so not readable by MMM. If it is corrupt and you do not have any backups I think your project is permanently lost, sorry.

...

Jeff
Forum Moderator

I'm hoping I didn't just lose the file...Nothing happened to lose it-no system crashes, I didn't have any viruses, etc. It was literally working one day and then (after a simple computer restart) it suddenly didn't work anymore...

Please forgive my ignorance, but where on my computer would a backup of a project file be? And would it be classified with the '.MMM' file type after the title? I have gone to my computer's File Explorer, and into my 'Magix Project Files' folder, where the file "In The Dark Again 2025.MMM" is located (with a little speaker icon to the left of it). But when I try to open the file from there it also still tells me it 'cannot be opened.'

Is this the location you're referring to or is there somewhere else I should be looking for a backup of the file?

gjonny wrote on 10/18/2025, 2:48 PM

@Alex-Belobraydich Music Maker does include a Help file. As I recall, it was quite helpful.

johnebaker wrote on 10/18/2025, 4:26 PM

@Alex-Belobraydich

The auto save backup files should be in the same folder as the project file that is corrupt.

The backup files have the project name with _BAK0.MM_ suffix. Depending on how many auto saves have occurred while working on a project, the digit before the . (period) will be in the range 0 to 9

The digit is reset to 0 after the 9th backup, so the latest may not be the highest number backup, the files timestamp will tell you which is the latest.

John EB
Forum Moderator

Alex-Belobraydich wrote on 10/18/2025, 9:04 PM

@Alex-Belobraydich

Hi

The auto save backup files should be in the same folder as the project file that is corrupt.

The backup files have the project name with _BAK0.MM_ suffix. Depending on how many auto saves have occurred while working on a project, the digit before the . (period) will be in the range 0 to 9

The digit is reset to 0 after the 9th backup, so the latest may not be the highest number backup, the files timestamp will tell you which is the latest.

John EB
Forum Moderator

Thank you! I was able to find the backup file I needed with that designation. All I needed to do was set it to open with Music Maker and I now have that file back!! Thanks so much for your assistance - SO glad I don't have to start all over again!

johnebaker wrote on 10/19/2025, 3:33 AM

@Alex-Belobraydich

Thanks for the feedback, happy to hear you have recovered the project.

I would suggest when working on a project over a period of time that you save using 'versioning' eg after each editing session save the project then use Save project as add a suffix to the filename eg -01 -02 etc.

At the next editing session, use the latest version number.

HTH

John EB