MacOS High Sierra is finally ready for release. It endured the summer beta program, and is now available through the Mac App Store for anyone to download and install.
We’re always grateful that new versions of the operating system go through an extensive beta process, but it always seems a few issues will still be lurking, ready to pop up and surprise us.
With that in mind, here are some of the more common problems you may encounter when upgrading to macOS High Sierra.
Note: Before upgrading to any new or updated operating system, it’s a good idea to have a current backup in place.
Upgrading From the Beta
If you’re a beta tester, you may have a slightly more difficult time upgrading than the rest of us; it all depends on whether you installed the new APFS (Apple File System) during the beta testing. Apple backed away from its original goal of having APFS ready to go for all Mac configurations. Instead, it’s releasing macOS High Sierra with APFS only for Macs using SSDs (Solid State Drives). If you converted a Fusion drive during the beta, it needs to be reverted to HFS+ before you can install macOS High Sierra.
Unfortunately, Apple isn’t providing any tools to revert the file system. Instead, you’re required to back up your current data with Time Machine, erase and reformat the affected drive(s), install macOS High Sierra, and then migrate your backed up data to the fresh install.
Apple includes instructions for the process, specifically using Time Machine as the backup app. It seems you should also be able to perform this task by creating a clone using Carbon Copy Cloner or one of the other popular cloning tools. Nevertheless, even if you decide to create a clone, we highly recommend you also create a Time Machine backup, especially if the clone is the only copy of your data you will have.
You’ll need a drive partitioned as HFS+ for the Time Machine backup. This can be an existing Time Machine drive as long as it’s formatted as HFS+. You’ll also need to create a bootable macOS High Sierra installer; a 16 GB or larger USB flash drive or an external drive can serve this purpose.
Warning: The process of creating the bootable installer will erase the contents of the selected drive volume.
Apple has posted instructions in its support area for Preparing Your Fusion Drive Mac for the macOS High Sierra Install. It covers two methods for converting a Fusion Drive back to HFS+ and installing macOS High Sierra. The instructions are a bit sparse, but should be sufficient for getting the job done. If you have any questions regarding the process, be sure to post them in the Comments section below.
Downloading macOS High Sierra From the Mac App Store Stalls
The process of downloading High Sierra from the Mac App Store should be an easy one, but a few of us have run into a problem where the download seems to fail to start, or freezes if it does begin.
In both cases, patience may be the best course of action. But if after a reasonable amount of time, say 15 minutes to half an hour, there’s been no change, then it’s time for action.
Open your web browser to any page; the idea is just to verify that your Internet connection is working. If you’re having network issues, they need to be addressed before continuing.
Quit the Mac App Store. If it fails to respond to the quit command, force quit by selecting Force Quit from the Apple menu. In the Force Quit Applications window that opens, select App Store, and then click the Force Quit button. You’ll be asked if you really want to force quit the App Store; click the Force Quit button.
Once the Mac App Store finally quits, go ahead and restart the store. Select macOS High Sierra and start the download again. If you still have problems, quit the Mac App Store (using force quit, if needed), and then restart your Mac.
Return to the Mac App Store and try again.
Freeze During Installation
After you start the macOS High Sierra installation process, you may notice that your Mac’s screen has gone black, and nothing seems to be happening. The likely culprit is that your Mac has frozen during the restart process. The installation process copies needed files to the destination drive, including a minimum boot environment. Once everything is in place, your Mac should restart and finish the install process. If you’re stuck at the black screen, you should wait for a reasonable amount of time; no more than half an hour. If your Mac doesn’t finish the restart by then, go ahead and manually shut your Mac down by pressing and holding the power button.
Once your Mac has shut down, you can restart it. Chances are your Mac will restart and pick up by displaying the Setup Assistant, ready to finish the install process.
If you still find yourself stuck, try shutting down again, but this time restart your Mac in Safe Mode. Once the desktop shows up, disable any startup items you may have set up, as well as any anti-virus apps you may have, and then restart your Mac. You’ll need to restart the macOS High Sierra installation process again.
If you’re still unable to resolve the problem, try booting up in Recovery Mode and using the Disk Utility option to check and repair your startup drive. Once your drive has a clean bill of health, use the Reinstall macOS option to ensure the startup drive’s operating system is intact. Once you return to the desktop, you can restart the install process.
Slow Performance After Install
Some temporary performance issues can be attributed to spotlight indexing that may be running; after all, there’s a lot of new data on the drive that needs to be catalogued. Time Machine can also become active soon after an install and slow things down a bit.
Waiting a short time will likely see the slowness clear itself up with no intervention on your part. Should the slowness continue, you can try the tips outlined in Tech 101: How to Clear Cache and Temp Files.
Wi-Fi Issues
When macOS Sierra was released we saw quite a few Wi-Fi-related issues, which we address in the guide: Common Problems After Installing macOS Sierra.
Thankfully, at least so far, we’re not seeing a repeat of major Wi-Fi issues. But that’s not to say there aren’t at least a few of them. During the beta, there was a recurring problem with connecting to a personal hotspot, such as one provided by an iPhone. The solution was simple enough: just turn Wi-Fi off and back on again, the ultimate IT solution for most problems.
To turn Wi-Fi off, select Turn Wi-Fi Off from the Wi-Fi status icon in the menu bar.
To turn Wi-Fi back on, select Turn Wi-Fi On from the Wi-Fi status icon.
If you don’t see the Wi-Fi status icon in your menu bar, launch System Preferences from your Dock or Apple menu, and select the Network preference pane.
Place a check mark in the Show Wi-Fi Status in Menu Bar box.
Apps Not Working
Unfortunately, it’s the nature of progress that some apps get left behind when operating systems are updated. If you have an app that has stopped working under macOS High Sierra, you should check with the developer to see if any updates have been released, or will be released.
You can also check with RoaringApps, a site that gathers information about which apps work with what version of the Mac operating system.
If you believe the app that you’re having problems with should work with macOS High Sierra, you can try deleting the app’s cache files. Here’s how to do that:
Quit the app in question, if it’s currently running.
Open a Finder window or click on the desktop to ensure the Finder is the front most application.
From the Finder’s Go menu, select Go to Folder.
In the sheet that opens, enter the following: ~/Library/Caches
From the Finder window that opens, find the folder whose title includes the name of the app you’re having issues with.
Open the app’s cache folder, and delete any items within it.
Reset the PRAM/NVRAM, and then launch the app in question.
With any luck, the app should now be able to launch and work correctly.
Additional Rocket Yard Reading
- macOS High Sierra Features That You’ll Want To Upgrade For
- Learn How to Manage Cookies in Safari for High Sierra
- Translating Apple’s New High Sierra & APFS Compatibility Document
- How to Customize Safari Website Preference in macOS High Sierra
Stay tuned for problems you might have installing the new macOS Mojave.
Hi
I’m an old user 70yrs but ive used a lot of macs
I have an imac using High Sierra 10.13.6 its the last machine my pension will afford me so it has to do. I have not been able to use my photos as screen saver. My sys prefs desktop/screen saver app will give me a source menu to select from. under the desktop heading i cannot get my photos selected either. Is it that this high sierra version just wont do it or is it me. Never tried to do this before but i’m under pressure from grand kids to have their mugs on my screen.
Really appreciate any help.
