macOS High Sierra (version 10.13) is the fourteenth
major release of
macOS,
Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for
Macintosh computers. macOS High Sierra was announced at the
WWDC 2017 on June 5, 2017[4] and was released on September 25, 2017. The name "High Sierra" refers to the
High Sierra region in California. Its name signified its goal to be a refinement of the previous macOS version,
macOS Sierra, focused on performance improvements and technical updates rather than features.[5] This makes it similar to previous macOS releases
Snow Leopard,
Mountain Lion and
El Capitan. Among the apps with notable changes are
Photos and
Safari.[4][6][7]
macOS High Sierra requires at least 2 GB of RAM and 20.12 GB of available disk space.
It is possible to install High Sierra on many older Macintosh computers that are not officially supported by Apple. This requires using a patch to modify the install image.[9]
Changes
Default wallpaper
The default
desktop picture is an image of North Lake in the High Sierra region.
System
Apple File System
Apple File System (APFS) replaces
HFS Plus as the default
file system in macOS for the first time with High Sierra.[4] It supports 64‑bit
inode numbers, is designed for
flash memory, and is designed to speed up common tasks like duplicating a file and finding the size of a folder's contents. It also has built‑in encryption, crash‑safe protections, and simplified data backup on the go.[10]
macOS High Sierra adds support for
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), with
hardware acceleration where available, as well as support for
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF). Macs with the Intel
Kaby Lake processor offer hardware support for Main 10 profile 10-bit hardware decoding, those with the Intel
Skylake processor support Main profile 8-bit hardware decoding, and those with
AMD Radeon 400 series graphics also support full HEVC decoding.[4] However, whenever an Intel IGP is present, the frameworks will only direct requests to Intel IGP. In addition, audio codecs
FLAC and
Opus are also supported, but not in iTunes.[11][12]
HEVC hardware acceleration requires a Mac with a
sixth-generation Intel processor or newer (late 2015 27-inch
iMac, mid 2017 21.5-inch iMac, early 2016
MacBook, late 2016
MacBook Pro or
iMac Pro).
Other
In High Sierra,
kernel extensions ("kexts") require explicit approval by the user before being able to run.[13]
The Low Battery notification and its icon were replaced by a flatter modern look.[citation needed]
The time service
ntpd was replaced with
timed for the time synchronization.[14]
The
FTP and
telnet command line programs were removed.[15]
Caching Server, File Sharing Server, and Time Machine Server, features that were previously part of
macOS Server, are now provided as part of the OS.[16]
The screen can now be locked using the shortcut Cmd+Ctrl+Q. The ability to lock screen using a menu bar shortcut activated in Keychain Access preferences has now been removed.[17]
Starting with 10.13.4, when a 32-bit app is opened, users get a one-time warning about its future incompatibility with the macOS operating system.[19]
Applications
Final Cut Pro 7
Apple announced the original
Final Cut Studio suite of programs will not work on High Sierra. Media professionals that depend on any of those programs were advised to create a double boot drive to their computer.[20]
Photos
macOS High Sierra gives Photos an updated sidebar and new editing tools.[4]
Photos synchronizes tagged People with
iOS 11.[4]
Mail
Mail has improved
Spotlight search with Top Hits.[4] Mail also uses 35% less storage space due to optimizations, and Mail's compose window can now be used in split-screen mode.[21]
Safari
macOS High Sierra includes Safari 11. Safari 11 has a new "Intelligent Tracking Prevention" feature that uses
machine learning to block third parties from tracking the user's actions.[22] Safari can also block auto playing videos from playing.[23][24] The "Reader Mode" can be set to always-on.[25] Safari 11 also supports
WebAssembly.[26] The last version of Safari that High Sierra supports is 13.1.2. This version has known security issues.[27]
Notes
The
Notes app includes the ability to add tables to notes,[28] and notes can be pinned to the top of the list.[29] The version number was incremented to 4.5.
Siri
In High Sierra,
Siri uses a more natural and expressive voice compared to previous versions of Mac OS X. It also uses machine learning to understand the user better. Siri synchronizes information across iOS and Mac devices so the Siri experience is the same regardless of the product being used.[30]
Messages
The release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 (and iOS 11.4) introduced support for Messages in iCloud.[31] This feature allows messages to sync across all devices using the same iCloud account. When messages are deleted they are deleted on each device as well, and messages stored in the cloud do not take up local storage on the device anymore.[32] In order to use the feature, the user has to enable
two-factor authentication for their
Apple ID.[33]
Reception
Roman Loyola, the senior editor of Macworld, gave High Sierra a provisionally positive review in September 2017, calling it an "incremental update worthy of your time, eventually." Loyola expressed that the product's most significant draw was its security features, and that beyond this, the most beneficial changes lay in its future potential, saying it "doesn't have a lot of new features that will widen your eyes in excitement. But a lot of the changes are in the background and under the hood, and they lay a foundation for better things to come."[34]
Problems
macOS High Sierra 10.13.0 and 10.13.1 have a critical[35] vulnerability that allowed an attacker to become a
root user by entering "root" as a username, and not entering a password, when logging in. This was fixed in the Security Update 2017-001 for macOS High Sierra v10.13.1.[36]
When it was first launched, it was discovered[by whom?] that the
WindowServer process had a memory leak, leading to much slower graphics performance and lagging animations, probably due to some last-minute changes in Metal 2. This was fixed in macOS 10.13.1.[citation needed]
macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 had an error that caused
DisplayLink to stop working for external monitors, allowing only one monitor to be extended. When using two external monitors, they could only be mirrored. Alban Rampon, the Senior Product Manager for DisplayLink, stated on December 24, 2018 that the company was working with Apple to resolve the issue.[37]