macOS High Sierra is out, and while it looks pretty similar on the outside, under the hood we get some pretty big changes. That means apps you rely on to get your job done may not work as you expect—or may not work at all. TMO put together a short list of some mission critical apps and their status in macOS High Sierra.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft says it isn’t offering any support for running Microsoft Office 2011 in High Sierra, and some people are reporting it doesn’t work for them at all. If you rely on the Office suite and plan to upgrade to High Sierra make sure you update to version 15.35 or newer.
Adobe Creative Suite and Creative Cloud
Adobe isn’t testing the Creative Suite versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and its other design apps for macOS High Sierra compatibility and warns CS4 users should expect issues. CS6 versions of Adobe’s apps ran fine in TMO’s tests, but occasionally crashed at inopportune times.
Adobe Creative Cloud versions of the apps are supported as long as you stay up to current on updates—except for Illustrator. Adobe warned macOS beta testers that Illustrator wasn’t designed to run on High Sierra. InDesign users are experiencing cursor-related bugs, too.
If you rely on Adobe’s apps don’t upgrade to macOS High Sierra until compatibility issues are worked out.
Wacom Tablet Users: If you need your Wacom tablet for your design workflow don’t install macOS High Sierra. Compatible drivers won’t be available until some time in October.
FileMaker Pro
Database jockeys are OK to upgrade to High Sierra as long as you’re running at least FileMaker Pro 14. If that’s how you make your living, odds are you upgraded to even newer versions already.
1Password
If you’re staying up to date with 1Password, meaning you’re running the latest version of 1Password 6, macOS High Sierra won’t be a problem for you. It’s been running fine for us—including database synchronization—in TMO’s tests.
Carbon Copy Cloner
Upgrade to Carbon Copy Cloner 5 before installing macOS High Sierra to make sure your backup routines don”t break. Since CCC leaves your files in a state where they’re viewable in the Finder you don’t need to worry about the backups being unreadable.
Dropbox
Dropbox is macOS High Sierra compatible, although some users are having issues with its smart sync feature. If you don’t rely on that you should be safe to upgrade.
Evernote
Evernote is critical for a lot of Mac users, and it’s working in macOS High Sierra. Version 6.12.3 was released on September 22nd and we recommend you install it before making the jump to High Sierra jus to be safe.
Firefox
Staying on top of Firefox’s updates should have you macOS High Sierra-ready. Version 55.0.3 was released ahead of High Sierra, so make sure you have at least that before installing the upgrade.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome 60.0.3112.113 and some earlier updates are High Sierra-ready. Version 61.0.3163.100 came out before High Sierra was released and it’s compatible, too.
Roaring Apps Website
Remember the Roaring Apps website that detailed app compatibility for major operating system releases? It’s pretty much worthless for macOS High Sierra. The compatibility database is built from user submissions, and it seems not that many people are interested in sharing their app experiences any more. It’s still worth a quick check to see if there’s any useful information, but don’t count on it being the handy resource it once was.
Just an FYI. Microsoft Office 2011 is running without any issues on my late 2012 Mac Mini running High Sierra. I do keep all of my software up to date which helped.
Damn. Really, guys and gals, I am not just kvetching. With regular use, I’ve hammered out the learning curve for iOS 11, but I can’t remember a (recent) time when Apple’s stuff has been so inconsistent. What the hey is going on at Infinite Loop? I’m going to have to wait to check it out, too much mission critical stuff is in the ‘maybe’ column for now. I was really looking forward to APFS, too. Bummer.