Kinb regards Rick
PS Stay safe
In High Sierra you should be able to select one of your photos for uses as the desktop background.
Open System Preferences and select the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane.
Click the Desktop tab.
In the sidebar, you will see various items already present, including Apple supplied images, Access to images you have stored within iPhotos, as well as possibly a few more categories. You may also see a Folder item, where any folder you select will be added to the sidebar.
To add a folder that contains pictures you wish to use on the Desktop, click the Plus (+) button at the bottom of the sidebar.
Navigate to the folder you wish to add, then click the Choose button.
The folder will be added to the sidebar.
Once the folder appears in the sidebar, you can select the folder from the sidebar and all the pictures within will appear in the pane to the right of the sidebar.
You can now pick the image you wish to use.
Tom
Good morning! I have an issue, when I am using my MacBook Pro 2018 for several hours, which runs MacOs High Sierra, it starts itself opening all kinds of apps, system configurations, etc. Can anyone help me how to figure out this annoying issue? Thank you in advance!
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I am intstalling mac0S high sierra but it keeps on saying “the file couldn’t be opened because isnt in the correct format ” when left two minutes
I have MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012). After updating to High Sierra Version 10.13.6 (17G5019), I can not open Disk Utility. I receive the following:
“Disk Utility cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Disk Utility works with this version of macOS…”.
Reinstalling High Sierra, twice, has not solved this issue.
A lesser issue is I cannot set the time (to 5 minutes ahead of real time, as I previously could with older OSs), and instead have to use the time as determined by the internet; reinstalling has not helped this either.
I have installed the Mac Sierra software and afte the installation I managed to log in with my password and it won’t show start up and icons on the screen. It doesn’t show anything not even the battery life or percentage. It’s a MacBook pro 15inch mid 2010 model. I was using OsX Yosemite before I can install the new Sierra MacOs
I’m running a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM and 750GB HD still less than half-full. I recently updated from Sierra to High Sierra without any immediately obvious problems. My usual software runs okay. But now it’s impossible to access the second user account used occasionally by my son. Trying to log in with the same password sets up a rotating image which never ends, and since there is no way offered to step back from this situation, the only option is to restart the computer. I’ve tried changing the account from Standard to Admin and I’ve changed its password – after each change rebooting the computer (which has become very, very slow, by the way). Nothing helps and trying to log into the second account continues to lock up the computer completely. Any suggestions how to remedy this situation? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Try a safe boot (hold down shift right after power-on, until you see the apple, and also hold down shift right before clicking the right-arrow on your son’s password). It could be your son’s account has some startup program that is incompatible with High Sierra. This may allow you to log in, find it, and remove it.
When I try to use volume control keys my screen slides right to reveal dashboard screen. Second press on key returns original screen. I can use volume control on menu bar but this is not so convenient. Any fixes for this?
Regards.
Bob W.
iTunes mac os high Sierra 10.13.6 Sound is slow and broken but quicktime is very good
Alc889
My Mac is stuck in a loop. I have put in passwords off and off for the same questions for several days. Now it is again stuck asking if I want to save my passwords on this Mac. However the place to click is grayed out. This is the worst ever.
High Sierra created a Fusion Drive on my Mac Mini (hard drive and SSD Drive) during installation. Had to format the drive and perfom a Time Machine Backup on both drives. Genius Bar was stunned. This happen to anyone else?
I can no longer save items to folders on desktop. I also cannot move items or folders to trash. Unlocking the folders does not solve the problem. Changing permissions does not help. Running first aid did not help. I am logged in as myself.
after install of macOS High Sierra 10,13.4 Time Machine will not work… How do I fix this?
Same for me @ George smith, I upgraded to high sierra and I think they must have been ‘high’ when they made it because after a time or two booting my computer it went to black screen and had to get a new os put on unfortunately they put the same one back in because of miscommunication and it happened again! It’s really a shame but I’m stuck with El Capitan at the moment until I can work out if this bug has been fixed or not. I don’t want to risk shelling out more money because Apple have gone down the drain.
I can hardly believe Apple has become Microsoft – buggy, difficult to fix software, that leaves your machine hanging. It used to be that Mac just worked – straight out of the box with minimum initial configuration. Now I am plagued by problems from the get-go: my new MacBook Pro started with a black screen out of the box. It gave me only voice prompts that are normally only for visually impaired people. After I great struggle I set it up. Then the upgrade to 10.13.4 could not complete on its own and forced me into reading multiple blogs with potential solutions posted by people who experienced the exact same problem. Finally, I managed to complete the upgrade. The the sleep issues started – if the machine goes to sleep for a long period of time (more than 2 hours), when you try to wake it, it just displays a black screen (the keyboard lights up and responds to command). This forces me to initiate a cold reboot every time. So, people from Apple, how long have been making computers and is this acceptable for the most expensive company in the world who prides itself on QUALITY!?
My next laptop will be HP. You are fortunate that my company is paying for this machine, otherwise I would have long returned it to you.
I have an iMac 27″ mid-2010 on my bench right now that came in with a black screen problem on High Sierra. The machine is RUNNING, it just has a black screen. Attaching an external display gets you a perfectly good screen. I ended up sapping the PRAM, and it fixed the problem. Then I booted it on an external pack I had that was running the same version of High Sierra. It worked fine until I tried to run the online updates for iTunes 12.8 and HS 10.13.6. Near the end of the iTunes update, the main screen went black again (in fact it’s in that state right now — I’m using the external display to type this). Curiously, when I got this Mac from the owner, only the 10.13.6 update was pending. Now I’m wondering if it’s iTunes 12.8 that bricks the screen somehow. I guess I’ll know when this update completes.
False alarm. Unit also blackscreens when booted on El Cap, and zapping the PRAM in all cases reduces the problem significantly but does not entirely remove it. Pretty sure it’s an obscure hardware issue in this unit. In any event, sleeping and waking the machine reactivates the display, so not worth invasive surgery.
I couldn’t even put my computer to sleep from the Apple menu after installing High Sierra a few days ago. It always logged me out instead and stayed awake. Using Excel with it was another problem, and a lot of my Excel files were corrupted. Needles to say I rolled back my OS swiftly, but I thought I noticed inconsistent behavior when it came to asking for the master password before unlocking my Safari passwords. My computer is 2012 model and you think after the amount of time High Sierra has been out that I wouldn’t have such an obvious problem as not being able to sleep my computer from the Apple menu.
during the installation of the High Sierra, it was taking more than 2 hours for just 10% installed. I canceled the installation as I thought it might be stuck or frozen. after restarting the Mac air I went to software updates & it was showing High Sierra installed however in the about this MAC it was still showing OS X Version 10.8.5
How can I get the option to reinstall the High Sierra again? & reflect the changes in the About this MAC?
hi I have high siera installed but I can’t play dvd anymore after 30 seconds it spits the disk out
please advise regards Paul
The DVD player software is more than likely 32bit. macOS High Sierra is 64bit and is the last OS to support 32bit.
I had to install a new SSD after a failed ‘upgrade’ to High Sierra on my MacBook Pro late 2013 model. Absolute farce!! Another guy has started a Facebook page called “High Sierra Destroyed Hard Drive Support” which I have joined and commented on, in the hope that we can get as many people as possible to join and share similar stories to get some action against Apple. They’ve grown too big and are washing their hands of the problem – they need to show some humility and accept when they made a mistake be compensate people who’ve been adversely affected by this. A near trillion dollar company with a massive cash pile can easily afford to do so! My personal cost was £315 for a new SSD!!!!
