Need Honest, Accurate Reviews of High Sierra

[honestone]

As I am sure everyone knows, Apple released the initial version of High Sierra, OS 10.13, back in late September. There have been 2 subsequent updates, along with a bad "root user" security flaw (and a couple of fixes). Also, well over 90% of the posts here about High Sierra have been about various issues. And yesterday, one of our esteemed users, Spawn_Dooley, indicated that he is going to skip High Sierra altogether, electing to remain with Sierra until next year, when a new Mac OS (OS 10.14) will arrive. Finally, I have seen only one positive thing about High Sierra: Office 2016 apps run faster with it.

So, I believe it would be helpful if folks could post detailed reviews about upgrading to High Sierra. The reviews should include the following:

1. What OS upgraded from?

2. Upgrade done "in place" (ie, basically have High Sierra overwrite what was there already), or via a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation of High Sierra.

3. Positive and negative experiences.

4. Hardware "setup", ie, exact Mac model, external drives (size, kind, etc.).

5. Preparations done before the upgrade.

Looking for such reviews!

 

[Lufbrarunner]

As previously mentioned I have updated both my MacBookPro and iMac and now, my wife's iMac, all with no problems.
Before each update I did a Time Machine backup and a Carbon Copy Clone, I also copied all the data files onto external drives and to iCloud.

I did also have to update Onyx on all the machines after the OS X update.

The machines were:
1) 27" iMac retina 5k late 2015, 3.2ghz core i5 processor, 24gb RAM. 1tb HDD (internal) 1tb Seagate HDD(for CCC),
2 x 500gb Seagate HDDs for photo storage, 2X120gb SSDs for storing my Code etc.

2) 13" MacBookPro retina early 2015, 2.7ghz core i5 processor, 8gb RAM 120gb SSD (internal) 2X 60gb External SSDs for data

3) 21.5" iMac late 2015, 2.8ghz core i5 processor, 8gb RAM, 1tb HDD (internal), 250gb external Seagate drive.

They all back up to a 2tb time capsule using Time Machine. I need to upgrade this soon.

They were all running the most up to date version of Sierra before the update. The 27" iMac is now running 10.13.2 and the others will be updated in a few days.

I was a little wary, considering all the negatives I had read about, that is why I updated 1 machine at a time with a few days between them in case of any problems.

I can honestly find nothing negative about High Sierra, Office 2016 is certainly slicker than it was under Sierra, and although I haven't timed it, all the machines seem to boot slightly quicker.

Apart from Onyx, I have not had to update any software or drivers, I thought my printers, a Canon MG3100 series and an Epson SX235W, might cause a problem but neither has missed a beat

It seems we only hear about the upgrades that go wrong maybe if everyone who had a trouble free upgrade posted about it, we may get a clearer picture.

Waiting for 10.14 may be the way to go, but there could be problems with that also

 

[honestone]

Thanks, Lufbrarunner. Excellent, comprehensive report! Did you just upgrade each machine "in place"?

Yes, Onyx does require "upgrading" when moving to High Sierra. Actually, there are specific versions of Onyx for each Mac OS since OS 10.2!

Interesting that you did not update Carbon Copy Cloner CCC) to V5.0.x (now at V5.0.4), as from what I read on Micromat's site (they make Tech Tool Pro), Bombich software (they make CCC) had some definite challenges with High Sierra. Same was true for SuperDuper! (the one I use).

Myself, I have already upgraded 1Password, SuperDuper!, and Office 2016 (along with some other apps not quite as "critical"), as they can still run with such upgrades with Sierra, the OS I am using (latest version is V10.12.6). And I have already downloaded the latest High Sierra version of Onyx (but of course not yet installed it). As I have mentioned numerous times, I am just waiting for the High Sierra update of Tech Tool Pro. I want to have a solid, robust disk cleanup/maintenance/program before I upgrade. and Tech Tool Pro certainly satisfies that need.

Again, I see where the only benefit with the upgrade is your positive experiences with Office 2016. That is applicable to me, as I use Outlook 2016 a lot, and occasionally Word and Excel. Even this "APFS" business for my external SSDs will offer very little, if any, speed benefit, according to exchanges I recently had with Shirt Pocket Software (they make SuperDuper!).

Again, thanks for the comprehensive review. Myself, I am still somewhat "reluctant" to upgrade, even when the High Sierra version of Tech Tool Pro is released. If I do "upgrade", though, I will not do it "in place". My plan will be to 1) run Onyx and Tech Tool Pro one more time on my "Sierra" system, 2) make a SuperDuper! backup (actually 2 of them for each of my Macs) to my external SSDs, 3) start each Mac up from that bootable backup, 4) use Disk Utility there to Erase and Format my internal drives (SSDs, in both cases), 5) run the file "Install macOS High Sierra" (now at V10.13.2) for a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation of OS 10.13.2, and 6) use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy needed "stuff" from that just completed SuperDuper! backup. That is what I have done in the past, and it has worked well for me.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Yes all were upgraded 'in place' I. Will be upgrading Carbon Copy Cloner shortly.