MCA Selector 2.9 ships as a native macOS disk image — since version 2.8 there are two .dmg files, one for Apple Silicon Macs and one for Intel Macs. Picking the right one is the only real decision in the install; everything after that is a standard macOS app install.
Step 1: Check which chip your Mac has
Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner and choose About This Mac. If the chip line says Apple M1, M2, M3 or M4 (any variant), your Mac is Apple Silicon and you need the aarch64 build. If it says Intel Core i5, i7 or i9, you need the x64 build.
Step 2: Download the right .dmg
| File | For | Size |
|---|---|---|
mcaselector-2.9-aarch64.dmg | Apple Silicon (M-series) | 57,980,535 bytes |
mcaselector-2.9-x64.dmg | Intel Macs | 59,474,697 bytes |
Download the Apple Silicon build from /go/mcaselector-dmg-arm or the Intel build from /go/mcaselector-dmg-x64. Both links point at the official GitHub release files. The download page lists the full SHA-256 hashes for both files, and on macOS you can verify your download with shasum -a 256 <file> in Terminal.
Step 3: Install and open it for the first time
Open the downloaded .dmg and drag the MCA Selector app into your Applications folder, the way you install most Mac software. Then launch it from Applications.
Because MCA Selector is distributed from GitHub rather than the App Store, macOS Gatekeeper may refuse the first launch with a message that the app is from an unidentified developer. The standard fix is to right-click (or Control-click) the app in Applications, choose Open from the menu, and confirm Open in the dialog. macOS remembers your choice, so later launches open normally.
How this differs from the old .jar route
Before version 2.8, Mac users only had the universal .jar, which meant installing a Java runtime with JavaFX and launching the tool from a command line — the source of most old “MCA Selector not working on Mac” threads. The .dmg is now the official, current install form for macOS. The jar still works if you already run a 64-bit JRE 21+ with JavaFX — see the Java & JavaFX setup guide — but new Mac installs should start with the .dmg.
One requirement from the official installation guide applies either way: your computer should have at least 6 GB of RAM, and the worlds you can edit are Minecraft Java Edition worlds from 1.2.1 through 26.3+. There is no Bedrock support — see MCA Selector and Bedrock for what to use instead.
Download MCA Selector 2.9
Get the Mac build on the download page, or jump straight to the Apple Silicon .dmg / Intel .dmg on GitHub.
Back up your world first: MCA Selector writes deletions and NBT changes straight to disk and they cannot be undone, so copy your world folder somewhere safe before you edit it.