Same here.
After updating to HS 10.13.4. will not go to sleep when I close it – instead it just shuts down completely and shows me an error notification after a while.
If I put it to sleep manually it will just shut down after a while too. I assume this is a bug? Any fixes yet? Options to downgrade again? I rely on my laptop waking up when opening it for work. Having to restart every time is not an option for me.
Hi
I have got this same problem.
Have u got a solution?
IT’S LOST MY ADDRESS BOOK. As my Son alawys said, “Never Upgrade.”
Had to install HS in order to get 2018 Turbo Tax. Ever since, daily issues with Safari. Keep getting timed out; some web sites (formerly fine) just won’t open. Having a lot of trouble with my aol email. All the sites open fine if i use Firefox.
Apple Support said there’s no problems with new OSX, and told me — same as others here were told — my iMac is too old! They helped me reinstall HS, but problem persists.
I don’t want to do a bunch of techie stuff to fix this problem, that stuff is beyond me, but if anyone else is having this issue or has a simple solution (i.e., turn on or off some function) I would be most appreciative.
I have to clear the cache 10x a day, but it only helps briefly. I have Malware Bytes and run scans; the problem isn’t malware or a virus. It’s in the OSX.
I have the same problem. Installing High sierra has corrupted my SSD.
Now I’m using my windows 10 laptop. It is more stable than high sierra.
#firetimcook
If you had BETA of macOS installed, erase and start over with actual release of 10.13.4
Also kill ALL 32bit software/applications.
High Sierra 10.13.4 update causes my computer to shutdown when I put it to sleep. Also, my Netflix movies has vertical lines when I try to play it on Safari. Works on Firefox though.
HELP!! macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 update caused my SOUND to no longer work!!
Please advise…
We are are photo and graphics shop with several workstations networked to both PC (print servers) and Macs for layout and photo work.
We were compelled to upgrade to OS 10.13.3 in order to keep current with the latest Adobe Creative Cloud programs.
We are experiencing the following issues.
1. Constant request for password authorization to rename and/or move files to other folders. In 28 years of Mac work we have never needed to do this.
2. Inability to connect over our network to shared folders on PC print servers. We are able to connect to them using Yosemite or any older operating system. We can print to these servers but we cannot see the shared drives.
3. Inability to see Mac drives on OS 13 from other Mac computers not on OS 13. We can however see the older Macs on the Mac with OS 13.Sort of a one-way street for networking.
4. Swiping features of Wireless mouse cannot be turned off and on. They remain on all the time which is not a feature we like for delicate moves on screen in various applications.
Wasn’t the original appletalk great!!!!
After upgrading to High Sierra on my Macbook Pro I am unable to network it with my Mac Pro running El Capitan. I used to be able to network the two computers using an ethernet cable. Because of the age of the MacPro I am not able to to go newer than El Capitan. Things were fine in Sierra.
I sent feedback to apple but do not think anything has been done yet. I am a photographer and shoot tethered to the laptop. Now I have to download to an external HD or a flash drive which then needs to be downloaded to the Mac Pro adding additional steps.
Has anyone else had issues with High Sierra taking forever to recognize (wireless) mouse movement when trying to break the screen-saver mode..? I have had to resort to tapping the ‘esc’ key in order to get out of the screen-saver…and even then it is taking my mac some what-feels-like minutes to acknowledge that I want to move my mouse. Anyone else having this issue..?
My mechanical drive became so High that it eventually died. When not High, my mechanical drive was steady and survived daily tasks. Installing when knowing new versions of High were available, drive again to become unstable. Upon removal of mechanical drive and installing SSD, and installing High Sierra, no issues whatsoever.
Oh yes. In fact that’s the only issue I’ve seen since stay since swapping to SSD
Installed High Sierra. Then updated Numbers to 4.3.1. Cannot invite others to collaborate on a spreadsheet any longer. Spreadsheet opens the collaboration window, then freezes after first click. Other spreadsheets can still be opened and worked on. Force quit Numbers then necessary.
Here’s one…. I use an HDMI switcher to switch video to my TV from my cable box/DVR to my Mac’s HDMI output. Until tonight, it never had a problem, even under High Sierra. Tonight, when I switch back to normal (TV input is the cable box), my Mac restarts. I didn’t change anything in the setup … it just started doing that. Any ideas what might be going on? I’ve been switching it like this for years, the majority of the time on Lion (which I just recently finally upgraded from…thinking I went one OS level too high).
In Photos I used to be able to “grab” a bunch of photos and add a Keyword and Location for all of them. I find I cannot do this on imac OX High Sierra. It seems to work on only one photo.
Also, when I use the “erase” mechanism (circle that erases unwanted items in a photo), the circle is much smaller than it used to be which makes it not useful for larger items.
2010 Mac Pro doesn’t see stock Apple “Superdrive” disc drive after waking up from sleep. Drive doesn’t show up in System Information, nothing. Never happened before High Sierra Install.
I have High Sierra installed on an 2.5″ SSD with AFPS. Resetting PRAM and SMC did not solve the problem. I also tried turning off “Put hard drive to sleep when possible” option as well. Still does it. Restart solves problem but it is very annoying.
Funny thing is my aftermarket LG disk drive in bay 2 works as usual. Maybe it’s true for Apple too.. No Sleep for The Wicked.
MacPro 64gb has 5 volumes external on usb or thunderbolt 2. Periodically, since upgrade to High Sierra, all 5 external discs vanish. They are restored by restart. Even disc utility doesn’t see them so I can’t just mount them again. Of these, 2 are SSD, 1 ESATA, 1 SoftRaid, and one SATA.
I have not been able to find documents in finder since I upgraded – is there a a tricky to getting back into those files?
Unable to complete install, leaving a bright screen with the Apple and progress bar that will not complete .the last half inch of thee bar
High Sierra has created a sleep/wake issue on my Mac desktop. After going to sleep, it will not wake with the mouse or space bar. I must press the on button. It goes to a gray screen and finally to what was there when it went to sleep. Any answers?
Nancy Buchanan,
I too have had this problem. Using just Sierra, no issue. Going to HS, thew Sleep/Wake issue. I retarded my device back to Sierra, and everything was fine. I then saw the new update (10.13.3) and thought the OS bug was corrected. Well for a few days, yep no issues, until today. Like you and like before, I have to press/hold power button to force shutdown, wait a little while and start again. No matter how I attempt to adjust screen savers, power features, including turning everything off, etc. the issue still occurs. This bug MUST cease to exist. Apple needs to cease and desist on releasing buggy software otherwise, they will become Microsoft. Apple needs to once again focus on the Mac and not iOS. That’s my rant for the night, day, week, month … well you get it.
See my post. This was the beginning of my HD being High woes.
I installed the high sierra and it ran yesterday – today the screen is stuck on grey with the apple logo and status bar – which has reached the finished point —- but the computer is completely unresponsive – i restarted once with the power button and the same has happened again. ANY HELP OUT THERE? Thanks
This along with wake issues was that start of my woes. See my post how I corrected.
