There’s nothing like the release of a new operating system to put apps to the test. Unsurprisingly, some Rocket Yard readers have reported that specific apps are not playing well with
High Sierra. Here’s our current list, and please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the post with information on any apps you may have that don’t work properly with High Sierra installed. (
Related: Common Problems During and After macOS High Sierra Installation)
Apple Apps
Would you believe that some Apple apps need to be updated to a new version to work properly with macOS High Sierra? While the iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers), built-in apps (Mail, Safari, etc…) and iLife (iMovie, Photos, GarageBand, etc…) apps are working well with High Sierra, the Pro apps need to be updated to the latest versions. Here are links to the Mac App Store where the latest version can be found:
Adobe Apps
Adobe suggests that any Creative Cloud versions of its apps be updated to the latest version (this is generally a good practice anytime updates are available). Most ‘CC apps’ should run smoothly with High Sierra, but some issues have been reported, in particular with Illustrator CC 2017 and InDesign CC 2017.
Illustrator suffers from multiple issues, one of which can cause installation and application launch failures; others have workarounds. InDesign suffers from cursor corruption issues, which may vary in frequency or severity depending on hardware. Photoshop has an issue related to Full Screen usage but Adobe has already supplied a file that can be downloaded and installed to fix it. For all Adobe-related issues, please visit their
official support pages for the latest information.
For CS6 and earlier versions of the suite, the best information we have is that they are not officially supported with 10.13. They may install and work properly or they may not, but in any case no updates are likely to be provided.
Microsoft Office
As noted in an earlier report on macOS High Sierra, Office 2011 is not supported in High Sierra. While some of the apps may still work, there is a good chance they will not based on the information we’ve seen. Note also that Microsoft will no longer support Office 2011 after October 10, 2017, so if you would like to continue using an officially supported version, your only option will be to upgrade to Office 2016 (version 10.35 or higher — current version as of this writing is 15.38).
You can check the version number for Office 2016 by opening any of the apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc…) and selecting the “About Excel/Word/…” item from the app menu (see screenshot at right).
Microsoft Auto Update was also reported as having some issues.
Summary of Apps with Verified Compatibility Issues as of 9/27/2017
- Wacom tablet drivers: 10.13-aware drivers not available until late October. This could impact many Creative Suite users.
- Adobe Illustrator CC 2017 (serious – fix likely to require application update)
- InDesign CC 2017 (variable – fix likely to require Apple update)
- Photoshop CC 2017 (minor – Adobe fix available now)
- CS6 and earlier suites: as far as we know, none are officially compatible with 10.13. No further fixes or updates likely.
- Affinity Photo – should work but no official statement yet
- Affinity Design – should work but no official statement yet
- Final Cut Pro X – 10.3.4 or later
- Motion – 5.3.2 or later
- Compressor – 4.3.2 or later
- Logic Pro X – 10.3.1 or later
- MainStage – 3.3 or later
- Apps from previous versions of Final Cut and Logic Studio are not compatible. They include: DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Color, Cinema Tools, WaveBurner, Studio Instruments, Studio Effects, Apple Loops, Apple Loops Utility, Impulse Response Utility
- Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) 4 – limited support only
- CCC5 – fully supports 10.13; this version should be used in a mixed volume (HFS+ and APFS) environment.
- Disk Warrior 5 – Will run on the OS but APFS volumes not yet supported. (Disk Warrior 4 stopped working with 10.11).
- MS Office 2011 – not supported and MS will end all official support 10/10/17.
- MS Offie 2016 – versions 15.35 and later only
- FileMaker Pro – if you are using version 14 or earlier, check with FileMaker before upgrading to macOS 10.13.
- 1 Password – version 6 or later
Other Apps Reported to Have Issues as of 9/27/2017
- Airfoil for Mac
- Audacity
- Audio Hijack
- Autodesk AutoCAD 2017
- Bear
- beaTunes
- Civilization V
- CodeWeavers CrossOver (and any apps that use it)
- DiskWarrior 5.0 (does not support APFS; should work properly on any High Sierra device that has not been converted to APFS)
- FileMaker Pro 11.0.4 and earlier
- Firefox
- Intego Backup Manager Pro
- Intego FileGuard
- Intego Internet Security Barrier X6
- Intego NetBarrier X5/X8
- Intego Personal Antispam
- Intego VirusBarrier 10.7.3/Express/Plus
- Loopback
- Mailplane
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
- McAfee Endpoint Security for Mac
- nvALT
- OnyX (High Sierra version is under development)
- Path Finder
- Snapz Pro X
- Sophos AV
- SuperDuper!
- TechTool Pro
Users Who Might Want to Think Twice Before Upgrading
- All users heavily dependent upon Wacom tablets for their work or computer use
- Illustrator CC 2017 users
- InDesign CC 2017 users
- Users of earlier versions of Creative Suite (CS6 or earlier) who don’t plan on changing that setup
- MS Office 2011 users who don’t plan to upgrade to a free office suite, G Suite, or Office 2016 15.35 or later
- Carbon Copy Cloner v4 or earlier users who don’t plan to upgrade to version 5.
- Disk Warrior users
- Anyone using older versions of the Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio who doesn’t want to move up to Final Cut Pro X apps or Logic Pro X apps.
As noted earlier, please let us know if you run into any compatibility issues with your favorite Mac apps by leaving a comment below. In addition, if you hear about a new version of any of the apps listed here that resolves High Sierra compatibility issues, please comment as well.
