App troubles
Many apps don’t play well with High Sierra, and you may have to upgrade them alongside macOS
Any software update can result in glitches and problems.
High Sierra is a major macOS revision with far-reaching changes under the hood, and inevitably this has meant problems with some apps.
The solution is almost always to upgrade to the newest version of the app in question; in the vast majority of cases, you can do so free of charge. Some older apps, however, aren’t being updated, which means you might need to find a replacement, but before you invest time in that, see page 36 for another option, but bear in mind that to implement it you need the installer for a previous operating system version.
Older versions of Apple’s own professional apps are not compatible with High Sierra. This includes Final Cut Pro X (10.3.4 and earlier), Logic Pro X (10.3.1 and earlier), and associated tools such as Motion, Compressor and MainStage. You’ll need to upgrade to the latest versions. You should also update to GarageBand’s latest version.
Although Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio were superseded some time ago, many people have continued to use apps that were bundled with them, such as Soundtrack Pro, Cinema Tools and DVD Studio Pro, but none of these will work in High Sierra.
FileMaker Pro 15 and 16 are the only versions certified to work on High Sierra, though the publisher acknowledges a small number of issues – see bit.ly/flmkrhs; it says that older versions haven’t been tested.
AutoCAD 2015 and earlier are not compatible; versions 2016 and newer are, with the latest updates applied.
Microsoft Office 2011 isn’t supported, but 2016 and Office 365 are, though some have reported problems. Microsoft says to update Office 2016 to version 15.38 or newer.
Creativity and games
Adobe Acrobat 2017 and Acrobat DC are compatible but there are some issues, which Adobe promises to fix in a future release. Earlier versions, such as Acrobat X, aren’t compatible. Adobe Bridge CS5 and earlier will not work; you’ll need to upgrade to CS6. Photoshop Elements 10 and earlier won’t work. Photoshop CS4 is incompatible; CS5 and 5.1 have some problems, but Photoshop CS6 and CC seem to work fine. Adobe warns however that even 2017 versions of Illustrator and InDesign might have problems; it is working on updates. With all Adobe apps, you might need to install the legacy version of Java 6 from bit.ly/java6se.
There are issues with numerous games, including Civilization V, Call of Duty 2, Myst III Exile and Riven X. Check the publisher’s website to see if it has released an update, or possibly stick with Sierra until you’ve finished them.
If an app is vital to you and there’s no High Sierra-compatible upgrade available, it might be possible to run it using an older version of macOS within a virtual machine. We’ll explain this technique later.