After the HS upgrade on my early 2011 MacBook Pro Apple’s own Mail.app will show the preview as usual, but only back areas instead of the full message on an external screen. Own screen is OK as I recognized by now. Any fix for this? Tnx
Well, in fact the mail messages turn black on the MacBook as well, as I connect the external screen.
Since installing 10.13.2 I have been unable to backup using Time Machine to my Airport Time Capsule. It was working fine until this latest update, running automatic backups. It still works fine on two older machines running El Capitan. Spent three hours on online chat and then phone to Apple but no resolution yet found. The last suggestion was to turn off FileVault – but that has now frozen and seems to be stuck. This latest update is creating real problems for security and back-ups which should be absolutely straightforward and solid in these systems. Very frustrated! Anyone else having these issues?
This along with wake issues and others was that start of my woes. See my post how I corrected.
Ever since upgrading to High Sierra I am experiencing problems with i-tunes. When initially powering up the computer (i-mac ) i-tunes works fine. If I stop (or close) the i-tunes (but leave the computer on) after about 2 hours i-tunes is unresponsive. The only way to get it to work again is to shut down or restart the computer. I should point out that I have a large music library (almost 3 tb) that is stored on an external hard drive that is always connected via USB port. Everything with this set-up had been working fine for years – that is, until the moment that I upgraded to High Sierra. I’ve been dealing with Apple for over a week now and am no closer to solving the problem. Please!!! Any solutions or guidance would be appreciated.
Hi guys, i have a weird issue with macOS High Sierra and it’s coming at the wrong time. I just recently changed my SSD from 128GB to 256GB and reinstall macOS Sierra and then upgraded to High Sierra, the upgrade failed, hung and crashed many times before i got it to work.
But after the update, i have been having issues, when i sleep my Mac, it doesn’t respond on waking up/opening the lid, i have to forcefully restart it and then when i close the lid over-night, i have to forcefully restart it the following morning, it is sometimes slow and my laptop gets hotter than usual.
It’s confusing because my subconscious is blaming it on the new SSD, but it works fine, i have checked it, done a First Aid, ATRE checks, rest PRAM, etc.
The laptop is a Macbook Pro 13″ Early 2015, 8GB RAM, originally 128GB now 256GB.
So could the SSD be causing this issue, or it’s the High Sierra Upgrade?
Please any help?
I have been having the same issue and it seems to be progressing over time! Usually when awake my MacBook I get “folder with question mark” and I have to reboot. Lately it started failing on boot – seems to fail to find the drive! Mine ssd is the original 512, so I assume (hope, actually!) it’s a software issue.
Nosa, I don’t think it’s your ram upgrade – I have same MacBook, recently upgraded to HS, and have same problems when it sleeps. Also some software I rely on for my business now doesn’t work and there are no updates from the software developer as they released new software… Only purchased this MacBook Pro in Oct 2016 and now it’s rubbish – Apple are a joke – great hardware but the software updates are too buggy and not fit for purpose. Like what we’ve recently learned with iPhone updates that slow the phone, this must be the same principle; force customer to buy new hardware. I’m loathed to go back to Windows, but can’t have a laptop that only lasts a year…
Good luck with finding a fix – shout if you do.
Nosa what’s happened since you posted? I recently had the same problems within 2 weeks of installing High Sierra. At first I didn’t realise my issues were related to High Sierra. However after my 2nd crash (in the middle of a back up I might add!), I did some research. It’s widely documented at least regarding my later 2011 MacBook Pro, that High Sierra which has a totally different file system to earlier OS, once you crash a couple of times you cannot get back in (it hangs halfway through in ANY login mode & goes back to the white screen again. At first, after my first crash (Mail froze then the whole thing died), I was able to at least get in using Single User mode & check my files etc (all good), and using a different login method I managed to get to the Apple Hardware Test (again all good). However the next day I was unable to get in at all. My research landed me on StackExchange eventually (4 days of trouble shooting & Apple Support was unable to help me, I found way better informed info in various other places!)…so ai have the exact explanation for all of these issues with High Sierra, and the process to follow. But won’t be able to reinstall High Sierra because it will all just happen all over again (if it crashes i mean, which it surely will – the overheating issue is rampant as is the freezing and inability to get back in without the help of someone who won’t be overwhelmed by the lengthy instructions! And that’s just to enable you to recover your stuff and start over with a clean install of an older OS).
IMHO Apple has done this on purpose to force consumers to upgrade to a new model so that no longer have issues and expenses relating to their OS!
After 20+ yrs as a Mac user I am so p****d off with Apple.
I would appreciate the email or link to the instructions you found. I have an older iMac that froze with the high Sierra update (only did it to use turbo tax!) and now it won’t do anything. I’d like to go back to using an older OS. I tried searching on StackExchange like you mentioned, but haven’t found the right information yet. thanks!
Missing files and no access to iPhoto
I have a weird issue now that long TextEdit files no longer open properly as half the content will be missing. I have to preview the file first, wait for it to load more and more of the file, and then once the whole thing is loaded can I open it. Even then in some cases once I open the file it’ll sometimes take away some of it. It’s really frustrating as I work with massive lists of things.
This is the go-to page for issues with Mac OS install issues. I upgrade to High Sierra on my MacBook Pro (late 2013) with no problems. When I went to upgrade my macMini OS (mid 2010) I experienced both the cursor on black screen (Mountain Lion to El Capitan) and black screen issues (El Capitan to High Sierra). The best advice is just as stated above, “give it time, reboot after you give it time.” Yes, it sucks, but after a few times it worked.
After the upgrade my macMini was brought to its knees by the indexing (up to a minute to respond) which went away after several hours. The macMini shipped with 2GB. It’s difficult to really see what is hogging the memory during the indexing, the memory pressure will show red/yellow and the system will be sluggish, but there is no application high on the memory list (highest was 38MB). I suppose Apple is hiding the kernel processes that are allocating all the memory because there was no way the given list totalled to 1.5GB. Bottom line – you’ll need at least 4GB to upgrade/run High Sierra without the ensuing computer rage (system requirements are 2GB FYI). Fortunately, macMinis are easy to upgrade RAM.
Question: My external, wired mouse can left click, scroll, and right click but won’t move around the screen since I updated to HS. Anybody have a quick fix for me? Pretty sure it’s not a problem with the mouse or movement sensor or the computer ports.
High Sierra disaster. iMAC working absolutely fine until HS upgrade. Then will not load up, nothing accessible, Apple tell me I need a new HD. This seems like bull **** to me but I cannot find someone who will confirm. So computer in the shop and i am £300 lighter and lost some of my work!!
Not happy with Apple at all. Might be enough to send me back to Windows.
A
Having the same issue on an iMac that is less than a month old. Dropped it off at the Apple premium location today – waiting for their diagnosis.
iMac dead after (or during ?) High Sierra Update. No response at all when trying to turn it back on.
HS installation failed – now I’m left with nothing – will be calling Apple Support next – if this costs me big bucks, I will lose my mind.
See my post
Alan, same thing has happened to me except I was trying to “upgrade” to High Sierra on my MacBook Pro (late 2013) with 512Gb SSD. My MacBook was working perfectly well with Mavericks, and I only attempted an update because the Home Office and Business for Mac I wanted to install said I needed 10.10 or later.
