WHAT’S NEW IN SIBELIUS DECEMBER 2025
Simplified upgrades, customized part lists, improved text directive control, enhanced courtesy time signature control, and more
We’re excited to announce the immediate release of our December update to Sibelius (2025.12). This is our eighth release of the year, and it’s now available to all on Windows, Mac, iOS, and AndroidTM devices.
In this release, we focused our efforts on feature requests and fixes related to decondensing workflows—specifically improving the functionality of part ordering and adding more flexibility to staff filter text directives. We’ve also enhanced control over the new “courtesy time signature” feature and, as usual, addressed a number of bug fixes and user requests.
Here is what you can expect to find in our latest release:
Simplified Upgrades
We’re happy to share that we’ve introduced a simpler way to upgrade to the latest version of Sibelius. For a long time now, a perpetual license of Sibelius included a full-year Upgrade Plan along with other benefits such as Cloud Sharing, access to Sibelius for mobile, and assisted technical support. To get further upgrades, users would renew their support plan a year later or pay more to upgrade after that.
Today, we're simplifying the process to allow users to renew or upgrade at any time: $49 for Sibelius Artist, or $99 for Sibelius Ultimate. So, whether your Upgrade Plan is up for renewal, has recently expired, or you're running a version of Sibelius from several years ago, getting access to the latest version of Sibelius (plus another year of upgrades and benefits) is all the same price. For more details, visit the page at the link below:
https://www.avid.com/sibelius/upgrades-and-renewals
Custom Part Ordering
For the first time ever, it's now possible to customize the order of score subsets and parts. This can be accomplished via the new “Change Order” command on the Parts tab of the ribbon, which opens the new “Change Order of Parts and Subsets” dialog.
If the order of subsets and parts has been customized in the new dialog, that custom order applies throughout the app (i.e. print settings, part navigation commands, extracting parts, etc.). Currently, it’s only possible to customize this list in the desktop version of Sibelius, but the results of the customization will be visible and take effect within Sibelius for mobile as well.
Sibelius will keep the default part order and the customized order in sync until the user directs Sibelius to use a custom order. Once the custom order option has been turned on, the custom order becomes detached from the default order, and any new parts or subsets that are added to the project will appear at the bottom of the custom order list. To re-sync the two lists, simply click “Reset to Default Order” near the top of the pop-up dialog.
Note: Scores saved in Sibelius 2025.12 can still be opened in prior versions, but the custom order of score subsets and parts will not appear in previous versions.
Text Directive Improvements
We’ve added a new option for all text styles called: “Interpret text directives.” When checked on for a given text style, text items of that style will be able to influence Player Staff filters. When turned off, defined text directives within those text styles will be ignored.
We introduced this new option to address reports that unrelated text objects (e.g. instrument change text) could influence staff filters. In new scores created within the 2025.12 release, the only text style with the new “Interpret text directives” option turned on by default is “Technique” text. In existing scores, all text styles will have this option turned on (consistent with the legacy behavior).
We also addressed another decondensing issue that could prevent some empty bars from collapsing into multi-rests. This issue affected passages that contained both “Player” staff filters and score items that are stored at the end of the bar (e.g. key signature changes, special barlines, etc.). This fix only applies to newly created scores. Existing scores that exhibit the issue would need to be fixed by manually hiding the items that appeared at the end of the bar.
Enhanced Control Over Courtesy Time Signatures
Based on your feedback, we've enhanced control over when and where courtesy time signatures appear. Specifically, it's now possible to choose if courtesy time signatures appear in the Full Score, Score Subsets, or Parts. Further, in addition to placing these courtesy time signatures on every page or every spread, it’s now possible to place them at the start of each section.
macOS Tahoe
We’ve continued to address minor issues that appeared within the latest version of macOS. In particular, the shape of the Sibelius icon has been updated, and we addressed a few Tahoe-specific UI changes that appeared unexpectedly in our beta builds.
Other Fixes / Improvements
- Fixed a bug within the “undocked” Inspector where all sections were hidden
- The “undocked” Inspector once again resizes correctly for all visible controls
- Imported musicXML files are now given a unique ID to make them sharable via Cloud Sharing
- Fixed a crash that could occur when expanding the ribbon after it had been repopulated for a different feature set
- Addressed an issue where Sibelius did not retain output audio pair selections other than 1/2 when using an external audio interface
- Courtesy Time Signature no longer collide with “Start Repeat barlines”
- Rulers are now hidden within Sibelius Artist
- When adding a staff filter to a grand staff, the filter now appears on both staves (UI issue only)
- The option to “Respace multi-voice passages during note input and editing" once again behaves as expected
- Sibelius for mobile translations have been added to the options within the iOS “Settings” app
- Fixed a macOS-specific “crash on exit”
- Addressed a few crashes on the Android version of Sibelius for mobile
- Sibelius for mobile now appends the name of the notehead types within the command search gallery
And that’s it for 2025.12! The entire Sibelius team is already hard at work on the next release.
As a reminder, if you have a perpetual license with an active Upgrade Plan or an active subscription, you can download the update now from your Avid account through the Products page. If you have an older version of Sibelius, you can upgrade to the latest through the Upgrade page.
If you’re new to Sibelius, you can begin composing today with a 30-day trial for Sibelius Ultimate. Visit the Sibelius homepage to start and find resources, check out the latest innovative features, and explore everything Sibelius has to offer.