Where Does Sibelius Save Scores?
Sibelius drops new scores in a Scores folder inside Documents. Windows and Mac defaults, the Backup Scores safety net, and how to change it.
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Every Sibelius version creates a Scores folder inside your Documents folder and saves new scores there unless you tell it otherwise. That one folder is the easiest thing to back up. Scores are small, usually tens of kilobytes plus a little per page, so the whole folder copies in seconds.
Two safety nets come free. Auto-save snapshots a copy every 10 minutes and cleans up on a normal quit. Backup Scores keeps a versioned copy each time you save manually, up to 200 by default. Change all three locations under File > Preferences > Saving and Exporting.
Where Sibelius stores this, by platform
C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Scores
Default home for every score. The Backup Scores subfolder inside holds versioned copies from each manual save. Drag the whole Scores folder to an external drive for a complete backup.
~/Documents/Scores
Same Scores folder and Backup Scores subfolder as Windows. Plugin and house-style data live separately under ~/Library/Application Support/Avid/Sibelius.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change where Sibelius saves scores?
Go to File > Preferences > Saving and Exporting and pick a new default folder. The same page controls the backup folder, how many backup copies to keep, and the auto-save interval. Existing scores stay where they are.
Sibelius crashed, where is my work?
Restart Sibelius normally and it offers to restore auto-saved scores. If you already closed it cleanly, those snapshots are gone by design. Check the Backup Scores subfolder for the last manually saved version instead.
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