Open the file and choose File > Export > MusicXML. Pick a name and a place, then save. Finale creates a new file. The original is left untouched.

Also save a PDF of the finished score. MusicXML carries the musical information. The PDF records how the page looked for you. The two together are the safer option.

MusicXML is the open exchange format for scores in modern Western notation. Michael Good developed it around 2000 so that a score would not be trapped in a single program. MakeMusic, the maker of Finale, later took over its development. Today the standard is maintained by the W3C Music Notation Community Group. More than 250 programs read the format, including Dorico, Sibelius, MuseScore and Capella. A .musx file is a Finale file. A MusicXML file is a score file.

PDF and MIDI are not substitutes. A PDF is a picture of the page: you can print it and read it, but you cannot really edit it. MIDI knows pitches and rhythms, but not how accidentals work, how dynamics are engraved, or where the slurs and lyric syllables go. MusicXML carries that layer: notes, rests, key signatures, time signatures, articulation, dynamics, lyrics and which staff a voice belongs to.

Not everything survives the transfer. Page layout, some graphics and expressions that belong to one program are often lost. Afterwards the score is playable and editable, but not automatically ready to publish. Open one complex file in the program you are moving to and compare it with the PDF before you convert the rest of the archive.

Finale has supported MusicXML for many years, and MakeMusic itself developed the format in its later years. Finale 27 wrote MusicXML 4.0 from the day it shipped.

Michael Good made the key point on the Steinberg forum in August 2024: a MusicXML file holds more engraving detail than a Finale file. Much of what Finale shows on screen is calculated by the program and never stored in the file. The export writes that information in. A third-party reader of .musx would recover less, not more.

So the way through Finale is the right one, for as long as Finale still opens. Tools exist that turn .musx files into MusicXML without Finale. For simple files they are a stopgap. For an archive where layout, articulation and parts matter, exporting from Finale is still the better source. Those tools cannot read old .mus files at all.

From Finale 25, MusicXML export is built into the program, and versions 25, 26 and 27 all work the same way. The command is under File > Export. MakeMusic’s guide is here.

1. Prepare. Put the .musx and .mus files in one folder. Copy the originals first, and never work on the only copy. Start Finale and close the Launch Window.
2. Set the preferences. The folder export uses whatever is set in the MusicXML Preferences dialog. Open it under File > Export > MusicXML Preferences. Three settings are worth checking before the first run:
• 🔢 The latest XML version, usually 4.0. Finale 27 can write it. Check the setting anyway: on some installations it is still 3.1. MakeMusic’s guide shows where you choose the version. 4.0 carries more, including linked parts. If your target program cannot read 4.0, or only with warnings, 3.1 is the safe choice. If in doubt, export a test file in both versions and open them in the program you plan to use.
• 📄 Uncompressed XML. The compressed file (.mxl) is smaller and fine for storage. Uncompressed XML (.musicxml or .xml) can be opened, compared and processed further, for example with xml2ly. For an archive that should not stay trapped in Finale, that is the better choice. The folder-export setting can be chosen separately from the setting for single files.
• 📁 Include subfolders. If the pieces are in subfolders, turn this on. Without it, the export only handles the top level.
3. Translate. Choose File > Export > Translate Folder to MusicXML and select the folder.
4. Read the warning. Finale warns that existing files of the same name will be overwritten. Agree only if that is what you want.

Files with the same name in different subfolders collide once everything lands in one destination. Finale also opens each file in its own window and does not reliably close it again. On a very large batch, memory use grows until the program stops mid-run. Work in batches, then count whether every Finale file has a MusicXML file beside it, and run the rest again.

Users have reported that folder export in Finale 27.1 failed on some Windows machines. From 27.2 it works again. If you have Finale 27, update to the latest build first. If the menu item still hangs, you can try the export via Plug-ins > FinaleScript > Batch Process > Batch Export MusicXML.

Up to Finale 2014.5, the full export ran through the Dolet add-on. Dolet 7 can also translate whole folders, but it only writes MusicXML 3.1. It is a 32-bit plug-in, it requires 32-bit Java, and it officially runs with Finale 2011 to 2014.5. On a current Windows or Mac the installation often fails. On macOS from Catalina onwards it no longer works at all. If an older installation reports a missing MusicXML.dll during export, the problem is usually this plug-in, not your scores.

The practical way is not to rescue the files inside the old installation, but to open them in a newer one. Finale 25 and later can read older .mus and .musx files, and you then use the same folder export as above. If only the old version can still open the files, print a PDF first. That keeps the look of the score even when export no longer works. A third-party tool that reads .musx without Finale is not a substitute, and it cannot read old .mus files at all.

• the original .mus or .musx files, for as long as Finale still opens
• one MusicXML file per piece, the format other programs can read
• a PDF of the finished score, as a picture of the page

If you want to publish the archive as an edition, not only keep it safe, you can upload the MusicXML file as the basis of a notation in the Soundnotation Creator. If the MusicXML and the PDF made from it are in good shape, you can build an edition from them. Our rule is that working files, scores included, stay open and editable, and are not tied to a program that has been discontinued. They remain usable even if that software disappears.

If you want to distribute your sheet music with us and you are stuck with the files, use the contact form. Include the Finale version, and say whether the files still open. We will look at the archive and see whether we can take on the export in that particular case. This is not a standing service: the files have to open, and the job has to be a manageable size.