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Upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra now?

I don't use High Sierra as "my main OS".
I still use Low Sierra (10.12). It works well enough for me and I have no plans to move beyond it on the Macs I have (2012 Mini and 2015 MacBook Pro).

However, I've come to the conclusion that if one wishes to use HS and is willing to take the steps to install it using HFS+ (instead of APFS), that's it's finally become usable and a "justifiable upgrade"...
 
I thought HS required the use of APFS on SSD systems. Has that changed?
 
Neither High Sierra nor Mojave "require" APFS.
You can still use HFS+ if you want to.
 
What a pleasant surprise. Perhaps it was because I waited until the end of the developement cycle of HS to install. Installed in about forty minutes without any problems. Launching and closing apps is much quicker. A welcome relief after reports of HS breaking things.
 
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Agree with all those saying that if you are not having any problems, and don't need to upgrade for any reason, then stay where you are.

My experience as a long-term Apple user is that the average user is best served staying one or two OS upgrades back, as long as it is working fine and security updates are still being released.

It is also a bit of a pain, but doing a clean install for each upgrade is probably the best option. I haven't done one for a couple of upgrades, and it is showing.

About to upgrade to Sierra from El Cap, plus move to an SSD, and will be doing a fresh install for that.
 
But if you install HS without APFS, why would you upgrade? For me APFS would be the only potentially interesting feature.
 
Fishrrman said:
Neither High Sierra nor Mojave "require" APFS.
You can still use HFS+ if you want to.
Click to expand...

My understanding is HS requires APFS on SSD drives that are internal or the main boot drive. During the install/upgrade process it updates the system from HFS+ to APFS.
 
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MSastre said:
Fat32 has always limited the amount of usable file size. Format your usb stick or drives to ExFat or MacOS (journaled), depending on whether or not the use will be cross platform.
Click to expand...
no, the problem is not in the usb key, but it's in the Finder app.
Have you readed the page? If you try to move a file (not only in a USB key but also to another HDD) >2GB, you have an error message
 
TonyK said:
My understanding is HS requires APFS on SSD drives that are internal or the main boot drive. During the install/upgrade process it updates the system from HFS+ to APFS.
Click to expand...
Your understanding is incorrect ;)

While it's true that both, HS and Mojave convert an HFS+ volume to APFS while running their respective installers it is not mandatory. For HS there's a switch do disable this forced APFS conversion (if I remember correctly you start the setup process manually and use the --convertoapfs no parameter. Apple removed this back door in Mojave though and is now force-converting all drivers, be that SSD, HDD or FD, so it's much harder to get it to run on HFS+ instead of APFS but it's still possible.

Socket said:
You know if the recent versions of HS or Mojave resolved this bug? https://superuser.com/questions/126...er-than-2gb-to-fat32-usbs-on-macos-highsierra
Click to expand...
I think Apple fixed that bug with 10.13.5 and the limit is once again at 4GB.
 
mj_ said:
Your understanding is incorrect ;)

Mojave though and is now force-converting all drivers, be that SSD, HDD or FD, so it's much harder to get it to run on HFS+ instead of APFS but it's still possible.
Click to expand...

I would think this would be applicable to the boot drive, but are you saying it will convert my non-bootable data drives as well? That just doesn’t make sense to me.
 
Just the boot drive. My "all drives" comment was referring to the fact that Mojave does not differentiate between SSD, HDD, and FD anymore.
 
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mj_ said:
Your understanding is incorrect ;)


I think Apple fixed that bug with 10.13.5 and the limit is once again at 4GB.
Click to expand...

yes, correct! I upgraded to 10.13.5 and it work well!

