Finale 2014 Score Backup

Composers use MakeMusic Finale to compose, edit, and play back musical scores. Finale 2014 and later versions save these scores as .MUSX files. By default, whenever a user saves a MUSX file, Finale automatically creates a backup of that file. The backup is stored in the following directory:

~/​Documents/​Finale Files/​Backups

Each backup uses the same filename as the MUSX file from which it was created, except that the backup's filename ends with bak.musx to denote that it is a backup. Finale users and documentation often refer to these backup files as BAKX files, even though they use the .musx extension.

How to stop Finale from creating BAKX files

If you want to stop Finale from creating BAKX files:

NOTE: Older versions of Finale save backups as .BAK files.

You can open a BAKX file with MakeMusic Finale (Windows, Mac). To do so, select File → Open... from the program's menu bar. Then, navigate to and open your BAKX file.

After you open your BAKX file, you can use the File → Save As... option to save the file as a normal MUSX file.

You can use MakeMusic Finale to export the score a BAKX file contains in a variety of formats, including:

Programs that open BAKX files

Updated: February 22, 2023