This page describes the installation [[File:macos_200x200.png|128px|right|link=Download#Mac_OS_X]] Installation of the ready-to-run Gramps application for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS macOS] (originally Mac OS X, previously shortened as OS X). This is also known as the GTK-OSX port of Gramps for Mac. It is a single, stand-alone bundle which uses the native quartz windowing system of Mac OS X macOS instead of X11.

{{man tip|Apple '''MacOS macOS versions''' |*Gramps 5.0 requires Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and later. *Gramps 5.1 requires at least Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)and later.*Gramps 6.0 requires macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) and later.<br>(5-year support window for the macOS dependencies)}}

;'''Back up your databases:''' : If you're using Time Machine, that's already taken care of. (You do test your Time Machine backups periodically, right?) But it doesn't hurt to have a spare copy set aside before starting up a new version. If you've been using the Gtk-OSX build, version 3.2.4 or later, just copy <code>Library/Application Support/gramps/grampsdb</code>. (Right click/option click and select "Make a copy" from the menu. It will be named <code>grampsdb(2)</code>.

;'''New Version Notice:''' : If you are upgrading from the pre-built Gramps Application version 3.2.3 or earlier (or a build from source version) and you want to keep your old database and settings, you'll need to create a <code>Library/Application Support/gramps </code> folder with your existing data in it. Unless you've changed the location in Preferences, the data is in a hidden folder in your home directory called "<code>.gramps</code>". Select a Finder window and select Go>Go to Folder from the menu. Type "<code>/Users/yourname/.gramps</code>" in the dialog box that opens up, and click on "Go". (Yes, subsitute substitute your userid for "yourname".) The hidden folder will appear, highlighted and open. Option-drag the whole thing to <code>Library/Application Support </code> (the one in your home folder, not the one in your boot drive's "root" directory). Slow-double-click on the new copy so that you can edit the name and delete the '.' at the beginning to unhide it. {{man note|''Migrating to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Apple_silicon Apple Silicon]?''|Make an [[How_to_make_a_backup|XML backup]] of your databases on your Intel Mac and copy them to your Apple Silicon Mac and restore them there after installing Gramps. There seems to be a binary object incompatibility in SQLite3 databases, even when running an Intel binary using Rosetta2.}}

From the '''[[Download#Mac_OS_Xmacos]]''' page select either download the Intel version or Power PC version. You'll get a download windowdmg. Once it's downloaded, you can open the dmg file (just double click on it in Finder if your browser doesn't open it automatically) and drag the Gramps application wherever you like. Once installed on your computer, it opens like any other application.

'''Links with other programs:''' Double clicking an image in the media reference editor should bring up Apple Preview, (or a similar whatever program, you've set as the default to edit that kind of image) to view the image. Clicking the view button in an internet reference should bring up the URL in the default browser. Clicking the Google Maps button in the Places display should bring up the map in the browser.

'''File structure:''' Gramps database and settings files can be found at the following places in the Mac file system (Gramps Version 3.2.5 and later):<br>* The Gramps database with the user's genealogical information is stored under <code>/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/gramps/grampsdb.<br/code>* Setting files (ini-files) are found here: <code>/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/gramps/gramps32gramps51<br/code>* Start-up settings for Gramps (for e. g. the environment variable LANG) can be accessed through Gramps.app (generally in /Applications): Right click on "Gramps.app", select "Show Package Content" from the menu, the start-up settings are found in the file <code>Contents/MacOS/Gramps</code>.

The spelling checker uses [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpell MySpell] dictionaries -- the same ones that [http://www.documentfoundation.org/download/ LibreOffice] and NeoOffice use. Unfortunately, they bury them in their application bundles, so you can download them [http://archive.services.openoffice.org/pub/mirror/OpenOffice.org/contrib/dictionaries/ here]. You need to install them in /Library/Dictionaries, and you'll need to authenticate as an administrator to do so. If you have one of them installed and know how to make symbolic links from the command line, you'll find them in Contents/share/uno_packages/cache/uno_packages, scattered about in the hash-named directories. You'll need to link both the aff and dic files (e.g., en_US.aff and en_US.dic).

You'll find error messages in the console log, which you can view with <code>/Applications/Utilities/Console.app</code>

All of the known bugs in previous version have been corrected in Gramps {{Version_Mac}} and later. There will no doubt be new ones; report them in the usual way on [httphttps://www.gramps-project.org/bugs/my_view_page.php MantisMantisBT] ([[Using the bug tracker]] instructions). When reporting what you're sure is an OSX macOS specific bug, please set the Platform field to "mac" (no quotes, caps, or spaces!) so that I can find it easily.

Gramps stores all its internal data in <code>~/Library/Application Support</code>. So, to upgrade a Gramps application bundle to a newer version, just throw the old application in the Trash. Make a backup copy of your data, just in case, then download the new version of the application and just use it. If you don't like the new version and want the old one back, throw the new version in the Trash and fetch the old one back from the Trash. The Gramps version is shown in Finder if you use column view; otherwise right click on it and select Get Info.