Install failed (couldn’t find OSInstall.mpkg) so took it to “Genius” Bar – he couldn’t resolve it – he tried installing Sierra and then Mavericks – no go. Then he did a system check and said my hard drive was faulty!! As you say – bullsh*t. I read somewhere else that Apple were trying to roll out their new APFS format for High Sierra but only for SSD drives – well it’s shafted mine!! Can’t do anything with the disk eg erase/reformat using either diskutility GUI or on command line in Revovery Mode – luckily everything’s backed up to my Time Capsule but what a farce!! I’ll probably have to buy a new SSD :-(
Alan same here and have found out it’s not going to go away. See my reply above to Nosa for further info.
I have info from StackExchsnge after 4 days of trouble shooting. The bottom line is that High Sierra & older Macs are NOT a compatible combo (yes, even though Apple SAYS they are compatible, it’s bull****.
After 20 yrs as a Mac user daily for my work I WISH i could wave goodbye to Apple now – I feel totally sh*t upon by them misleading us older product owners. I honestly believe they’ve done this on purpose to force people to upgrade their Mac.
I can email you the info I found on StackExchange which i am now using (shared with a Mac tech today for his opinion & whether he can /will follow the lengthy instructions to sort it out for me)…if you would like the info.
Solved keyboard sync issue by shutting down, disconnecting keyboard, rebooting, and reconnecting keyboard. Mouse still freezing after sleep. haven’t restored to pre-High Sierra because doing so would result in lost work and am trying to avoid that.
Since upgrading to High Sierra, nothing but problems. I dislike this version a lot. My external drive docking station keeps ejecting drives. yet worked fine on Sierra and also works great on my Mac with El Capitan on it. UGGG why change it so much grrrrrr
High Sierra on brand new MacbookPro 13″ – videos do not play in file icon nor in column view and seldom when using spacebar to open video??
“Upgraded” to HS. Now wired keyboard won’t stay in sync (types caps when lower case is selected and vice versa). No audio to external speakers although they appear in the preferences pane when DAC volume is up. Turning off DAC results in audio from built-in speakers. Image Capture won’t import photos from SD card & many thumbnails not visible. No excuse for this. Apple gets more like MS every day: glitch-filled software poorly executed. Going to restore to pre-High Sierra.
Hi, I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro that I recently updated to High Sierra and now I can’t use the control key and trackpad to simulate a right click. So I can’t bring up options on a folder anymore. Most annoying when trying to share a dropbox folder. Anyone have this issue?
Since installing Sierra, items from my husband’s desktop have started to appear on mine. He has an iPhone, every time he gets a message it appears when I am using my profile. If I save anything to the desktop it now saves on his profile. How do we fix this?
Since upgrading to high Sierra my hard drive icons on the desktop move from the position I put them on the screen, upper right hand corner, to what seems like a random position How do I lock them to the position I want them in.
Since I upgraded to macOS High Sierra (version 10.13.2) I’ve been unable to open saved spreadsheets and documents in Numbers and Pages on waking the mac from overnight sleep, but had to completely reboot. I just discovered that if I don’t launch the Numbers or Pages apps but start at Finder I can access my spreadsheets etc. This free upgrade to High Sierra reminds me of the reason I migrated from MS Windows after the fiasco of Windows 10.
PS ooops, I thought I’d got a work-around solution but apparently not. I now can’t open a spreadsheet from any route (apart from rebooting every morning). So it’s a significant issue that I blame on High Sierra.
No trouble installing onto my new Mac with flash drive storage … but on my old mid 2010 MacBook … 2 days of trouble … eventually got there by using a High Sierra install USB disk and eraseing the old HD …
My Mac mini mid 2011 was upgraded to High Sierra. Since then the computer does not send signal out to the external monitor. However disconnection of the hdmi and then reconnection agitated the video signal back to normal.
I can’t drag my incoming mail to their boxes anymore??
Try … System Preferences … Accessibility … Mouse & Trackpad … Trackpad Options … enable dragging
My personal hotspot is not appearing. When it does it won’t connect
I installed High Sierra on my iMac yesterday, and now everything freezes up when on safari after about 15 minutes. It is unresponsive to force quitting apps, and I have to continually shut the computer down using the power button. Any suggestions as to why this could be happening?
I have the same thing on both my iMacs. After updating, the computers are freezing after about 15 minuts and I have to shut it down forcefully on shutdown button.
Can’t use computer at all as no file downloaded whether an office PPT, or download file from any source , becomes damaged and corrupted.
Ed
After high sierra, can’t open any downloaded file whether downloaded through Safari of Google, including all office type files
Hi since I tried to download High Sierra my IMac is not working at all, had to take it to a store to see if they can fix it they have been trying for two days with no luck.
had internet connection prior to installing OS-HS, on my late 2009 desktop iMac.. was not able to connect to apple store for completion. Does not allow me to connect to internet. Called AT&T my internet is not an issue. I am able to view Netflix on my tv, etc on other devices. Spent 3 hours with Apple Support, still not connecting to internet. So frustrated
Downloaded High Sierra on a new MacBook Pro 13” Retina…….after the download completed followed instructions and hit the “install” option. Screen went blank for restart and now all that comes up is a flashing question mark “?”
Installation went fine but when i tried to run a back-up it does not work. It accepts the request and then within a few seconds rejects the request.
Needing help with FaceTime after installing macOS High Sierra. Can’t go to full screen and person I can doesn’t get a picture.
My awesome Imac runs like a 20 year old computer. Lagging all over the place. Very irresponsible of Apple to do such an upgrade.
High Sierra installation fiasco has rendered my early 2011 MacBook Pro useless. It froze, crashed, died. Beyond mad and sad. Tried everything the past 4 hours. I don’t recommend anyone try and install it.
Update: Finally got it up and running. Here’s how, but I don’t recommend anyone doing it w/out back up like I did: Erased HD, then partitioned. Had Wifi connection to reinstall, but got ‘local string not found’. Turns out, had to go in and change date/time. Weird thing is, even though I erased everything, High Sierra still popped up for install even before I connected to server:/ Nothing glitchy so far. Needless to say I’m backing everything up from here on out. Just lost a couple documents, but photos are on phone. Will continue to keep index cards with my passwords just in case, too.
Currently in the same sinking boat :( my 2011 MacBook Pro has been frozen on an install window for over an hour now. Just now doing these desperate searches on line for hope. Not looking good folks. DONT INSTALL!
Ps. so glad I backed it up this aft
After the second hour I forced quite and to my surprise all was good when I turned it on…. WHEW!!!
High Sierra is the worst system software Apple ever made. I use a Mac since 29 years. I did install Hight Sierra and my computer was dead. After a one hour call with Apple I was told to erase/initialise my HD. I did this time art did work, but High Sierra used right away time machine and erased my backup up disk in order to put the content of the actual HD. This means nothing. I lost for 1000’ns of $ software, which take a enormous amount of time and money to reinstall. And now my computer (iMac, quite new) asks all the time to install the f….. update. :-( :-( :-(
After installation computer is frozen with just Apple and completed status bar I turn off at power as not able to do so at computer. Then it starts to re load. Previous phone help from Apple – same prob HELP left to re load overnight and woke to same prob
Since the upgrade, screen freezers, won’t close down, can’t find word docs, desktop has split into 5 separate screens, what going on?
