Learning how to install Rosetta on Mac is important for anyone who has recently switched to an Apple Silicon computer. When Apple decided to say goodbye to Intel by introducing its own (Apple Silicon) chips into new Macs, many users were concerned that apps built for older computers wouldn’t work on newer machines.
But the tech giant had an ace up its sleeve called Rosetta 2: a translation layer that runs in the background and allows Intel-based applications to run. It has provided a perfect stopgap solution until the developers get around to updating them.
Rosetta 2 works fine, it does forward translations of Intel x86_64 code to Arm64, which means using a Mac with an M1 or M2 chip in the best macbooks you can continue to take advantage of a large number of previous applications. Sure, there might be a slight drop in performance, but you’ll barely notice it. And if you really need to run a particular application, then you don’t really have a choice.
Not all apps need Rosetta, as some are built to run on Apple Silicon or to be universal, but they’re still worth installing on your machine, even if you don’t think you’ll use them much. You’ll be prompted to install Rosetta the first time you try to run an application that needs it, so don’t worry about finding it first. When you need Rosetta, it will come, but install it as soon as prompted using this guide, even if the app you’re trying to open isn’t very important. This will simply prevent you from having to do it later when you really need it quickly.
Here’s how to install Rosetta on Mac.
How to install Rosetta on Mac with Apple Silicon
To make use of Rosetta, you simply need to start an application that requires it. If this is the first time you’ve opened an application that requires Rosetta, you’ll be prompted to install it. To find an application that needs Rosetta, see the second part of this article, where we explain how to identify applications that need it.
1. To install Rosetta, simply click install When prompted.
two. When prompted, enter your username and password to give your machine the permission to install the software. Wait for the installation to complete and you’re done.
That’s really all there is to it. You may find it useful to check which applications need Rosetta, either before installation or afterward out of interest, so now we’ll show you how.
Check which apps will need Rosetta
1. Some applications have been developed to run on Macs with an Intel processor.
To find these apps, open finder, right-click an app icon Y select Get Info.
two. look at the information next to ‘Type’. If it says ‘Intel’, the app will need Rosetta.
3. In some cases, you may see the word ‘Universal’. This means the app will run on both Intel and Apple Macs with silicon.
You can choose click Open using Rosetta if you want to use extensions, plug-ins, or other plug-ins that have not been developed to support Apple’s silicon.
Now you know how to install Rosetta on Mac. But why not check 9 MacBook Pro Tips Everyone Should Know or make use of Rosetta by playing Apple’s rich catalog of games, including the 25 best Mac games to play right now? If you want to learn more Mac related tricks, be sure to read how to use hot corners on Mac, how to split your screen on Mac, and how to use Universal Control on Mac and iPad.