rosetta for mac

How To Install Rosetta On Apple Silicon Macs

Nick Mead
How To
26
Last updated:

macOS has a clever free tool called Rosetta 2 which “translates” Intel only apps and programs so that they work on Apple Silicon Macs with the M-series chips.

However, it is not installed by default on Apple Silicon Macs and you’ll only be prompted to install it the first time you open an Intel only application or program.

However in some cases, such as with anti-virus software or remote desktop software, you may not be prompted to install it even though the program you want to use requires it to run.

In these cases, you have to install it on an Apple Silicon Mac manually.

Here we show you how to do it on M-series Macs and also identify which apps are using Rosetta 2 on your Mac.

What is Rosetta?

Rosetta was first invented by Apple back in 2006 when Macs transitioned from PPC chips to Intel chips to enable PPC compatible software to work on Intel chips.

In 2020, Rosetta 2 was released as Macs transitioned yet again from Intel chips to the new Apple Silicon chips.

Rosetta 2 only works on Apple Silicon Macs – you can’t install it on Intel Macs as they don’t need it.

Once installed, it automatically works in the background of macOS to make Intel only apps work on M-series Macs.

For most apps, it works so seamlessly that you won’t notice much difference in the performance of an app using Rosetta compared to one that’s been built to work natively with the Apple Silicon architecture.

For example, even though there is no Apple Silicon native version of Sims 4, Rosetta 2 allows you to play Sims 4 on a Mac by translating the Intel version of EA Origin to work with M-series chips.

Rosetta is perfectly safe for your Mac and is made by Apple so you should have no security concerns.

However, for applications that require a lot of resources such as video editing software or graphic design apps, performance may be slower using Rosetta.

Method One: Automatically Install Rosetta

Normally, if an app requires Rosetta, it will automatically prompt you to install it if detects that it’s not present on your Mac.

To install it, simply click on the Install button when the prompt appears.

rosetta on mac

After Rosetta 2 has been installed, you won’t have to install it again.

Method Two: Installing Rosetta With Terminal

If for any reason you’re not prompted to install Rosetta you can use Terminal on your Mac to do it.

Here’s how to install Rosetta manually.

  • Open Terminal on your Mac. If you can’t see it in your Dock, use the magnifying glass in the top right of your Mac to open Spotlight and search for “Terminal”.
  • Type the following command into the command line: softwareupdate –install-rosetta
  • Press Enter.
Installing Rosetta using Terminal on an Apple Silicon Mac. Source: MacHow2
  • Type “A” to agree to the license terms and press Enter again.
Source: MacHow2

Rosetta 2 will now install automatically on your Mac.

Errors Messages

rosetta installation error

If you getting the error message “Installing Rosetta 2 on this system is not supported” then it’s probably because of one of two reasons.

It may be because you’re trying to install it on an Intel Mac (which do not need it) instead of an Apple Silicon Mac.

Rosetta 1 works on Intel Macs but Rosetta 2 only works on Apple Silicon.

If you are using an Apple Silicon Mac and are still getting this error message, then it’s probably because you’ve checked the box “Open using Rosetta” in Terminal.

terminal open using rosetta check box

To uncheck this box, right-click on the Terminal app in your Dock or in your Applications folder and select “Get Info”.

Then uncheck the box “Open using Rosetta” and try installing Rosetta again in Terminal.

How To Check If Rosetta Is Installed On Mac?

You can check whether it’s already on your Mac by going to the Apple logo in the top left corner of your Mac and selecting About This Mac and then click on System Report and in the left hand margin select Software > Installations.

If you scroll down, you should see RosettaUpdateAuto which means that it is installed. If this doesn’t appear, then it hasn’t installed on your Mac correctly and you need to repeat one of the installation methods above.

check if rosetta installed mac

Which Apps Require Rosetta?

You can check which apps require Rosetta on your Mac by using the Get Info tool in macOS.

  • In Finder, go to Applications and Ctrl-Click on the Application you want to check.
  • Select Get Info from the drop down menu
rosetta for mac - get info

  • You’ll see a list of specifications for the app and next to “Kind” it will either say Application (Universal) which means it works on both Intel and M-series Macs or Application (Intel) which means that it only works on Intel Macs and therefore requires Rosetta to work on an Apple Silicon architecture.
rosetta apple silicon mac

  • If it says Application (Universal) you need to check the box “Open using Rosetta” if it’s not already checked to make it to work on M-series Macs.

You can read more on how to force an app use Rosetta here.

How To Tell If An App Is Using Rosetta

The only way to tell if an app is using Rosetta or running natively is either to use the “Get Info” option described above.

Alternatively, you can go to the Apple logo in the top left of your Mac and selecting About This Mac > System Report and then under the “Kind” column you can see whether the app is Intel (and therefore using Rosetta) or Universal (and therefore running natively).

There’s also a nifty app called DigiDNA/Silicon which sits in your Menu bar and tells you whether the app is running natively on Apple Silicon or using Rosetta.

apple silicon rosetta

Can Rosetta 2 Run Windows Apps?

Rosetta cannot run Windows applications. It’s only designed to translate Intel Mac apps to work on Apple Silicon Macs.

There are however other ways to Windows on a Mac.

How To Uninstall Rosetta

Most people will never need to uninstall Rosetta on a Mac after it has been installed.

However, if you’re using a Mac for testing, development or are a system administrator, you may need to remove it to see how certain apps and software performs without it.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to uninstall it because Rosetta installs deep within macOS and once installed, is SIP protected by macOS for security reasons.

However you can still uninstall Rosetta although it requires temporarily disabling the SIP security feature in macOS.

