Install, First Open, and Updates

macOS

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later for the app itself.
• A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer). Intel Macs aren't supported.
• macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later for Karaoke (vocal removal). The on-device separation model needs an attention operation that doesn't exist before macOS 15; on macOS 14 Karaoke shows as Unavailable and everything else works normally.

Install

There are two ways in. The Terminal one-liner is the quickest, and MacAMP opens without any security prompt.

curl -fsSL https://downloads.macamp.si/install.sh | bash

# install without opening MacAMP afterwards
curl -fsSL https://downloads.macamp.si/install.sh | bash -s -- --no-open

# install somewhere other than /Applications
curl -fsSL https://downloads.macamp.si/install.sh | bash -s -- --dir ~/Applications

The download is about 550 MB because the Karaoke vocal-separation model and the YouTube download tools ship inside the app. Older versions stay available at https://downloads.macamp.si/releases/MacAMP-<version>.dmg.

First launch — getting past Gatekeeper

Only for the disk image. Installed with the Terminal command? Skip ahead to the app itself.

Which build do you have?

• Notarized build (signed with an Apple Developer ID). Gatekeeper clears it silently — just open it. If you instead see "MacAMP cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified," you downloaded the file from somewhere other than the official release. Delete it and re-download from the official source.
• Community / CI build (ad-hoc signed — no Apple Developer account involved). macOS blocks it on first launch. On macOS 15 Sequoia the warning says the app is "damaged and can't be opened" — this is misleading. The download is fine; macOS simply refuses code it can't attribute to a registered developer.

Right-click → Open no longer works on macOS Sequoia. Apple removed that shortcut. Use this instead — you only ever do it once:

1. Double-click MacAMP in Applications. The warning appears — click Done.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Scroll down to the Security section. You'll see a line like "MacAMP was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer."
4. Click Open Anyway.
5. Authenticate with Touch ID, your Apple Watch, or your login password.
6. Double-click MacAMP again and confirm at the final prompt.

macOS remembers this decision. Every launch after this one is silent, including after updates.

Still blocked after step 6? Make sure you copied MacAMP into /Applications first — the "Open Anyway" grant is tied to the app's location. If you moved it afterwards, repeat the steps from the new location.

First launch — the app itself

On first launch MacAMP opens a single window with an empty library. A brief onboarding prompt invites you to add your music folders. You can skip this and add folders later via MacAMP > Settings > Library.

The app restores its last window size and position on subsequent launches. If you enabled Resume on Launch in General preferences, it also restores the last track and queue position.

Keeping MacAMP up to date

The macOS app updates itself using Sparkle, the standard macOS update framework. No App Store, no account, no telemetry — MacAMP just checks a signed release feed.

Automatic checks run in the background. When a newer version is available, MacAMP shows a release-notes window with an Install Update button. It downloads in the background, then relaunches into the new version.

Check manually any time:

1. Open MacAMP > Settings (⌘,) and select the Updates tab.
2. Click Check for Updates….

A manual check is verbose: it tells you when you're already up to date, and it reports network errors. The background check stays silent unless there's something to install. The button greys out only while a check is already in flight.

The one setting you control — Update channel, also in the Updates tab:

Switching back to Stable simply stops offering betas; it does not downgrade a beta you already installed.

Why updates are safe. Every release is cryptographically signed with a key that never leaves the developer's machine, and MacAMP verifies that signature against a public key baked into the app before it installs anything. An update that fails verification is discarded. Where possible Sparkle downloads a small delta containing only what changed rather than the whole app, so a typical update is far smaller than the original download.

Note for community builds: the "Open Anyway" step above is a first-launch action only. Updates installed by Sparkle replace the app in place and do not re-trigger it.

iOS and iPadOS

Installing on iOS

MacAMP has no App Store listing on any platform — direct distribution is the permanent, owner-decided channel (see Distribution). The macampiOS shell is also still 🚧 work in progress and not yet packaged for public release; to run it today, build macampiOS from source (see the project's iOS/README.md) onto a simulator or your own device.

First launch

On first launch the app opens to the Library tab with an empty state. Tap the Import button (top-right of the Library screen) to add music files from the Files app or iCloud Drive.

MacAMP requests access to your music files through the standard iOS document picker. No special permissions are needed beyond what the picker grants.

Updates

There is no public iOS build yet, so there is no update mechanism to describe — see Installing on iOS above. This section will be filled in once macampiOS ships.

Supported formats

MacAMP plays every format in the SFBAudioEngine codec set:

• Lossless: FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, WavPack, Monkey's Audio (APE)
• Lossy: MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus, Musepack
• DSD: DSF, DFF (converted to PCM on playback)
• Module: MOD, S3M, XM, IT, and others

No additional codecs or plug-ins are required.