But I have a question, why my firmware is still 0084??? I thought that it will be upgraded with High Sierra 10.13.5
 
Socket said:
no, the problem is not in the usb key, but it's in the Finder app.
Have you readed the page? If you try to move a file (not only in a USB key but also to another HDD) >2GB, you have an error message
Click to expand...
There is a specific topic for that issue. A simple solution is file manager app "Forklift". So, via Forklift2 one is able to copy-paste a file larger than 2 gb onto FAT32 usb flash drive.
P.S.: As far as I know you can download the Forklift2 for free from their website (binarynights). You can buy Forklift3, if you wish. It is the best alternative to Finder.
Adapted from my past post - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/3-2gb-file-too-large-for-fat32.2074808/#post-25440070
 
Well, I'm sitting here downloading HS to upgrade my mid 2012 rMBP (16gb RAM, 256 ssd, i7, GT650), and I'm wondering if it's wise after reading through this and other threads. Sierra is still running quite well on my machine (which is not one that I rely on: my iMac is that machine). I made a bootable flash drive of Sierra and backed up in case, but I hope that I don't have to revert.
 
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mj_ said:
There's no need to use Forklift anymore since this bug has already been fixed in 10.13.5
Click to expand...
Well, Foklift2 is way more useful than Finder even without accounting for that bug :)
Anyways, there were other issues that I encountered on macOS High Sierra, the most pesky one was that USB flash drives were unreadable on Windows machines and on TV (sometimes I do watch a movie on TV via USB drive).
Have this bug been fixed on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6?
Thank you.
 
What are the key new features or benefits of HS? So far, I've read that APFS is a little faster for specific processes. Is that it? It doesn't seem worth the risk of the bugs I've read about.
 
Depends on what system you're coming from and what software you're using. Just two examples:
  • Photos has been improved massively between Sierra and High Sierra.
  • Messages in iCloud has been introduced with 10.13.5.
For me personally, APFS would be a reason to hold back on critical systems as Apple has failed to document the file system appropriately. They promised in 2017 that they would, but it's now 2018 and we're still waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

And finally don't forget that High Sierra will give you one extra year of security updates over Sierra, and two years over El Capitan.
 
i'm wondering the same thing and not sure what to do. can i go from 10.12->10.14 directly?

if i wanted to do a clean install of 10.14 what would that involve at the time? i have a mid 2014 i7 16gb 512 ssd mbp.

i never had the opportunity to upgrade and 10.12 is working fine for my needs so there is no need to upgrade but it is something i will want to update too.
 
i4k20c said:
i'm wondering the same thing and not sure what to do. can i go from 10.12->10.14 directly?

if i wanted to do a clean install of 10.14 what would that involve at the time? i have a mid 2014 i7 16gb 512 ssd mbp.

i never had the opportunity to upgrade and 10.12 is working fine for my needs so there is no need to upgrade but it is something i will want to update too.
Click to expand...

There should be no problem going from 10.12 to 10.14. That is what I plan to do, and I happen to have the same mbp configuration as you. If you want to have a readable guide to your options and precautions when doing an OS upgrade, I've always found the Take Control books useful. There is not a Mojave upgrade book yet, but it will probably be $10, plus there might be some deals on multiple books from their store. Here is the High Sierra upgrade book. You just have to keep a look out for a Mojave book to appear close to the time of Apple release, or sign up for Take Control email for their deals and updates on new titles. https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/high-sierra-upgrading

I usually wait for a few bug fix releases before doing a major upgrade, so I'll probably wait until something like 10.14.3
 
mj_ said:
Just the boot drive. My "all drives" comment was referring to the fact that Mojave does not differentiate between SSD, HDD, and FD anymore.
Click to expand...
Do you mean the current boot drive?
If there are other ssd’s with os installed will they be updated also?
 
Pearl Wisdom said:
There should be no problem going from 10.12 to 10.14. That is what I plan to do, and I happen to have the same mbp configuration as you. If you want to have a readable guide to your options and precautions when doing an OS upgrade, I've always found the Take Control books useful. There is not a Mojave upgrade book yet, but it will probably be $10, plus there might be some deals on multiple books from their store. Here is the High Sierra upgrade book. You just have to keep a look out for a Mojave book to appear close to the time of Apple release, or sign up for Take Control email for their deals and updates on new titles. https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/high-sierra-upgrading

I usually wait for a few bug fix releases before doing a major upgrade, so I'll probably wait until something like 10.14.3
Click to expand...
Has that booked helped you in the past? What kind of information does it have?
 
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