Mac High Sierra Losing Apps Pages
Dec 08, 2019 If you want the content on your Mac to stay intact, skip to the next section. Click on your startup disk in the Disk Utility sidebar. Click the Format drop-down menu. Click on the format you want to use for your drive. If you're running macOS High Sierra or later on a Mac with an SSD, your choices will be some form of APFS. Dec 31, 2017 After updating to High-Sierra, Had few problems: 1. Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse - Kept losing connection, was not able to restore the connection until restart. I fixed it by unpairing the devices and pairing them back up - so this was solved (I hope). Jul 31, 2017 What is macOS Sierra? MacOS Sierra is the latest release of Apple's operating system for its computing devices. On September 20, 2016, Apple made version 10.12 of its OS available for all to.
If you’ve installed macOS Mojave to take it for a test drive and decided you don’t like it, or it doesn’t work with some of your apps, and you want to downgrade from Mojave to High Sierra, the good news is that it’s possible. The bad news, though, is that it’s quite a long process with lots of different steps. We recommend that you read the guide below carefully before you start.
Do you really need to downgrade?
If you’ve decided to downgrade because Mojave is running slowly, you could try improving its performance first, by getting rid of unwanted files. CleanMyMac X scans for junk files, such as those created by iTunes, the Photos app, and the Mac’s own system software. You can then preview what it’s found and recommends you delete and decide for yourself what you want to get rid of, or you can just press a button and have it delete everything it’s found. You might find that just by deleting these file, performance improves considerably. Moreover, the app has a special Optimization and Maintenance tools designed to improve your Mac's speed. You can get started with CleanMyMac very quickly by downloading it here (for free).
How to downgrade from macOS Mojave to macOS High Sierra
If you've decided that you still want to go back to High Sierra, follow the steps below. And please note that the process of downgrading is quite complicated and time-consuming, so try to be patient.
Step 1: Back up your Mac
You should back up your Mac before you start any major process, and hopefully you backed up before installing Mojave. If you’re unsure how to back up your Mac, you can follow the steps in this article. However, any files you’ve used or been working on since you installed Mojave won’t be up to date on that back up, so you need to copy those to an external disk or a cloud storage service like iCloud Drive or Dropbox. Don’t do anything else until you’ve copied those files.
Step 2: Make notes
The process of downgrading wipes everything from your hard drive, including passwords, license keys and settings. If you have a backup of your Mac from before you upgraded to Mojave, you should be able to migrate much of that data back to your Mac once you’ve reinstalled High Sierra. However, it’s a good idea to make sure you have a note of all the passwords, settings, licence keys and other data you’re likely to need. If you use a password manager that syncs with other devices, you could use that to store all the data you need. Otherwise, any cloud-based note-taking tool that encrypts notes will do.
It’s also a good idea to make screenshots of settings, to make it easier to set them back up later on. You should store these on an external disk, or cloud storage space.
Step 3: Erase Mojave
Once you’ve backed up the files you’ve worked on since installing Mojave, and created the bootable installer, it’s time to erase Mojave.
- Make sure your Mac is connected to the internet.
- Click on the Apple menu and choose Restart.
- Hold down Command+Option+Shift+R to boot into recovery mode. Note, you can also boot into Recovery mode by pressing Command+R. However, adding Option+Shift will allow you to reinstall High Sierra, if your Mac came with it installed.
- Click on Disk Utility in the macOS Utilities window.
- Select the disk with Mojave on it.
- Choose Erase.
- Give the disk a name, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS as the file format.
- Click Erase.
- Quit Disk Utility.
How to downgrade from macOS Mojave if your Mac shipped with High Sierra
- Erase your startup disk as described above — you need to do that first because Recovery mode won’t install an older version of the OS over a newer version.
- From macOS Utilities, choose Reinstall macOS.
- Press Continue.
How to downgrade from a Time Machine backup
If you made a backup of your Mac just before installing Mojave, you’re in luck. You can use that to reinstall High Sierra. Make sure your Time Machine disk is connected to your Mac, either directly or over a network, before you start.
- Erase your startup disk, as described above.
- In the macOS Utilities window, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup.
- If your backup is on an external disk, select it. If it’s on a Time Capsule or network disk, select it and choose Connect to Remote Disk.
- Type in your name and password for the disk, if necessary.
- Select the date and time of the backup you want to restore to.
- Follow the onscreen instructions.
How to downgrade using a bootable High Sierra installer
If your Mac didn’t ship with High Sierra and you don’t have a Time Machine backup, you’ll need to create an installer disk. Apple used to make all previous versions of macOS available in the Purchased tab of the Store, but the most recent version there now is El Capitan.
If you’re downgrading before the full public release of macOS Mojave, High Sierra is still available in the App Store. You can find it on the left hand side of the main App Store window, or by search for it.
