Qt error, This application failed to start because it could not or load the Qt platform plugin "windows" in "".

bo_reddude · 3 Aug 2017, 18:16

I'm having errors when installing Frescobaldi which is a frontend for a musical notation software called lilypond.

Their website says they use Qt 4.0 (http://frescobaldi.org/links)

And if I click on that it takes me to Qt 5 page.

When I try to install the Frescobaldi application it throws an error after installing and and trying to start the app saying

This application failed to start because it could not or load the Qt platform plugin "windows" in "".

Reinstalling the application may fix the problem.

when I try to reinstall the same thing happens.

I also have musescore which I believe also uses QT,.
But I'm not sure.

I need to install Frescobaldi and I posted in their group forum but no one has replied yet. So I was wondering if this was something QT has problems with? How should I fix it?

I'm on windows vista 64 bit.

Any insights will help

jsulm · 3 Aug 2017, 08:50

@bo_reddude Are you trying to install https://github.com/wbsoft/frescobaldi/releases/download/v3.0.0/Frescobaldi.Setup.3.0.0.exe ?
If so then please ask the developers of that app for a solution.
That Windows installer should contain everything - you should not install Qt by yourself.

bo_reddude · 8 Mar 2017, 13:24

@jsulm

Yes. And I did ask them but no one has replied yet. So I figured maybe they don't know what the problem is, so I decided to ask in here.

Do you know the source of the problem. I googled and someone suggested having a qt.conf file in the same folder as the installer

and qt.conf had the following

[Paths]
Prefix=.

And that was it. And that didn't work either.

JKSH · 9 Mar 2017, 08:18

@bo_reddude said in QT error, This application failed to start because it could not or load the QT platform plugin "windows" in "".:

Do you know the source of the problem.

Either their installer is faulty, or your installation did not complete properly.

What did you download, exactly? I would try Frescobaldi.Setup.3.0.0.exe first. If that doesn't work, uninstall it and then try Frescobaldi.Setup.2.20.0.exe

bo_reddude · wrote on 8 Mar 2017, 19:53

o. I'll try the old version. i'll come back and report

bo_reddude · 10 Mar 2017, 03:05

@JKSH

Ok So the older version worked fine for the most part. except for the purpose I sought out frescobaldi in the first place. which is to import a midi file and then export it our to musicxml format which is more widely used standard. It throws error. I'm so frustrated. But at least I have a front end to lilypond.

Thank you for the suggestion. It's weird that I got more help from QT forum than I got from frescobaldi google group.

JKSH · wrote on 10 Mar 2017, 03:05

@bo_reddude said in Qt error, This application failed to start because it could not or load the Qt platform plugin "windows" in "".:

@JKSH

Ok So the older version worked fine for the most part. except for the purpose I sought out frescobaldi in the first place. which is to import a midi file and then export it our to musicxml format which is more widely used standard. It throws error. I'm so frustrated. But at least I have a front end to lilypond.

Thank you for the suggestion. It's weird that I got more help from QT forum than I got from frescobaldi google group.

You're welcome; all the best with your project(s).

I recommend reporting your issues (inability to run v3.0.0, and the error with exporting your MIDI file) to the Frescobaldi issue tracker: https://github.com/wbsoft/frescobaldi/issues