There are some playback issues (some of the buttons in the playback controller do not work in some of the early development builds) but there is still a good many updates to go, so it’s still too early in the process to know how it will all shake out once macOS 26 is released this Fall. Keep in mind , of course, that development of Finale is done, so I have no expectation that there will be an update to deal with any final issues between macOS 26 and F27.

I have written a composition for strings and winds; have put all mp3s in a folder. However, I am having trouble lining them up so I can hear all the instruments together at the same time. Any step by step advice would be greatly appreciated. 

I don’t understand. What happens when you have the score and just export to audio? And can’t you playback while in Finale?

To play back in finale, just display the playback controls and hit Play. So long as you haven’t muted or soloed any instruments in the mixer, they should all play back together.

no progress on "some of the buttons in the playback controller do not work ..."? can be very annoying

Well, there's not going to be any progress unless there just happens to be a MacOS update that somehow allows that button to work. I'm currently testing macOS 26.1 and the stop button still does not work. But even after uninstalling and reinstalling, I can't get Smart Shapes to work at all except to default to a marking I don't want. I am just glad I stopped using Finale other than minor tweaks to old files, and no long use hairpins in my music, since I would not be able to insert them. 

But even after uninstalling and reinstalling, I can't get Smart Shapes to work at all except to default to a marking I don't want.

I've no idea what your problem is on that. Weren't you complaining about it on Sequoia, too? All the Smart Shapes have worked for me in Sequoia. In Tahoe, all except 8va. I recommend running traces in Console and checking for conflicts in Activity Monitor—look for something turning red, then drill down.

These can be a real bear to trace down.

Not worth it to me. I don’t use finale for new works and am fine with my existing files. Like I said, I completely uninstalled and reinstalled without any change. Today when I checked out of curiosity, since I’m on MacOS 26.1, any chosen smart shape button produces a dashed line. I swear it’s possessed.

I had to spend time at the Cupertino mothership working on Tahoe issues that only affect some Mac Studio owners—lucky me—but I finally got Beta 26.1 installed. I create and dissolve APFS Test Volumes and do clean installs of the apps I'm testing. I do not install 3rd party plug-ins except Yari's, TG Tools and NotePerformer.

No change in Finale. I did figure out the problem with 8va and 15va and got them working so SmartShapes are fine for me. My double-click speed was set incorrectly on my Tahoe Volume—hadn't seen that one in 35 years or so—adjusting it to match my thumb fixed me up.

This is it for me, however. Whether I finally get into Dorico or wait till MuseScore 5 is released (and only if it's any good) is a decision I don't have to make till next year. Perhaps I can get Muse Group to buy my lunch at NAMM in January. Till then, 27 over Sequoia is doing great.

Mike, you are The Man when it comes to these technical issues.  I'm currently running Finale 27 under OS 15.7.2 (Sequoia) on a 2023 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 2Tb SSD and 128GB memory.  So far, excepting rare use of NI software voices which have become iffy, UVI, Arturia and EastWest Opus work fine.  The Finale software itself has developed a few very minor glitches that always seem to come around after saving, closing, reopening a work.  I'm thinking of upgrading to Tahoe.  Your last entry about seems to say that Tahoe appears to work.  I have an alternative system to fall back on which has Finale 27 on it and all the rest of my software living happily in Sonoma land, so I am not really worried about losing the ability to continue composing with Finale.  I will completely back up this unit and I am now mindful that "Cloning" the SSD is not genuine.  My two questions are: (10 What are your back-up suggestions if I do decided to upgrade to Tahoe?  (2) As you have had experience with the Tahoe OS, Is it worth bothering to upgrade to Tahoe?  Thank you!

The Finale software itself has developed a few very minor glitches that always seem to come around after saving, closing, reopening a work.

I get an occasional glitch over Sequoia 15.7.2—normally NotePerformer not booting up when it should—but nothing I can duplicate. Even the NP glitch may happen once every 25 times or so. The fix is always to save, quit Finale and re-start as you have discovered.

"Cloning" is a no-go. The macOS doesn't allow it. The way that David does it is the cause of things that consistently don't work. He is clearly "cloning" his problems so that is absolutely wrong. Then he sends links to documents that I understand but he doesn't.

Finale does work over Tahoe in that you can use it and get things done but some functions require workarounds and those are time consuming. A new round of macOS updates should drop any day now (normally on Tuesdays) so I'll be testing again next week. 

My instruction sheet for making a universal boot drive for Finale 27 on 2012–2025 Macs is long done—I built the drive over a year ago—but I keep hoping that the bugs in Tahoe get fixed enough that I can include it. It is done the way Apple intends and exploits a weakness in the MM License server. 

Dear Mike:

Enough already. I don't appreciate the ad hominem attacks, and I'm not sure you understand what you're claiming, either. 

macOS absolutely allows cloning. What it doesn't allow, with some exceptions, is booting from a cloned volume. It used to, but no longer does. That said, please explain how cloning my drive to a backup (which sits next to two Time Machine backups that you claim are the same thing as clones) causes my Mac to not work correctly. That's bs and you know it is.

I like to use carbon copy cloner side by side with time machine; they serve different purposes. Cloning is faster and if I want to clone a folder to a USB flash drive, as I did the other day, that's not something that TM can accommodate. 

Any Finale bugs have zero to do with whether or not I clone my mac to another volume; again, I have literally two Time Machine backups in series, so please explain why that one clone is screwing things up. It's not.

And you've been threatening to release detailed instructions for folks to backup Finale to a separate drive for probably a year now. I'm on macOS 26.2; what are the OS bugs you blame for your delay in releasing such instructions? I don't need them since I no longer use Finale for new compositions, but others seem to have been awaiting your instructions. 

Anyway, please leave my name out of your future missives here. I have not been an active Finale user since September, 2024 when I started using Dorico exclusively for new works, and only return here occasionally to see if I might help others who are still using Finale, and also to see if the forum even still exists, given the demise of Finale quite some time ago. 

dear Mike, I am very interested in your " instruction sheet", please keep me informed...

One thing need to be clarified: you said  that you installed "Yari's, TG Tools and NotePerformer"... a question Yari's plugs are on Rosetta, isnt'it?