Note: If you want to downgrade Mojave after its final release and haven’t already created a bootable installer of High Sierra, you’re out of luck. You’ll have to create a bootable installer of El Capitan or use Recovery Mode to roll back to the most recent version of macOS installed on your Mac. To do that, use Command+Option+R when you boot into Recovery mode (see Erase Mojave, above) instead of Command+Option+Shift+R. For that reason, if you’re reading this before Mojave has been released, it’s worth downloading High Sierra now, just in case.
Click the Download button on the App Store page and wait for the OS to download. If the installer automatically launches when it’s downloaded, quit it.
- You’ll need an external hard disk or SSD, or a USB stick that’s at least 12GB to create the installer.
- Plug the external drive or USB stick into your Mac.
- In the Finder, click on the Go menu, select Utilities.
- Launch Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
- Click on the external disk in the sidebar and choose the Erase tab.
- Give the drive the name ‘MyVolume’ in the Erase window, set the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS.
- Click Erase.
- Press Done when it’s finished.
- Quit Disk Utility.
Go back to the Utilities folder in the Finder and this time, launch Terminal.
- Type the following command: sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app
- Hit the Return key.
- Type in an administrator account password for your Mac.
- Wait for the word ‘Done’ to appear in the Terminal window.
Step 4: Reinstall High Sierra
- Go to the Apple menu, choose Restart, and hold down the Option key.
- When the option to select a boot disk appears, choose the installer disk you just created.
- High Sierra will begin installing on your Mac.
- When it’s finished, your Mac will restart and Startup Assistant will appear.
- Go through the steps to set up your Mac.
Step 5: Restore settings
If you made a non-Time Machine backup of your Mac before installing Mojave, you can use the backup tool to restore your Mac to the state it was in when you made the backup.
Otherwise, you’ll need to reinstall apps manually, using the notes you made earlier to enter licence codes and re-create settings. You can also copy back files that you backed up when you were running macOS Mojave.
How to keep your fresh installation clean
You’ll notice when you revert to a clean installation of High Sierra, that your Mac seems to be running more quickly and encountering fewer problems than it did previously. Part of the reason for that is that, as you use your Mac, it accumulates lots of temporary files, cache files and other ‘junk’ that can cause performance and compatibility problems.
It could also be because your previous installation, along with all the files and applications you had installed, was occupying more than 90% of your Mac’s startup drive. MacOS uses your startup drive to store data temporarily, as a proxy for keeping it in RAM. If you don’t have enough free storage space, you will start to see performance problems.
The solution is to regularly clear out junk files and to audit your Applications, uninstalling any you no longer use. We recommend CleanMyMac X for both tasks. CleanMyMac makes it easy to uninstall apps with a couple of clicks. And when it does so, it doesn’t just remove the application itself — which is what happens if you just drag it to the Trash — it also tracks down and removes all the application’s associated files in your user Library and gets rid of those too.
As you can see, downgrading from Mojave to High Sierra could be quite simple or it could be a long drawn out process, depending on you do it. If your Mac came with High Sierra, you’re in luck, because you can use Recovery Mode to roll back — though you’ll need to erase your startup disk first. Likewise, if you have a Time Machine backup of your High Sierra installation just before you installed Mojave. If neither of those applies, your only option is to create an installer disk from the App Store. Whichever method you use, once you’ve reinstalled High Sierra, it’s worth using CleanMyMac (get its free version here) to keep your clean installation fresh and performing as well as it can.
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As Mac OS X users, we have something to be happy about when it comes to app crashes and freezes: rarity. Typically you can work on your Mac for hours at a time without a single issue. However, a crashing app certainly can happen, leading to lost productivity, time and, worst of all, lost work. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to recover from a crashed app, as well as prevent the issue in the first place.
How to fix a crashing app after the macOS upgrade
App crashes after the the macOS update is more than a common problem. Some apps freeze or malfunction, some won’t launch, some show no signs of life whatsoever. Why it happens? The most probable reason is that the app is simply not ready for the latest macOS Catalina. Something in its depth turned out to be incompatible with the new macOS.
Now, what can you do to fix an app crashing? Three things.
- First, see if you have the latest version of the app by clicking on its name it the top menu and choosing Check for updates.
- Second, visit developer’s website (or App Store page) and see if they’ve issued a statement about Catalina compatibility.
- Finally, some crashed apps on macOS Catalina can be fixed by running maintenance scripts. Download CleanMyMac X, launch it, find Maintenance tab and run the scripts.
What happens when an app craches: under the hood
Download High Sierra App
Now let's go deeper into the nature of crashed apps, but first, let’s identify the difference between a crashed macOS app and a frozen one. While these terms are often used interchangeably, there is a notable difference.
Crash
A crash happens when a piece of software stops working altogether, and then closes on its own. In other words, the app quits when you did not tell it to. When this happens, you'll typically see a message noting that the application has 'unexpectedly quit” just as its windows disappears. It’s pretty frustrating — especially if you end up losing all your work.
