Finale Forum

Dear Finale representative,

I've bought Finale 25 for Mac last August and have been having a number of problems with it. I had High Sierra from August to early November. Ever since installation Finale 25 ran very slowly on High Sierra and presented a number of bugs I had never experienced before when I used Windows. Then I updated my system to Mojave and the problems persisted. For example, the filter (for copying/pasting music) simply doesn't work – I must either copy everything (no filtering) or make all changes manually. That's terribly time-consuming.

I'd like to know why this is happening and need an urgent solution. The reason I switched from PC to Mac was exactly because I was told by several friends that Finale and all its features work best on Macs. And my current experience tells the exact opposite.

I am a composer and university professor and really need Finale to be working seamlessly as it always was. I use it basically everyday for composing and preparing classes. I live in South America, where Finale (in local currency) costs a huge lot of money, so I can't buy Finale 26 right after buying 25. And my copy of Finale 25 is running terribly slowly (plus the bugs) on a brand new fast iMac.

Please, help.
Thank you

1) There are no “Finale representatives” here.
This is a user forum.

2) For Mac OS 14 (Mojave) it is recommended that you use Finale v26.
If you can not afford an upgrade to Finale v26, downgrade your Mac OS.
Finale v25 runs better on Mac OS 12.

3) Also, consider the fact that your “brand new fast iMac” uses a high resolution for its computer screen.
You may get a faster Finale performance at a lower screen resolution.

By The Way:
Have you downloaded and installed the latest maintenance update for Finale v25?
It could not hurt.

Ajeberg wrote:I was told by several friends that Finale and all its features work best on Macs.

I'm afraid you were misinformed. The majority of the problems with Finale/OS interactions reported here are on Macs.

motet wrote:

Ajeberg wrote:I was told by several friends that Finale and all its features work best on Macs.

I'm afraid you were misinformed. The majority of the problems with Finale/OS interactions reported here are on Macs.

Except for all the Windows problems, he’s right. Many of the common problems are platform specific... but not this one. On the official MakeMusic forum, this problem is widely reported on Win computers running 4K monitors.

Upgrade to 26 — hi-res monitor performance is improved on the Mac. There are reports not so much on Windows.

Thank you all for your responses. I'll have to wait for buying the 26 upgrade.

In any case, I must say that I'm appalled by this incredibly poor Finale performance. Not even the filter works - I have to either copy everything or repeat slurs and articulations manually measure by measure.

Do you know whether Sibelius runs better on Macs than Finale?

There have been a number of posts on the MakeMusic site about Finale 25 running slowly on computers with Retina displays. You said you have a new computer, so it sounds like you might have such a display. It's not a great option, but one solution until you can afford the upgrade to Finale 26 is to tell Finale 25 to open in "Low Resolution" mode. Select the Finale application icon in your applications folder and choose "Get Info" (Cmd + I). In the window that opens, tick the box that says "Open in Low Resolution." For many people that speeds up the application screen rendering sufficiently to offset the poorer-quality resolution. Hope that helps.

bkshepard, _that_ is extremely helpful! Lag was making Finale 25 infuriating to use, i guess because of my retina display ... all better now thanks to your suggestion, and the low res gives it a sort of retro look, which I like thank you

bkshepard wrote:There have been a number of posts on the MakeMusic site about Finale 25 running slowly on computers with Retina displays. You said you have a new computer, so it sounds like you might have such a display. It's not a great option, but one solution until you can afford the upgrade to Finale 26 is to tell Finale 25 to open in "Low Resolution" mode. Select the Finale application icon in your applications folder and choose "Get Info" (Cmd + I). In the window that opens, tick the box that says "Open in Low Resolution." For many people that speeds up the application screen rendering sufficiently to offset the poorer-quality resolution. Hope that helps.

This also is said to work on Windows with 4K displays having the same issue.

There’s a release note from MM saying that 26 successfully addressed this on the Mac but that it’s still an issue with Windows. I have no way of verifying this.

Being on an iMac Pro, I can only confirm that I have no speed issues with 26.

The majority of the problems with Finale/OS interactions reported here are on Macs.

Oh man, I totally agree with this and you are proving it.

Do you know whether Sibelius runs better on Macs than Finale?

If you can't afford Fin26, how can you buy Sibelius? It is even more costly then Finale 26 and it much worse. If you just bought a Mac, do you still have the Windows machine? You got both versions of Finale (Win and Mac) when you bought it. So put Finale on the Windows computer and start enjoying Finale again!

You can also relax and know that Windows updates won't break Finale.

motet wrote:You can also relax and know that Windows updates won't break Finale.

Now that's funny.

People have short memories.
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... -10-Update

Finale 2005 still runs on the latest version of Windows.

Now that's funny.

People have short memories.
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... -10-Update

Lord knows I have had issues with Windows 10 and Finale but that is not one of them. The issues I have seen with Mac OS and Windows OS, the Mac OS far exceeds any problem Windows has.

MikeHalloran wrote:

motet wrote:You can also relax and know that Windows updates won't break Finale.

Now that's funny.

People have short memories.
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... -10-Update

Even if I'd had Windows 10 three years ago (the link above dates from then), I would have been happy with having a short memory. There's no such problem with Windows 10 today.

Unlike some, I actually can compare the platforms, as I use both. But making a big point of which platform I prefer myself wouldn't change any minds, would it?

motet wrote:Finale 2005 still runs on the latest version of Windows.

And the latest version of Finale does not run on my Mac because I cannot upgrade to the latest OS. Or even to any of the two versions before that. When I purchased my MacBook Pro in 2010 I might have been a bit naive. I expected this rather costly high-tech, high-quality hardware to last at least a decade. 5-7 years I had the pleasure of Mac excellence. Do I hear any sneers anywhere?...

(Not that it relates to Finale, but now I'll have to wait minutes for my mail-program to open. On the once high-quality Mac.)

Anders Hedelin wrote:

motet wrote:Finale 2005 still runs on the latest version of Windows.

And the latest version of Finale does not run on my Mac because I cannot upgrade to the latest OS. Or even to any of the two versions before that. When I purchased my MacBook Pro in 2010 I might have been a bit naive. I expected this rather costly high-tech, high-quality hardware to last at least a decade. 5-7 years I had the pleasure of Mac excellence. Do I hear any sneers anywhere?...

(Not that it relates to Finale, but now I'll have to wait minutes for my mail-program to open. On the once high-quality Mac.)

Interesting rant, I suppose but it makes no sense. A 2010 MacBook Pro can certainly run Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra and Finale 25/26. Why do you think it can’t?

There were four 2010 MBPs. Here’s the least powerful version:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macb ... specs.html

You do need a 2012 to run Mojave but it’s not necessary for the current version of Finale. Here are the specs on mine:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macb ... specs.html

Don’t know the problem you are having with your 2010 but I have little doubt that it can be solved. Upgrading the drive to solid state is a very good idea with these. It increases the write-to-disk speed about 3x. (About 6x on a 2011–2012). A standard SATA III SSD drops right in. If you haven’t replaced the battery yet, it’s long past time. It took me abut 15 minutes to replace the drive and battery on mine.

Thanks for your gracious reply. I will consider your tips.
By the way, the info on my Mac says that it is from the middle of 2009 (even if purchased early 2010), and the info on Apple's site says that Sierra and High Sierra are not compatible with that. If that makes any sense to you.

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP765?view ... cale=en_US
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp742?locale=en_US

Correct. A mid 2009 is not a 2010 and cannot run later than OS 10.11 El Capitán. 25 is the last version of Finale that will run on it.