How to Install Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon Macs
Rosetta 2 is necessary if you want to be able to run older non-native Intel x86 apps on new Apple Silicon Macs, like the M1 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or Mac mini. Curiously, Rosetta 2 is not installed by default on these Macs however, so if you wish to run these apps you’ll need to install Rosetta 2 onto the Apple Silicon Mac yourself.
There are two ways to install Rosetta 2 onto an Apple Silicon Mac; using the Terminal, or by attempting to open a non-native x86 app which prompts an installer. You can use whichever method you’d like, as both will have the same end result of Rosetta 2 being installed onto the Mac.
Remember, this is only for Apple Silicon ARM Macs, and this is not necessary on any Intel Mac (nor would Rosetta 2 install on Intel Macs anyway). Also, this capability is only available in macOS Big Sur or later.
How to Install Rosetta 2 via App Launch
If you have any x86 Intel apps available on the Apple Silicon Mac, simply launching the app will prompt the user to install Rosetta. Clicking “Install” will then install the Rosetta 2 software onto the Mac.
How to Install Rosetta 2 via Command Line on Apple Silicon Mac
Another way to install Rosetta 2 on the Mac is by using the familiar softwareupdate command line tool.
softwareupdate --install-rosetta
This will launch the rosetta installer and you’ll have to agree to a license agreement, which I’m sure you’ll read completely and thoroughly as we all do every time we install anything on every device.
You can also skip the license agreement by providing an additional flag:
/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
For some quick background, new Apple Silicon Macs run on different architecture, whereas Macs have been running Intel chips for quite some time. Rosetta 2 translates Intel x86 code to ARM so that it can run on the new Apple Silicon hardware. You can read more about the Rosetta 2 translation environment at the Apple developer site gif interested.
And if the name Rosetta sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because Apple used the same name for a similar translation process when Apple moved from PowerPC (PPC) to Intel architecture, support for which was later dropped in Lion. Or maybe you’re familiar with the Rosetta Stone language learning software, or even the original Rosetta Stone Egyptian tablet… but anyway, for our purposes here it allows new Apple Silicon Macs to run older apps that are not yet native.
Over time, more and more Mac apps will run natively on Apple Silicon, and Rosetta 2 will eventually become unneeded, in much the same way that Rosetta for PowerPC eventually became deprecated. But that’s still years away, as Apple is just at the beginning of the process of bringing Apple Silicon to the Mac hardware lineup.
Rosetta is a translation process that allows users to run apps that contain x86_64 instructions on Apple silicon.
While this worked without a problem for apps on my M1 Mac mini, it is no longer working for the same apps on my M2 Mac mini. Has something changed with how Rosetta 2 works on M2 Macs?
There should be no difference with Rosetta on M2 Macs, are you getting an error message? What does it say?
I was running motionvfx through rosetta for a while on my M1 Max silicone MacBook and now all of a sudden it doesn’t work. MotionVFX mo2 isn’t working on my intel MacBook either . what’s going on !?!?!? this is interfering with income
Hi there,
How do I tell if I already have Rosetta 2 installed? I’m launching some old apps and don’t get a pop up asking to install.
However I have a bunch of Final Cut Pro plugins that just don’t work and I’m wondering if Rosetta 2 is needed.
Tried sudo softwareupdate on three different Macs today and every one said Installing Rosetta 2 on this system is not supported. One was on 12.0.0, and one was on 12.0.1.
1. Open Terminal
2. Cut and paste this line of code:
It won’t install at all. I think they removed it because of some legal bs. I bought this Mac Mini yesterday.
Keeps saying error, try again on all 3 methods.
Open Intel App > Prompts to install Rosetta… fails
Commandline > fails
Found Rosetta 2 Updater in S/L/CoreService/…. fails.
C’mon Apple.
Hi scott did you resolve this issue? I believed we have the same issue, Mac OS Monterey v. 12.6.3 cannot install via app and in terminal,
App error: Unable to check for updated
Terminal error: Rosetta2 update is not available.
If you resolve it appreciate if you share how to resolve this issue.
thanks
How do I know if I have it installed successfully? I get this message in terminal:
package Authoring Error: 001-86594: Package reference com.apple.pkg.RosettaUpdateAuto is missing installKBytes attribute
But then it says installed successfully. When I look in my Apps folder I don’t see any rosetta, and can’t find it when I search for rosetta in finder. Was it successful or not?
Rosetta isn’t an app so to speak so it won’t be in the Applications folder, it’s an application translation layer to allow you to run Intel apps on the Apple Silicon Mac chips.
The easiest way to confirm that Rosetta installed is by running an Intel app on the ARM Mac, if it works – Rosetta is working and installed.
Hi…I am trying to install scratch 3 into my Mac mini M1,
and its say “To open Scratch 3”, you need to install Rosetta. Do you want to install it now?
and then I click “Install”
Unfortunately : This update is not allowed on this system.
how to solve this issue…??
From your terminal run (without quotes) the following line:
/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-licenseThat line should force the update if you are on a Mac with an M1 processor. This will install rosetta 2 (the above mentioned emulation layer and will allow for 32bit apps to run again.
That worked for me!
this worked perfectly on my mac mini with M1 chip when trying to launch league of legends.
For me, the –agree-to-license version yields “Package Authoring Error: 032-48321: Package reference com.apple.pkg.RosettaUpdateAuto is missing installKBytes attribute” but the first one is just fine. Thank you!
Hi, but how do I run the command?
Enter the command into the Terminal application
Terminal can be launched from Spotlight (Command+Spacebar), LaunchPad, or from the Utilities folder
i have installed rosetta 2.
when i click on install this is the message i get. how do i get it to invoke rosetta 2? no rosetta message appears under get info. i am lost on how to run older apps on the m1 under big sur.
“Install.app” needs to be updated.
The developer of this app needs to update it to work with this version of macOS. Contact the developer for more information.
Is the app 32-bit or 64-bit Intel? If it is 32-bit it will not work.
Rosetta 2 will work automatically to launch Intel apps on Apple Silicon once it is installed and recognizes an Intel binary. You might try rebooting after installing it, if you have not done so already.
Hello. How will I know if the installation via Terminal worked? It says successful but I am still not able to download apps that are not supported by Apple Silicon. Thanks!
If installation was reported as successful then Rosetta 2 has been installed on the Mac.
Where are you trying to download apps from and what is the message you are seeing? Keep in mind that 32-bit apps are not supported on M1 Macs regardless, and some older apps fall into that category.
hello! i have the same problem? is there a solution to this. I just checked and I have M1.. how to resolve this please? thank you so much for your help!
how can one uninstall rosetta 2?
but…. the intel app is translated the first time it is launched, or the first time the app is launched after every restart ??
Every time the app is launched. Regardless of wether the machine is restarted or not.