I’ve noticed that I can see Facebook photos on my timeline, but when I click on them to get a full-sized image, all I see is black. However, I can select Options, Download and then open the photo just fine.
This has only happened after installing High Sierra. Anybody else having this problem?
I upgraded and am stuck in a loop. It won’t complete the upgrade and always tells me to reboot. It seems to have wrecked my machine. Maybe I don’t have enough room on my 1TB SSD. It’s almost full. I now fear the only way to fix it is to get a new SSD
Wipe the drive and re-install OS from scratch. Then update with most recent backup. Your HD is probably fine. Make sure you wipe the drive before installing.
The same thing happened to my wife. The solution was to open the laptop in recovery mode, go to disk utilities, and select reinstall OS. It correctly installed High Sierra, even though we’d had trouble installing it via the App Store. I couldn’t hear the startup chime, so hit Command+R as soon as the keyboard lit up.
idownloadblog.com/2016/02/24/how-to-start-mac-recovery-mode/
I feel the exact same way. It froze my machine mid-installation and then I got the dreaded flashing question mark file folder and nearly had a stroke. Did recovery mode, finished installation, scanned for malware, this pos “upgrade” finally installed. Now I am having major issues online and my FB is a mess. Can’t use messenger at all, all messages are blank. Machine keeps stalling and stuttering online and in Word and Excel. I never should have done this update. I paid a lot of money for this MacBook Pro and should not have to replace it not even 4 years in. Mac needs to get it together and stop screwing their customers.
Favorites list in Finder is all out of order after installing High Sierra. How do i fix it alphabetically?
I was able to left-click and hold on a Favorite selection, say Documents, and drag and drop it where I wanted it.
Address contacts have disappeared after High Sierra upgrade. What’s the fix for this?
I have a Mac Pro from mid 2010. Every OS installation went quite well except the High Sierra. I run the Sierra OS on SSD drive, however I am not willing to back up my all drive through Time machine, formate it and load the new OS with a complicated process of file and application migration from back up disk. Unless Apple will provide a user friendly process to update the OS I will quit the installation of new software. I have a feeling that not always the newer is better, after experience of slowliness and troubles with movie export of the iMovie…
I discovered that the shortcut i was using before high sierra for Spotlight no longer works properly. you have to either click on the spotlight icon or F1 to get it to work fully. I can’t use the command/space bar as i once did or it will not find anything from Word!
Ever since I upgraded to High Sierra my spotlight search function is not working properly. It will not find any word docs, excel files etc. it only finds emails, applications etc. I have not found any useful info online to fix this as of yet! i checked my preferences and everything is ticked that i want but it is not doing it!
My Spotlight is working. I clicked on the Apple Icon, System Preferences. When the window opened, I typed Spotlight into the search area. Another window opened with all of the things Spotlight will look for. Do you have all of the types of documents you would look for checked under the Search Results tab?
Had to post this somewhere:
My iMac with Sierra was starting to shut down intermittently over the last 6 months. More often than not over the last few months.
Continually ringing Apple support who were very patient trying al kinds things.
I had reduced the shutdown frequency using the Mac Fan Control App. So it was a heat issue.
Two days ago I installed High Sierra and would not boot unless in safe mode. Which told me it was a software issue. Apple support suggested taking the iMac into Apple Repair to check the hardware.
They returned it with no hardware issues and a fresh install of High Sierra. But without any detail as to what they tested specifically.
Apple support was happy to have the tech guys ring me and discuss. We talked about the thermal paste that they would NOT look at nor replace unless the hardware diagnostics reported an issue.
They finally informed me they had opened the iMac and cleaned it. Nothing more specific than that on the notes.
Now After two 5 hours of slowly installing software. And watching the temp, the iMac has been running without shutting down like before then the hardware cleanup.
The temps have been below the previous 54°c average shutdown temps at current 50°c. And topping out at 49°c over the last few hours running heavy processing.
It looks like the issue was dirty hardware at 54°c. And could have been incompatible software at 54°c.
I’m super happy with apple support being there consistently and always professionally.
Even though my iMac was out of warranty the diagnostic and clean up was no charge.
~Now After 5 hours of slowly installing software, And watching the temp, the iMac has been running without shutting down as prior to the hardware cleanup.
~The temps have been below the previous 54°c average shutdown temps and current average temp of 50°c. And topping out at 59°c over the last few hours running heavy processing.
I upgraded to High Sierra and now when I click on links in emails, the links don’t open, just go to the Google search home page. Very frustrating.
I’m having the exact same problem. Frustrating:(
My macbook pro will not turn back on after this update!! :( What can I do it´s just a black screen and sometimes a folder with a question mark
Happened to me as well.
email me and I will help
How can I find your email? I have a friend who has this issue withe the installation as well.
I am having the same problem please help
Hi Christiaan Maurer
I am Agus , please help me how to solve my mcbook pro will nokt turn back on after this update . I dont backup at all. Usually i upgraded everything fine. It is not like this.
Thanks
Installed High Sierra on my MacBook, seemed to install Ok and the apple icon says I’m using High Sierra, but the screen is still displaying the Sierra snow mountain
graphic. Can you advise. I installed High Sierra on my IMac and the new scene is displayed
Installed High Sierra ok but now find that I cannot use flash drives.The convertor to APFS in Disk Utilities stalls and simply says there’s a problem. also I now realise that I will not be able to use any files on my Mac that doesn’t use High Sierra, or any PC for that matter. This gives me a big problem. After years of improving compatibly to an acceptable level Apple seems to have taken a backward step as far as compatibility goes.
Having a lot of issues with facetime and siri was lagging heavily.
I can’t get a full screen on FaceTime. The “enlarge” button on the left of the smaller window has no arrows like FT before and does nothing when I click it. When FaceTiming my wife, she gets voice only. No picture. This upgrade is a big disappointment. Any suggestions out there?
Is there a step by step fix for how to get High Sierra to work with Time Machine? I really need to be able to do back ups. Thank you.
I just installed High Sierra and now my Samsung external monitor won’t work. I called Samsung and Apple and both said it isn’t them. It was working fine until I installed. Right after it wouldn’t work. There is a problem with it. Unsatisfied customer who now has to eat $145 and go buy another monitor.
Did you ever get the second samsung monitor to “appear”…I have the same situation ???
Thanks
Most of my albums in photos only partially or didn’t transfer with High Sierra. Help!!
Clearly Apple Geeks in Cupertino relied just on AppleFreeks who would never say anything bad about this OS…only…gee no problems…but my Mail Prefs are gone & Siri is dead.
The SSD disapeard on first boot after complete install on a 2tb drive. Worked fine until reboot. Strangely the name of the drive as seen in Disk utility showed contents and was renamed untitled. Would not appear on desktop and was not mountable either. This was deliberate and bulls..t.
this was an ’09 machine flashed 5.1 with 12 core update. High Sierra was the attempted install
Apple Mail no longer appears correctly in Spotlight searches from in Apple Mail or from a Finder window.
IS “TOTALFINDER” ABLE TO COME BACK TO HIGH SIERRA.
IF NOT…WHY NOT WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE IT?