If you are using a Mac for testing purposes and need to install and uninstall tools such as Rosetta, it’s much better to use a Virtual Machine (VM) such as Parallels.

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Nick Mead
Nick founded MacHow2 in 2013 and has a bachelor's degree in Journalism. Nick started life as a tech journalist and created MacHow2 mainly to help users like himself that had switched from Windows to macOS (and never looked back). Since then the site has evolved into one of the biggest independent online resources for Mac users new and old. You can follow him on X or get in touch via email below or the contact form at the top of the site.

26 Responses

  1. I’ve tried this through the terminal app but keeps saying no such file or directory its a MacBook Air M3? any other ideas?

    Reply

  2. My old Intel app does not have any option (other than for “Locked”) listed under Get Info so there is no “Open Using Rosetta” option there to choose. Most, not all, of the other old Intel apps do have that option.
    Why would that option not be available in Get Info? Clearly the apps are recognized as Intel.

    Reply

    1. Unfortunately, it seems that some Intel apps are simply incompatible with Rosetta although there’s no official list of which ones are and which aren’t. The Roaring Apps website reports that Sandvox did work on Apple Silicon Macs presumably using Rosetta in macOS Monterey but for some reason, it doesn’t work with macOS Ventura or Sonoma. So it seems if you can roll-back to macOS Monterey, you may be able to get it working again.

      Reply

      1. I’ll keep sending crash reports to Apple with notes explaining that the Intel app worked fine with Rosetta 2 under Monterey and therefore should work under Sonoma. Might get their attention enough to fix the issue.

        Thanks for your input on this!

        Reply

  3. I have a program (Sandvox) that is shown in Get Info as – Application (Intel). It won’t work now that I’ve upgraded from an old iMac with High Sierra to an M2 Mac Mini with Sonoma 14.4

    I’ve looked in System Information/Installations, and RosettaUpdateAuto is there 6 times, each with a different update date, the latest being 5 days ago. Do I have to activate Rosetta somehow?

    When I look at Get Info on my Fetch application, I do see the option for opening with Rosetta, but it also lists it as – Application (Universal), which seems a bit odd if it is actually universal and therefore doesn’t need Rosetta.

    But for the Sandvox application there is no option to choose Rosetta, and it’s listed as an Intel app, and therefor actually needs Rosetta.

    Reply

    1. Unfortunately, according to this thread it seems Sandvox has gone out of business. The blog also has not been updated since 2018. It also looks like according to this site that Sandvox isn’t a Universal app – its Rosetta only so our advice would be to go with an alternative software.

      Reply

      1. Isn’t the whole point of Rossetta to run programs that are Intel? A Universal app should run universally, on anything, without a translator.
        As there is no other app that is as useful as Sandvox (really, the others just suck), maybe there is actually an emulator that actually emulates whatever is needed to make a Intel-only app work on M2 (Silicon) Macs. If so, would you kindly share that info? Someone, somewhere, must have done this already. Damned if I can find such a thing, but search engines are so biased toward devious SEO now that useful info is often buried 60 pages deep and virtually impossible to find.

        Reply

        1. When you see open the “Get Info” dialog, you should see a checkbox to “Open using Rosetta”. This will force your Apple Silicon Mac to use Rosetta for Sandvox rather than trying to use it as a Universal App. Have you tried this yet?

          Reply

          1. Yes, that’s the first thing I looked at. It’s very odd. On other even older programs I see the option to “Open with Rosetta”, but with the Sandvox app that option is not available.

            I also see that “Kind: Application” either has “Universal” or “Intel” listed as the type of application on every program regardless of age. One or the other. Why anyone would want to open a “Universal” application with Rosetta is beyond me, but to each their own I suppose. But I checked a few old applications which do not list “Open with Roseetta” as an option because they list as “(Intel)” under “Kind: Application”, and they open and run just fine, probably because they open automatically with Rosetta since there is no other option for them as they certainly won’t run natively on the M2 architecture.

            So I’m at a loss as to why Sandbox crashes immediately.

          2. There are various reasons why you may sometimes want to force an app to use Rosetta. It may be because the Intel version works better than the Apple Silicon version, has more features, is more stable etc. Of course, you shouldn’t have to but sometimes its the only way. You can read more on the reasons for doing so and how to force an app to use Rosetta here.

  5. if an app is not universal aka Intel I would need to select Rosetta (hence purpose of Rosetta) so you’re saying same is need for Universal type. If its Universal why would I need addt’l software to run it?

    Reply

    1. Universal means the app works natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon. Intel only means it only works natively on Intel Macs and will require Rosetta to work on M1 and M2 Macs.

      Reply

  8. So are you saying that the option in the Get Info window to Run using Rosetta only shows up BEFORE Rosetta is installed but then disappears AFTER Rosetta is installed?

    Reply

    1. The Get Info windows shows the option for Intel or Universal depending on whether the app is Intel only requiring Rosetta to run or Universal which runs natively. Once Rosetta is installed on M1 Macs, you won’t know whether the app is running natively or using Rosetta but you can check by going to the Apple logo and selecting About This Mac > System Report and then under the “Kind” column you can see whether the app is Intel (and therefore using Rosetta) or Universal (and therefore running natively).

      Reply

    1. Only when you try to run an Intel only app on an M1 Mac for the first time. Once Rosetta has been installed on an M1 Mac, you won’t be prompted for it again.

      Reply

  11. Interesting nuances….though I am puzzled why a Universal app needs the “Open using Rosetta” to run on M1, if it supposedly contains code to run on M1?

    Reply

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