We’ve used AI chatbots and all the forums known to man to try and get our Windows C++ project to build and run on a Mac but unfortunately nothing we’ve done is working. We’ve deleted saved, intermediate, and binary files, regenerated project files, set the XCode build target to PROJECTNAMEEditor > My Mac and consistently get the error/log:
Engine/Binaries/DotNET/UnrealBuildTool/UnrealBuildTool.dll -Target=UnrealBuildTool -Platform=Mac
No platforms specified for target
We’ve done everything we can think of to resolve this error short of installing the source build. If that’s what we need to do then we’ll do it but we don’t want to take that step unless it’s necessary as it’s a long process
As far I know this is not possible, just as it isn’t possible to build a c++ project for mac on a Windows machine without a physical mac computer.
Edit: Maybe I got the question wrong, a c++ project created on Windows of course can be opened on a mac, but you’re not able to package for Windows on a mac platform.
hi, have you tried to compile the ue project with console command line?
i usually compile c++ project with console command line and then it builds binaries folder and can be opened successfully with UE editor…
another tip, it can also generate xcode workscpace ( .xcworkspace) by console cammand line, then you can open your project with xcode…
First you should delete the ‘Binaries’, ‘Intermediate’ and ‘Saved’ folders. Then open Terminal and change to the following directory. If necessary, change the engine version, here is an example for UE5.4
cd /Users/Shared/Epic\ Games/UE_5.4/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/Mac
Then run the the following command to generate the Xcode porject files. Basically it’s the command followed by the path and filename of your .uproject file. Alternatively you could setthe flag to ‘-Game’.
After that you should see the workspace folders that you can open with XCode. Be aware that developing in c++ for Unreal with Xcode is a real pain, for this I recommend Jetbrains Rider.
I’m actually trying to use Ryder instead of XCode. I had a project i was working on on a pc that i no longer have access to, so I tried to move that project over to my mac to continue work on it. I was using Visual studio, on my mac I am using Ryder. I have not been able to open this project or compile it since i moved it. been through a whole lot so far, and get closer, but still unable to continue work.
You mean ‘No platforms specified for target’? That’s strange, because generating the project files should at least create a workspace for mac, at least in my experience.
I did the generate as directed, and it looked hopeful, but i get a log exception:
Some Platforms were skipped due to invalid SDK setup: Mac.
See the log file for detailed information
I do not know why I am getting this.
thanks for al the help so far, this is the most help I’ve ever found on this issue.
I’m in a long process right now of trying to fix this. What I think is happening is that I am unable to build my own C++ projects on Mac unless I have the engine source code compiled. I’m doing that now, but that is slow.
When I’m done I’ll report back and let you know how it goes. So far I am seeing a bunch of compile errors in intel modules so I’m not that hopeful yet.
sorry all for the late reply, I’m not the member of the team having the issue so I forgot about this. I gave the Mac user on our team this forum link so hopefully he’ll be able to answer some of you soon.
Ultimately we’re thinking we’ll have to build from source, so I would absolutely love to hear how that goes for you! thanks for taking the leap for what seems like a lot of people.
generating the project files definitely created a mac workspace but we still got the “No Platforms Specified for target” error. I’ve linked the mac user so hopefully he can answer you on being able to build a blank C++ project.
ChatGPT keeps saying the launcher version of the unreal build tool isn’t configured for what we’re trying to do, but the source build is. I’m obviously just trying to avoid that if possible lol i don’t wanna take up the poor guy’s entire hard drive, but we will if that’s required!
i spent the better part of 2 work days trying to get UE5.5 to build on my powerbook, it will not. I get compile errors. ChatGPT had me chasing rabbits a bit and I tried everything it threw at me and none of it worked. It thought it was an issue with " it’s likely passing a size_t (typically 64-bit on macOS) into a parameter that expects a uint32 (32-bit), which is triggering the precision loss warning that Clang treats as an error due to -Werror."
none of the remedies have done anything so I don’t know if it’s hallucinating this stuff at this point.
I kind of give up.
Showing Recent Errors Only
/Users/ruicampos/UnrealEngine/Engine/Source/Runtime/Core/Public/GenericPlatform/GenericWidePlatformString.h:278:10: implicit conversion loses integer precision: ‘long’ to ‘int32’ (aka ‘int’) [-Werror,-Wshorten-64-to-32]
That is in XCode. So, I’m thinking that compiling on these macs is just not possible anymore, for whatever reason.
It makes me wonder if it does work on M3 laptops?
Does anyone know?
“Xcode errors are like horoscopes—vague but always bad.”
What version of Xcode are you using?
If you’re on Xcode 16.3, try reinstalling 16.2 instead.
I also updated from Xcode 15 to 16.3 earlier this year to support iOS SDK 18, as recommended by the App Store.
But I started encountering the same build errors you’re seeing.
Following advice from the thread below, I downgraded to Xcode 16.2, and it fixed the issue.
Xcode 16.2 uses Clang 16, while 16.3 comes with Clang 17 — and it seems like the problem stems from that compiler change.
I actually finally got it to work! It was a link error that Rider just couldn’t show, for who knows what reason. I ended up opening the workspace in XCode, then in XCode, I tried building and it was failing there, too. I noticed that the build settings were set to something like “MacOS/IOS” so I adjusted all the build settings be “MacOS” only, then I attepted a build inside XCode. This time i get a linker error but i got details! Turns out I was missing “UMG” in my PublicDependencyModuleNames! Added that.
then I built the Editor alone, and that worked. I tried unreal game, that worked, so I moved on to my project code, and the editor build worked, too!
Once I had that going I tried it again in Rider, and it all built and ran the editor with my project!
That was a trip!
AI was nearly useless here, had me going in circles (with small variations) for days!
The key was to build the project in XCode, NOT the terminal.
