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Apple M1 Tidbits: Running iOS Apps With .IPAs, Running x86 Homebrew Apps, Accessing macOS Recovery and More

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Apple's New M1 Macs began arriving to customers earlier this week, and since the M1 Apple Silicon is an entirely new chip architecture that's a major departure from the Intel chips that Apple has used for years, there's a lot to learn about the new machines.

m1-chip-macbook-air-pro.jpg

We've rounded up some useful Apple M1 tidbits below, which apply to the new Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro and will be useful for new Mac owners.

Running x86 Apps Homebrew Apps

The developers behind the Notion app for Macs shared a blog post on getting homebrew or other terminal apps that don't have Arm support to run on an Apple Silicon Mac. The steps are as follows:
  1. Create a duplicate of the Terminal app in the Utilities folder.
  2. Right click on the app and choose Get Info.
  3. Rename the other version of the app into something recognizable.
  4. Check off the "open using Rosetta" option.
That's all there is to it. Once Open using Rosetta is selected, homebrew apps can be run in the Terminal on Apple Silicon Macs.

Running iOS Apps Using .ipa Files

MacRumors reader Amy tells us that she's able to run iOS apps that are not available on the Mac App Store on Apple Silicon apps using .ipa files.

Legitimate .ipa files that are downloaded from iTunes or something like an iMazing backup can be double-clicked and installed on an Apple Silicon Mac and they run as if they're on an iOS device. Amy says that she's used this method to install Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Spotify, and more, even though those apps are not available through the Mac App Store.

Universal and Native Apple Silicon Apps

Looking for apps that are able to run natively on Apple Silicon Macs without the need for Rosetta 2? Our forums has an extensive list of all of the apps that have been updated for the Apple M1 chip, and it's worth checking out if you're looking for software that's going to have the best performance.

Apps updated with support include Affinity Photo and Designer, Aviary, HandBrake, coconutBattery, iStat Menus, OmniFocus, Pixelmator Pro, and tons more.

Gaming on Apple Silicon

Wondering how games run on an Apple Silicon Mac? A reddit user took the time to benchmark and test a long list of popular games to see how they run on an M1 Mac mini with 8GB RAM. Test games include League of Legends, Cities: Skylines, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, and more.

How to Get to macOS Recovery

On Intel Macs, you hold Command R when turning on the Mac to get to macOS Recovery for reinstalling macOS, accessing Disk Utility, or restoring from a Time Machine backup.

On an Apple Silicon Mac, you can still get to macOS Recovery, but the key presses are different. Turn on the Mac, press and hold the power button until the startup options window comes up, and then click on the gear icon that's labeled "Options."

More Tips

Know of a useful M1 Mac tip that we've left out? Let us know in the comments and we'll add it to the list.

Article Link: Apple M1 Tidbits: Running iOS Apps With .IPAs, Running x86 Homebrew Apps, Accessing macOS Recovery and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/18/apple-m1-mac-tidbits/
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mmendoza27

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Oct 18, 2007
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Has anyone been able to successfully install an IPA on an M1 Mac? I was able to grab the IPA using Apple Configurator 2 but every time I try to open the app, I get "You do not have permission to open the application..."

Seems like I need to re-package the app or something?
 
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HailstormX

Contributor
Nov 21, 2012
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RyanFlynn said:
It would be worth mentioning the restore error happening on m1 macs. I would have loved a heads up.
Click to expand...
yea its odd. I was able to restore with another Mac (I know not everyone has an extra one around) and using DFU and Apple Configurator 2 worked fine and did a clean install of 11.01 on a MacBook Air M1.
 
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HailstormX

Contributor
Nov 21, 2012
153
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mmendoza27 said:
Has anyone been able to successfully install an IPA on an M1 Mac? I was able to grab the IPA using Apple Configurator 2 but every time I try to open the app, I get "You do not have permission to open the application..."

Seems like I need to re-package the app or something?
Click to expand...
You have to put the computer into DFU and apple config 2 will download the restore Ipsw automatically. Takes a while its a 13 gb file
 
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NMBob

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Sep 18, 2007
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I wonder about Win programs running in/under Wine? We have to do that a lot with vendor-supplied programs for things like lab equipment. It mostly works OK with Intel Macs.
 
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politik

macrumors newbie
Mar 12, 2009
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HailstormX said:
You have to put the computer into DFU and apple config 2 will download the restore IPA automatically. Takes a while its a 13 gb file
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure mmendoza27 isn't talking about restoring the Mac via DFU. They're talking about downloading an ipa from the App Store for say, Spotify and launching it. I'm also seeing the same error message, so I'm not sure it's as simple as MacRumors suggested in the article.
 
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Populus

Populus

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Aug 24, 2012
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I’m interested in knowing how Amy extracted the .IPA files from an iOS device, without downloading them. I want to backup my Fortnite IPA.

Also: I’m extremely excited by what emulators like Dolphin, CEMU or PCSX2 can do.
EDIT: Oh, I just saw PCSX2 for mac was last updated 8 years ago :(
 
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mmendoza27

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2007
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Okay, ended up getting an iOS app installed on the machine. Here is what I did:

1. Followed the Apple Configurator instructions here: https://medium.com/xcnotes/how-to-download-ipa-from-app-store-43e04b3d0332

This will allow you to download an IPA to your Mac and when you double-click the IPA, it installs the app in your Applications folder.

2. However, this will not initially work if you try and open it. You'll need to use Terminal and use xattr to recursively go through and change the permissions. I had to do this with sudo. So it looked something like this:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine [path to the app]

Once you do this, you should be able to open the app. Obviously these apps are not fully optimized but they work. It's better than nothing!
 
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1958llakin

macrumors newbie
Nov 18, 2020
6
43
mmendoza27 said:
Has anyone been able to successfully install an IPA on an M1 Mac? I was able to grab the IPA using Apple Configurator 2 but every time I try to open the app, I get "You do not have permission to open the application..."

Seems like I need to re-package the app or something?
Click to expand...
politik said:
I'm pretty sure mmendoza27 isn't talking about restoring the Mac via DFU. They're talking about downloading an ipa from the App Store for say, Spotify and launching it. I'm also seeing the same error message, so I'm not sure it's as simple as MacRumors suggested in the article.
Click to expand...
mmendoza27 said:
Okay, ended up getting an iOS app installed on the machine. Here is what I did:

1. Followed the Apple Configurator instructions here: https://medium.com/xcnotes/how-to-download-ipa-from-app-store-43e04b3d0332

This will allow you to download an IPA to your Mac and when you double-click the IPA, it installs the app in your Applications folder.

2. However, this will not initially work if you try and open it. You'll need to use Terminal and use xattr to recursively go through and change the permissions. I had to do this with sudo. So it looked something like this:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine [path to the app]

Once you do this, you should be able to open the app. Obviously these apps are not fully optimized but they work. It's better than nothing!
Click to expand...
You don't even need the Terminal command if you...
  1. download the ipa from iTunes 12.6.5 on a Windows PC and copy it to the Mac
  2. download the ipa from iMazing
  3. download the ipa from Apple Configurator 2 on another Mac and AirDrop the ipa to an Apple Silicon Mac
  4. download the ipa from Apple Configurator 2 on an Apple Silicon Mac, AirDrop the ipa to another Mac, then AirDrop the ipa back to the Apple Silicon Mac
You can also remove the quarantine flag on the ipa itself before installing it:
  • xattr -d com.apple.quarantine [path to ipa]
 
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