Freeze
A freeze is when software stops functioning, but continues to run. You can still see its windows, and its Dock icon still indicates that it’s running. However, no amount of clicking or tabbing around will do anything. A frozen app doesn’t quit like a crashed app does, it simply becomes unresponsive. Often no error messages accompany the freeze. Again, it’s a frustrating experience (if you want to know how to deal with it, check out this post on how to fix frozen apps).
When software freezes, you force it to quit, so that you can re-launch and hopefully get on with your work. With crashes, meanwhile, the problem is the app quitting on its own. In this article, I’ll discuss recovering from app crashes, as well as steps that help prevent them in the first place. Let’s get started.
What to do when a Mac OS X app crashes
The good news here is that a crashed app rarely brings down your entire Mac, as the trouble is restricted to that particular piece of software. That means we have a chance to recover. Let’s start with the simplest solutions.
First, just relaunch the app. When an app crashes, you’ll typically see a dialog box that says the software “unexpectedly quit” and you’ll have several options to deal with it, including “Relaunch”. Give that a click and cross your fingers that the crash doesn’t happen again. Oftentimes, you’re good from there. If not…
Try restarting your Mac. “Turn if off and back on again” is almost a punchline at this point, but it usually works. Shut down, restart and try again. Very often this simple task will set things right. If not, it’s time to try something just a little more involved.
Reinstall the app. Deleting the misbehaving app and grabbing a new copy gives you a fresh version to work with. That is, if you delete all of the app’s related files.
See, when you drag an app to the Trash, you aren’t deleting everything. Some leftover parts remain, and if the troublemaker is among them, your problem could persist. It’s a waste of time to delete an app via drag-and-drop, reinstall and then have it crash again. To make things right, you need to get rid of the app’s bits and pieces before you reinstall it, and this is where software like CleanMyMac X comes in handy.
An app that’s simply dragged to the Trash leaves behind a pile of associated files that you don’t see, like caches, preferences (often the culprit in crash-y apps), saved states, and more. You might not even know they’re there, but CleanMyMac X does. It’s smart enough to find the whole lot, safely remove them, and ensure that a newly installed app is just that: a complete fresh start.
In fact, you don’t even have to launch CleanMyMac X to thoroughly and safely delete an app. Simply right-click (or Control-click) the app’s icon and select “Uninstall with CleanMyMac” from Services in the resulting contextual menu. Easy!
Another wise move is to make sure there are no conflicts between the app and the Mac OS. When Apple pushes an update of its operating system to your Mac, that might interfere with your app’s performance, if the app or its add-ons are incompatible with this particular OS X version.
CleanMyMac can help you out here, too. Download it for free, go to its Uninstaller module and find the misbehaving app in the list. If you see a note that this app is incompatible with your system, it means you need to update the app, because your current version doesn’t work on the latest OS X.
High Sierra Mac
How can you stay on top of aging apps? Apple makes it easy with software purchased through the Mac App Store. Simply launch the App Store app, go to the Updates tab, and you’ll see all available app updates. Find the one you need in the list, click the Update button, and you’ll get the latest version to your Mac. It’s a bit different with software acquired outside the App Store: you’ll have to visit the vendor’s website to see if there’s a new version available.
If nothing indicates that the troublemaker app is incompatible with your system, the problem could be with its add-ons or preferences. What you can do in this case is reset the app to its initial state. Again, go to the Uninstaller module in CleanMyMac X, select your app, and click Application Reset. CleanMyMac will make that app just the way it was when you first installed it.
What to do when an app crashes at launch
So far I’ve addressed what to do when an app crashes as you’re using it. But what about the frustrating scenario of an app going down as soon as you launch it? No warning, no dialog box, just a bounce or two in the Dock and that’s it. In this case, it’s time to repair disk permissions.
What’s does fixing permissions actually mean? Think of your Mac’s hard drive as a tree with many branches. The top level of your drive is the tree’s trunk, and the branches represent information about files and folders. These branches, or “nodes,” store information like the location of data and permission rules, among other things. Normal computer use changes this information, and can lead to a conflict or other issue that generates crashes and the inability to use your system. This is what a permission fix addresses.
To repair disk permissions (for OS X prior to El Captian), go to the Utilities in your Mac’s Applications folder and launch Disk Utility. Next, click First Aid. It’ll ask for confirmation and get to work, comparing existing permission files with defaults to find any conflicts.
High Sierra Mac App Store
Or, if you want a slightly simpler way, you can fix the permissions with CleanMyMac X Maintenance Scripts. Just open the Maintenance tab, hit Choose Tasks and then Repair Disk Permissions. This helps resolve improper app behavior like crashing and keeps all of your disk’s files and folders in proper order. And that’s just one of the maintenance tasks available in CleanMyMac X, just try it.
A crashing app is no fun. Fortunately, a little understanding and proactive behavior can keep them to a minimum. CleanMyMac X makes it easy to do just that. Happy computing, and may your apps never crash again!