Finale notation products and macOS High Sierra (10.13)

After thorough testing on macOS High Sierra, our latest version of Finale (Version 25) will be compatible with High Sierra.

In the event that new issues arise between Finale v25 and High Sierra, it will be a priority for our development team to get these issues resolved accordingly. There are a couple of already known issues that our development team is investigating.

All of the 6 issues below have been resolved in an updated version of Finale v25 (Finale v25.5). If you are running into any of the crashes below, please make sure that you have the latest version of Finale.

Finale (Version 25) Known Issues

Crashing on quit with Score Manager open

Finale v25 will crash when quitting the application if the Score Manager is open. This is something our Finale team is looking to fix; however, we do not expect data loss related with this crash. The issue can be avoided by closing the Score Manager before quitting the application.

Crashing on startup after previously closing the app with the HyperScribe tool selected

Finale v25 will crash on launch if the application had been previously closed while the HyperScribe tool was selected. If you are experiencing this crash you will see the dialog box below:

This is a normal, informational dialog box, but clicking OK will cause HyperScribe to crash. If you get stuck in this crashing loop, here's how to fix it and prevent it from happening again:

1. You will first need to reset Finale's preference. To start, click your desktop background to activate Finder.
2. Choose Go > Go To Folder from the Finder program toolbar.
3.  Type in:

   ~/Library/Preferences

4. Make sure that the tilde '~' is placed at the front of the typed in directory and press RETURN.
5. In the folder window that appears, locate the file called

   com.makemusic.finale.fprf

   ...move it to the Trash.
6. Restart Finale.
7. Open any document.
8. Choose the HyperScribe tool.
9. When the warning dialog box depicted above appears, check the box next to Don't Show This Message Again.
10. Click OK.

This will prevent that dialog box from appearing when trying to launch Finale and stop the crash. Our developers are currently investigating possible solutions for this issue, but no timeframe for a solution has been set. To be updated when more information is available, please feel free to click the Follow button at the bottom of this article to subscribe to it.

Crashing when opening/saving files (Lyrics Window) 

Finale v25 can crash when opening or saving a file after utilizing the Lyrics Window, if the Lyrics Window is left open. Here are some workflows that we can confirm will crash:

• Saving and closing a file with the Lyrics Window open, and then using File > Open/Open Recent.
• Saving a new default document with the Lyrics window opening, and then opening another new default document.
• Having two new default documents open, and trying to save one with the Lyrics Window open.

This issue is a fairly recent discovery as of this date, so our development team is still assessing the scope of the issue and the underlying cause. While new default documents (File > New > Default Document) are listed as the use cases above, this could affect existing or newly created files.

For now the best option to avoid this crash is to make sure to close the Lyrics Window before closing or saving documents. This should help prevent the crash from happening. If you get stuck with a crash when trying to open a file, please try opening the file again or opening another file first, this should help workaround the issue.

Garritan Ambience dialog box crashes Finale when using Simple Entry 

There is an informational dialog box addressing the deprecated Garritan Ambience master effect that appears when opening Finale files in Finale v25 that previously had this master effect loaded into Audio Units Banks & Effects (MIDI/Audio > Audio Units Banks & Effects) from an earlier version of Finale.

When this dialog box appears due to the Simple Entry tool being used, clicking OK will crash Finale. To avoid this, please follow the steps below to remove Garritan Ambience from a file that has it loaded from a previous version of Finale before using the Simple Entry tool note entry in the piece.

1. Open the file in question.
2. Before selecting any tools or playing back the piece, choose MIDI/Audio > Audio Units Banks & Effects.
3. In the Master Effects choose the three-dashed line option (---) to empty out any drop-down menus that have the (Missing) Ambience option selected.
4. Close the Audio Units Banks & Effects dialog box, and save the file.

The file should now be able to utilize the Simple Entry tool without crashing.

Finale crashes when quitting while in full screen mode 

If Finale is in full screen mode and is quit (Finale > Quit or ⌘+Q), the application will crash after choosing whether or not to save the file. The file does appear to save, but since this is closely followed by a crash, it's best not to rely on that.

Rather, we suggest leaving full screen mode and then quitting Finale. You can leave full screen mode by choosing View > Exit Full Screen or by using the keyboard shortcut CONTROL+⌘+F. After leaving full screen mode, you can quit Finale without it crashing (unless the Score Manager is open, see issue above).

Finale can crash if quit while playing back 

In the event Finale is quit while playback is running, the application can crash. Normally, it is not best practice to quit the application while playing back a piece; however, we expect Finale to handle this better and stop playback, prompt for saving, and then quit normally, rather than crashing.

Until this issue has been resolved it is best to stop playback before quitting the application.

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Here's some more information about MakeMusic's notation products besides Finale:

Finale/PrintMusic 2014.5

Finale and PrintMusic 2014.5 will not be compatible or supported on macOS High Sierra due to the possibility of unforeseen issues that could prevent these programs from running in a satisfactory manner. In the event that you are already on High Sierra, or have a new computer that has the new OS, please check out the free 30-day free trial of the latest version of Finale.

PrintMusic's Sunset

After working closely with our partners at Apple, it is apparent that we will not be able to support PrintMusic and NotePad on High Sierra or the following operating systems. While it is possible that these products will work to varying degrees on macOS 10.13 and later, we cannot guarantee that they will function as expected.

For more information about the discontinuation of our PrintMusic and NotePad products, please check out this FAQ article.