Mail won’t open now I have installed High Sierra any ideas? Thank you
I had serious problems installing HS on one of my MBP:s. Install freezed when the startup bar reached the right most end. I made several tries. Used every hint you write about but to no avail. After some extensive detective work I found out that if I unloaded the kext that was connected to a HP printer, the install process worked like a dream.
How does one “unload a kext”??
Boot in Recovery
Erase your SSD
Restore from most recent Time Machine backup
Don’t upgrade to HS for a year…
Had same issue with my 15″ 2016 MBP. After three attempts to fix it, I took it to the Apple store for them to do a Clean install. On second MAC, I installed without APFS keeping HFS+.
Please, it’s written as “Mac.” People write MAC because PC is an acronym for personal computer. Mac is short for the original Macintosh.
To keep on topic, I upgraded to High Sierra on my MacBook Pro without a problem. But I see others were not so fortunate, which is why a backup before any upgrade is prudent.
PC is not an acronym, its initialization. Only if it makes a new word like laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is it an acronym.
files won’t copy to/from usb drive to fusion drive.
Files won’t copy from USB drove to fusion drove.
After downloading the High Sierra from the app store do I still need internet connection for the installation on my Mac? Thanks
Need to correct my previous comment. That fix did work but only for a couple of hours. I think High Sierra have some glitches and am hoping Apple will soon provide an update. This is very annoying when Face Timing with the Grand Kids.
Came across this on Apple site and it appears to solve my problem.
Here is the link to Apple.https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7256375?tstart=0
Up graded to High Sierra and now my FaceTime camera freezes as well as Photo Booth. I am assuming an update will be out soon.
Just read your message re camera freeze. There seems to be very few people troubled by this. I am like you, one of them. Haven’t found a solution so far, have you?
regards David
I’m having trouble with ICC profiles not printing as good as in Sierra AND emails sent to me as a reply, come in 100% black w/no ability to see and image…only read text.
Logitech Web Cam Software work well with Sierra. But in High Sierra, it keep on saying some applications use it already.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7256375?tstart=0
SD Cards (Fat32) not appearing on the desktop of high sierra – disk utility says mounted, not appearing – tried first aid, no luck, thoughts anyone?
i need help pls.
could not load security & privacy preference pane. mac OS high sierra
the High Sierra update completely destroyed my OWC 1TB SSD drive. I can’t even get my machine to recognize the drive now. after hours of trying to get it to work (or even recognize the drive in Recovery Mode), I’m having to take the entire computer in to see if someone else can repair the drive. it’s been a nightmare.
For some odd reason, it rolled back my boot drive to March, which is especially odd insofar as I don’t have any Time Machine backups from that long ago.
I had the exact same problem on my macbook pro with the same SSD drive. After upgrade attempt, the SSD drive would not mount and be recognized. Ended up erasing the SSD drive and restoring everything from time machine. I’m not going to try HS upgrade for a long time now.
Same thing happened to me. My MacBook Pro is 2012 and Sierra works fine.
How did you erase the SSD drive? I’ve tried that on both the DiskUtility tool (bust disk greyed out so can’t do anything) and on command line using a terminal but it doesn’t work
This is the kind of situation for which you need an emergency utility disk or, better yet, a recent (before the upgrade to 10.13) clone of your system. If you don’t back up before a major upgrade you’re just asking for trouble. Which appears to be the problem in your case. If you had an external boot drive you could use Disk Utility to see if your SSD really was hosed. At a minimum you would still have a viable system to work with.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many people don’t take backing up seriously. Every time there is a macOS upgrade, and sometimes with updates too, there are people complaining about how the upgrade/update messed up their systems. I’m tempted to say they deserve what they get, but that would be cruel, wouldn’t it?
Instead, we should be grateful for early adopters. By troubleshooting the new system for us, they save everyone else all sorts of trouble. In the meantime we can sit back and enjoy our sangfroid.
That said, Otherworld has reported that some of their SSDs are incompatible with High Sierra and that they are working with Apple to resolve the issue. But that warning obviously came to late for you. They claim they e-mailed warnings to buyers of the affected SSDs, but apparently that message didn’t reach everyone. If your SSD is not on the list, perhaps it should be. You should contact Otherworld directly about this.
Try installing snow leopard (or any old install disk) and make a new install. I had same problem and this unlocked the volume on the hd needed to partition the hd.
I did a clean install on my Late 2011 27 inch I7 sandy bridge iMac and then performed a Migration from a Bootable external Clone. Everything is working perfectly and fast. My only problem is I no longer have a recovery disk. Did Apple remove this feature in High Sierra? Its a nice feature—- Glad I always keep a clone
First, how did you check to see if you have a Recovery partition with High Sierra? The easiest way to check is to boot into the Startup Manager by holding down the Option key at startup. Before you do this, disconnect any external drives so that you will see only your internal boot drive—and the Recovery HD if it exists. If you don’t see one here then, yes, for some reason your recovery partition was not created. I had this problem way back with Lion, but haven’t seen it since.
Carbon Copy Cloner can create a Recovery HD partition when you clone a drive. This may be a problem, though, it you don’t have a High Sierra Recovery partition to copy. There are ways to add a recovery partition to a drive, but it’s tricky and, in any case, you need a copy of the relevant partition to copy from. You could try to create one by reinstalling High Sierra on another external drive, but that may be more trouble than it’s worth.
Crowd-sourced Application compatibility & feature support for macOS, iOS & Windows:
RoaringApps – Application compatibility table
roaringapps.com/apps?platform=osx
I was able to convert one of my Time Machine HDD to APFS, however TM will not use APFS. Disk utility would only display APFS options when trying to erase the APFS drive. I ended up telling TM to stop using that disk and then use that disk. TM then erased and used compatible format.
We use our Mac mini for centralized backup. Had to delete centralized backups to get things working again. For the laptop on High Sierra it thought its backup was already in use. I stoped and restarted backup after deleting it on the server. For the non HS iMac, I told it to stop using the server, however it was unable to find the server again. Finder can find the server. So I guess it is back to usb drives for that machine. Maybe manually move the backup files to the server or different software?
The issue I have is this: High Sierra showed up in my App store and downloaded fine, however even though the App store says I updated on Oct. 1st when I click on about this Mac it still shows OS 10.12.6? I have both restarted and shut the computer down and re-opened and nothing….
It looks like you downloaded the High Sierra upgrade but did not run it. You would certainly know if you had. Look for the Install macOS High Sierra.app in your applications folder. If you find it, launch it and run the installer. If it’s not there you may be able to download it again.
I have a 2009 Mac Pro (4,1) that was upgraded to the (5,1) firmware before I installed 10.12. Running the betas of 10.13 was a smooth experience. However, when I started the install of the 10.13 released version, it said it needed to do a firmware update, and gave good instructions of what to do. Still, I was puzzled because this was never required for a Beta install. I wondered when did this firmware update get Beta tested? In the end, it took 4 tries to get the firmware update to run, and after that the installer ran fine and updated my third-party SSD boot drive to APFS without mentioning that it was doing this. I knew to expect this, but still…. Anyway, all is well now, but the firmware update problems left me worried that I would have a bricked machine.
I also had to update the firmware. Worked fine the first time, but killed my trackball driver in X12/X13.
