Sections

• Installation
  • IPSW
• Shared Directories
  • VirtioFS
  • Network sharing
• Clipboard Sharing
• Missing features

macOS 12+

macOS guests are supported on Apple Silicon hosts running macOS 12 or higher.

Installation

In the new VM wizard, select “Virtualization” and then “macOS 12+” to install macOS as a guest. If either option is not available, your system does not support macOS guests.

IPSW

Apple distributes macOS software in an IPSW file. UTM can download the latest compatible macOS automatically if you do not select an IPSW. You can also download IPSWs from a third party site such as ipsw.me.

We do not attest to the safety, validity, or compatibility of IPSWs downloaded from third party sites such as ipsw.me. We recommend using UTM’s automatic download of the most compatible IPSW.

Shared Directories

VirtioFS

macOS 13+

When both the guest and host are running macOS 13 or higher, shared directories can be mounted as a network volume. You can mount the volume from Terminal:

$ mkdir -m 777 -p [mount point]
$ mount_virtiofs share [mount point]

[mount point] can be any valid path such as /Volumes/Share as an example.

Network sharing

Another way of sharing files between the host and guest (including support for macOS 12) is to use the network file sharing feature of macOS running on the host. You can do it from “System Preferences” under the “Sharing” category. Check out Apple’s user guide for more details. Once a network share is set up, your macOS guest can connect to it just like any other Mac.

Clipboard Sharing

macOS 15+

When both the guest and host are running macOS 15 or higher, clipboard sharing is supported. First, enable the feature in the VM’s settings under Virtualization → Enable Clipboard Sharing. Then, after starting the VM, mount the guest tools by selecting “Install Guest Tools” from the CD button in the toolbar. Open the package installer from the mounted drive and after the installation is complete, macOS will prompt for you to allow “spice-vdagent” and “spice-vdagentd” to be opened. Make sure you agree to open in these prompts.

Missing features

The Apple Virtualization backend used to virtualize macOS does not support many UTM features. Below is a list of some unsupported features.

• USB sharing
• Clipboard sharing (before macOS 15)
• Dynamic display resolution (before macOS 14)
• Save states (before macOS 14)