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MacTeX Q&A : getting or installing MacTeX | |
QM.01: | Trouble completing the installation process. |
QM.02: | No need to uninstall previous TeX distribution |
QM.03: | When trying to typeset, my front end puts up a dialog claiming that it cannot find tex (or pdfLaTeX, or XeTeX) |
QM.04: | Fink and MacPort Questions |
QM.05: | Where to put personal additions in the texmf tree |
QM.06: | Why can't the latest MacTeX find my local BibTeX (.bst, .bib) files |
QM.07: | Fonts in my TeX documents are wrong --- the Font Cache Bug. |
QM.08: | Does MacTeX-2021 work on Big Sur? |
QM.09: | Where can I obtain and download older versions of MacTeX? |
TeXShop Questions | |
QT.01: | Typesetting in TeXShop gives an error message related to (/usr/texbin) |
QT.02: | TeXShop refuses to start, or behaves strangely |
QT.03: | Damaged Macros Folder |
One common problem is that users obtain a corrupted
MacTeX.pkg after downloading the large file. There is an easy way to
check that your download was successful. Run Apple's Terminal application in
/Applications/Utilities. After the prompt, type the command
md5
and a space, and then drag and drop the file MacTeX.pkg to the
Terminal window to complete the command. Push Return.
The Mac will compute an "md5 checksum". This sum should be
the sum shown at the top of the downloading page here.
Some users downloading with Google Chrome and possibly other browsers report defective downloads. We recommend downloading with Safari. Users with problems also report success after downloading via the torrent network.
Defective downloads are essentially never due to a bad file on the server because we test after uploading new versions. But users with download problems sometimes succeed after trying an alternate CTAN site. To do this, check on one of the links in the mirror page.
If you are at an institution with a large body of TeX users, a support person could put MacTeX-2021 on the DVD and loan you the DVD.
A final solution, if all else fails, is to go to http://www.tug.org/mactex/morepackages.html and download BasicTeX; this distribution is quite complete and serviceable and the smaller download may cause fewer problems. You will also need a front end like TeXShop or those included in MacTeXtras.
(a) pdfTeX and TeX crash with error messages referring to broken libraries in /sw/... or /opt/...
(b) the versions of pdftex and tex in Fink or MacPorts run instead of the versions in TeX Live.
(c) pdftex runs erratically.
The GUI programs shipped with MacTeX understand this symbolic link and automatically call /Library/TeX/texbin//pdftex. But if you call pdftex from the Terminal or another application, you may encounter the problem. The solution is simple. Find your shell startup script. That script should contain a command modifying PATH so /sw (or /opt) comes first. After this command, add a line to the script prepending /Library/TeX/texbin to the beginning of your PATH.
On Lion and above, the ~/Library folder is hidden. To open it, use the Finder's Go menu and hold down the Option key to reveal an extra item in the menu.
Yes, it has been extensively tested and used on Big Sur on both Intel and Arm machines. MacTeX-2021 contains native code for both processors. This question will come up again when Apple releases their next version of macOS, probably in fall of 2021. But the developers of MacTeX-2021 will have downloaded the beta of that system on the first day of WWDC, the developer conference, and worked on it extensively during the summer. If problems exist after the system release, they will be prominently mentioned on these web pages.
To Obtain Older Versions of MacTeX If You Are Running Mac OS 10.3 through 10.11, click here
"/usr/texbin/altpdflatex does not exist. Perhaps TeX Live was not installed or was removed during a system upgrade."
Make sure you are using the latest version of TeXShop
For more information about other frequently asked questions please
If you still have problems with the MacTeX Installer, you may contact us via the mactex-support webpage.