I’ve had my Logitech wireless Trackball quit working after system updates so I keep my wired one handy. Usually, restarting solves the problem. So if you’ve got a wired mouse/trackball use it to select restart and you may be good to go or perhaps you may need to reconfigure it in the Preference pane. Also of course, check to see if new drivers may be available for your device. Just my 2¢.
Glad to hear the firmware update didn’t kill anything — I have the same setup and was leery. I’m betting it has to do with the new monitoring that is done weekly.
The instructions say to hold the power button until the light blinks or you get a long tone. I patiently held the button in each try, but only got the long tone on my last attempt. For me at least, no tone, no success.
try Control + Command + R as it is booting up. Then restore using time machine.
try Control + Command + R as it is booting up. Then restore using time machine. I have an external HD that I was able to recover everything
Installed fine on our latest version of Mac Mini. Did not install APFS on fusion drive. I’ll wait till Apple supports that.
My OWC Thunderbay required new driver after installing HS, even though I updated driver before installing HS. Speaking of which, SoftRAID says APFS will be fully supported in version 6.0. When will that come out and will it still be free upgrade?
Apple moved file sharing and caching out of Server App and into MacOS. Not sure what to make of that.
Photos does not automatically convert the library to the new high efficiency formats, in fact I haven’t seen any ability to convert the photos or library to high efficiency formats. I may have missed that. This maybe a good thing because the high efficiency formats use more CPU power and converting from lossy JPG to lossy high efficiency format may create more artifacts.
FWIW, Photos updated my library when first launched after install. I haven’t noticed any difference in its performance.
Ours did something with the photos library also, however I still see the photos as jpg so I’m not sure what it did.
Drives with OWC SSD drives can not be upgraded to High Sierra at this time.
When will this be fixed?
Worked with my 2012 MBPro with 1GB Aura
Correction: 1TB Aura
Not mine, an internal 1TB Aura. I got the update error message about firmware.
Noper,
didn’t work with my relatively new MacPro.
New issues arose recently: the keyboard stopped working properly. I don’t know whether this was caused by 3rd party applications, or whether this was related to my installation. So I just re-installed my backup 10.12.6 and re-innitialized the drive to a GUID partition map removing the APFS. Will wait for 10.13.1…..
“firmware issues” trying to use an OWC SSD in a 2013 Mac Pro. What can we do?
Nothing (yet) apparently. I have this issue as well on my Late 2013 Mac Pro. It really would have been nice to have been notified about this proactively — not to mention it also would have been nice for an alert to be posted on this OWC site. Funny it’s not mentioned in the above article.
Same here… really disappointed in the lack of response from OWC on this. May never buy third party Apple accessories again here.
I installed High Sierra on a 2011 iMac and for some strange reason now I am an able to sign in to my iTunes account on that machine. Even the people at Apple can’t figure this out. Is anyone else having a similar problem?
I have just read more, including release notes from Apple’s Newsroom. The confusion around High Sierra and Fusion that I was having was brought about by the fact that the Beta version could be loaded onto a Fusion drive. However, in the release notes they are clear Fusion & HDD support for High Sierra will be coming, but not right now. Most of the loading information I read earlier was about actually removing High Sierra from an HDD based or Fusion based machine. I didn’t use the Beta so I don’t need to be concerned.
I’m happy to wait. That’s good enough for me.
On my 09 mac tower, it installed fine. Some apps crash on launch, like System preferences(WTF). I’ll stay with Sierra for now.
I have a 4TB Aura SSD in a MAC Pro late 2013 that reports a firmware error on installing High Sierra. Tried reinstalling the original Apple drive, but the Mac won’t boot (black screen, high fan). Ideas?
Info with no solution:
Tech at MacSales told me NOT to upgd High Sierra to the Aura. Instead, update the original Apple SSD because that would update firmware. Then, swap drives and update the Aura. When attempting to boot from the Apple drive, I had the same problem with blk scn and hi fan. Still had blk scn with fan disconnected. Tried to update the Apple drive when connected via USB but had a firmware warning after a restart. Fortunately, the Aura with Sierra was untouched and still works. Apple could have configured the update differently but it appears it is trying to make it difficult for after-mkt users. Typical. I hope someone will provide a utility that will update firmware but don’t have much hope.
I have exactly this problem as well.
When I re-installed the Apple SSD, I got the black screen and high fan. I seem to remember doing an SMC reset in the past when I first installed the Aura and had this problem, but that didn’t work this time.
I have a Late 2009 iMac with an OWC SSD as it’s boot drive. Do you guys know if High Sierra will convert it to APFS right off the bat? Does it assume that this old Mac still has its spinning hard drive or does it recognize the aftermarket SSD and go forward with the automatic conversion? Thanks!
High Sierra updated to APFS on a third-party SSD in my 2010 MBP, so you should be fine.
no- aura ssds are NOT compatible with apfs file system- either you get a warning on installation that ‘installation failed due to a firmware…” or, worse, if you do get the installation to proceed with a few ‘recommended ‘ workarounds, some of which are suggested by owc, you end up with a corrupted or unusable ssd- owc now recommends ‘replacing the aura with the original ssd’ if you want to install High Sierra and apfs on a former aura pro system, then putting the aura back in, and clone the ORIGINAL ssd to the aura ssd, presumably from the external enclosure they sent (that doesn’t work- I did that and after ten tries, finally gave up)- owc needs to give us a firmware upgrade or our money back!
I have a late 2012 MBPro with Retina display and a 1TB
OWC Aura 6G SSD. Everything seems to work properly except one of my backup disks will not mount properly: a WD Passport Ultra. My other WD backup (time machine) works and backs up properly
I’m a bit confused. All the pre-release information said that High Sierra will not be able to be loaded on HDD based or Fusion Drive based machines, yet Apple now has a guide for installing on Fusion Drive machines. When I read it, it looks like it is aimed at those who installed the Beta of High Sierra. Any ideas from anyone out there?
could not load security & privacy preference pane. mac OS high sierra, i need help plsss.
The release version of High Sierra will not run on a Fusion Drive in APFS format. The beta could do so; Apple’s instructions are about getting your Fusion Drive back to HFS+ so that you can run High Sierra on it—if you converted it while running the beta. A pain in the neck for beta testers.
However, macOS 10.13 will run on a Fusion Drive in the old HFS+ format. It will also run on a regular hard drive in HFS+. And it can convert a HDD to APSF. If you want to convert a HDD, however, you will need to have a bootable drive or partition with High Sierra already installed. Only Disk Utility in High Sierra can do the conversion, and, of course, it cannot convert the drive it is running on. So this is a multi-step process that may, or may not, be worth the trouble.
As APFS is so new there is really no real advantage to using it on a traditional hard drive. For one thing, the space saving features of High Sierra are unlikely to be of much use on a relatively large hard drive, including a Fusion Drive. It is intended primarily to help the small SSDs that come in Mac laptops these days. Given that Apple sells so many more laptop than desktop computers, this makes sense from their perspective. For a HDD or a Fusion Drive, APSF has little to offer and you will lose next to nothing by avoiding it.
The biggest advantage to APSF on the Mac is for enhanced compatibility with iOS 11. iOS 10 converted the iPhones and iPads on which it was installed to APSF. The main advantage here is that it provides cloud sharing access to the files on your iOS device(s). The new image and video formats also save space on these devices, as most of them are even more limited in storage than Mac laptops.