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Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:27 pm
by Bill Stevens
Now that Catalina is out for the Mac is Finale still saying we should hold off on the upgrade?

::: Bill Stevens

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:18 pm
by Nick Mazuk
I've asked Makemusic if they know if Finale is compatible with macOS Catalina.

I'm expecting a generic "we can't guarantee it will work completely" sort of answer, but worth a shot. Curious how side car is going to work with Finale.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:03 am
by horn_guy
For Finale v25.5 there appear to be at least two Finale-related applications which presumably will no longer run under Catalina as they are not 64-bit:

/Library/Application Support/Plogue/Aria/AriaReporter.app
/Applications/Garritan ARIA Player/Generate logs.app

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:27 am
by Nick Mazuk
Here's the official response from Finale:

"Thank you for contacting MakeMusic! We're still testing Finale v26's compatibility with Mac OS 10.15 (Catalina) so I wouldn't recommend that you upgrade just yet. You can follow the Finale Blog to stay up to date on Finale's compatibility with new operating systems. I hope that helps out!"

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:02 pm
by Anders Hedelin
I don't envy the MM staff having to adjust to all these Mac OS:es. Maybe, if they hadn't to, we should see some significant improvements to the program itself.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:35 pm
by N Grossingink
Anders Hedelin wrote:
Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:02 pm
I don't envy the MM staff having to adjust to all these Mac OS:es. Maybe, if they hadn't to, we should see some significant improvements to the program itself.
To be fair, we users really don't know just how much effort is needed to make sure Finale is compatible with changing Mac OSes. Blaming Mac seems to be a common theme on this forum. Whenever an update is issued to clear up Mac related problems, a Windows update is issued at the same time. Presumably some minor bugs are fixed as well, thus benefiting Windows users too.

The slow appearance and paucity of "significant improvements" goes back years and years, to the Coda Music Technology days. Since then, the company has changed hands several times. Sadly the slow pace of development has not changed one iota.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2019 4:39 pm
by Anders Hedelin
N Grossingink wrote:
Sat Oct 12, 2019 3:35 pm
To be fair, we users really don't know just how much effort is needed to make sure Finale is compatible with changing Mac OSes. Blaming Mac seems to be a common theme on this forum. Whenever an update is issued to clear up Mac related problems, a Windows update is issued at the same time. Presumably some minor bugs are fixed as well, thus benefiting Windows users too.
Ok, I don't know for sure. But it seems more than likely that the time the present company is spending on these unavoidable Mac updates affects its possibility to do other things.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2019 4:09 pm
by gogreen
I'm aware of the hold-off-on-updating caveat. Still, can anyone confirm that Finale and Garritan sound libraries (and the Aria player) work in Catalina?

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:27 pm
by BuonTempi
Finale 26, and ARIA, works fine for me under Catalina, though my testing has not been exhaustive.

I'd suggest that Catalina is the OS that Finale has spent the last eight years preparing for, in which MM has removed the long-since deprecated code on which Apple is now finally pulling the plug. From memory, I'd suggest that the severity of OS-update fatalities increases the further back in time you go, against the flow of MM's code modernization.

It's very easy to blame Apple for 'breaking my app': of course sometimes there are new bugs in the OS, which may be fixed in later releases; sometimes devs and Apple need more time to identify where the problem (and responsibility for it) lies; and sometimes devs do need to issue updates to fix things.

I've been learning Swift programming, and I recently showed my code to someone, who said "that does work, but it shouldn't." It's things like that which cause problems in a new OS.

Unless you have a burning desire to use new features in Catalina, or apps that demand it: I'd hold off till at least the .1 update.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:53 pm
by Mweller-19
So, I didn't check. Upgraded my vs 2012 to os Catalina and now am inoperable.
Is there anything I can do? Need a fix for work - am currently screwed. Help please? Thanks.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:08 pm
by Mweller-19
OK. Glad yours pulls up but all I get is a pop up saying to upgrade.
Not blaming anyone for the problems - stuff happens often enuf.
But this conversation is an appreciation of the information and my skills don't translate to operable. Is there anything I can do? I've got projects sitting there.
Grateful for any help, to be sure!
Signed. Analog guy

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:45 pm
by N Grossingink
Mweller-19 wrote:
Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:08 pm
OK. Glad yours pulls up but all I get is a pop up saying to upgrade.
Not blaming anyone for the problems - stuff happens often enuf.
But this conversation is an appreciation of the information and my skills don't translate to operable. Is there anything I can do? I've got projects sitting there.
Grateful for any help, to be sure!
Signed. Analog guy
You mention "vs 2012". Does that mean Finale 2012? Finale 2012 almost certainly doesn't work with Catalina. Upgrade to the latest Finale 26. But wait… Your signature mentions you are using Finale 26! What version of Finale are you actually using?

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:42 am
by MikeHalloran
Mweller-19 wrote:
Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:53 pm
So, I didn't check. Upgraded my vs 2012 to os Catalina and now am inoperable.
Is there anything I can do? Need a fix for work - am currently screwed. Help please? Thanks.
Working great for me. I have only updated my 2012 MBP, not my desktop iMac Pro — that’s the machine on which I make my living. Gonna be awhile before tHat gets Catalina.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 6:26 am
by BuonTempi
MM's statement on Catalina is here:

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... 0036288573

At this stage, it doesn't look like they've updated it since the release. However, they do say:

"All users of legacy software (versions 2014.5 and earlier) should be aware that we do not expect these products to work on macOS 10.15 Catalina due to Apple’s removal of 32-bit application support."

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 9:12 pm
by gogreen
You could downgrade from Catalina to Mojave. I did that on my MacBook Air, but not because of Finale (it was another issue). After the downgrade, I re-installed Finale 25.5, GPO5, and COMB2. All that took forever, but Finale is working again.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:37 am
by miker

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:49 am
by MeBrown
Got this email today:


Compatibility with macOS 10.15 Catalina

We wanted to share the latest news regarding Finale v25 and macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Finale v25.5 is not compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina and will not be updated to support Catalina. It is our recommendation that users of Finale v25.5 not upgrade to macOS Catalina.


Learn more
Reminder: Finale v25.5 users still qualify for technical assistance from our Support team on compatible operating systems — macOS 10.10 through 10.14 — but we cannot provide support for this version on Catalina or future Apple operating systems.

Re: Hold off on Catalina?

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 6:45 am
by Nick Mazuk
Here is another explanation on the Finale Blog:

https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/finale ... ty-update/

In short:

25.5—Not compatible on Catalina
26.1—Mostly compatible on Catalina, 4 known minor issues

MakeMusic is going to release a free update to Finale v26 (Finale 26.2) for macOS Catalina compatability and (supposedly) a few new features. That update doesn't have a release date but we should expect to see it before Thanksgiving.

Finale 25.5 will not be updated for Catalina support.