Caution

You are not reading the latest stable version of this documentation. If you want up-to-date information, please have a look at master.

Running Tor on MacOS¶

For macOS running on ARM chips (ie. newer macs):¶

Warning

macOS Homebrew running natively on M1/Apple Silicon/ARM has partial functionality. Therefore, some additional steps are needed to setup Homebrew.

Open a command line editor (Terminal), and run the following commands:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta
arch -x86_64 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Warning

If you have the Tor Browser open, close it and quit the application.

This will start Tor and ensure that it is always running, even after a restart. See the Tor Project for more details.

If you do not have Homebrew installed, follow the installation instructions here.
TLDR: Open the command line editor (Terminal) and paste the following line:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
You will be prompted for your system password before installation; proceed with entering your password:

You will be notified which directories Homebrew is going to create, hit RETURN:

Homebrew creates the directories and downloads any other files it needs e.g. “Command Line Tool for Xcode” and “Homebrew”.

Wait a few minutes while it downloads and installs what it needs.

Warning

Surprisingly, Homebrew uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous usage data. You can deselect the option to share usage data by opting out.

Warning

If you have the Tor Browser open, close it and quit the application.

In the command line, install Tor:
brew install tor
Once it is finished you have the following options:
Then run Tor with:
brew services start tor

This will start Tor and ensure that it is always running, even after a restart. See the Tor Project for more details.