How to Ensure Rosetta 2 is Installed on macOS

If you are using a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3), you may encounter software or applications that are not natively designed for the ARM-based architecture.

To run these Intel-based apps on your Mac, you need Rosetta 2, a translation tool that enables compatibility.

This guide will walk you through how to ensure that Rosetta 2 is installed on your macOS.

To get started, you’ll need to open the Terminal app on your Mac. You can find it in the Applications > Utilities folder, or you can use Spotlight to search for it.

In the Terminal window, type the following command and press Enter:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta

This command will trigger the download and installation of Rosetta 2 on your system.

After running the command, you may be prompted to agree to the terms of the software license agreement. The Terminal output should resemble the following:

I have read and agree to the terms of the software license agreement. A list of Apple SLAs may be found here: https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/
Type A and press return to agree: A

To accept the terms, simply type A (for ‘Agree’) and then press return.

Once you’ve agreed to the terms, Rosetta 2 will be downloaded and installed on your Mac. You should see a confirmation message like this:

Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully

This indicates that Rosetta 2 is now installed and ready to assist you in running Intel-based applications on your Apple Silicon Mac.

I also made a video to visualize the steps from this article.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get more content like this!

That’s it! You’ve successfully ensured that Rosetta 2 is installed on your macOS. Now you can use any Intel-based apps on your Apple Silicon Mac.

Thanks for reading!