# Unreal Engine 5.6/5.7 fails to start on Apple M5 + macOS 26 **URL:** \ **Category:** Platform & Builds\ **Tags:** unreal-engine, question\ **Created:** [May 6, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unreal-engine-5-6-5-7-fails-to-start-on-apple-m5-macos-26/2720365 "2026-05-06T14:34:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jalle6511](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@jalle6511](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/jalle6511)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unreal-engine-5-6-5-7-fails-to-start-on-apple-m5-macos-26/2720365/1 "2026-05-06T14:34:55Z")
I’m having a massive Unreal Engine startup failure on Apple Silicon. System: - MacBook with Apple M5 - macOS 26.4.1 - Unreal Engine 5.6.1 and 5.7.4 - Installed through Epic Games Launcher Issue: - Unreal Editor fails during startup. - Through Epic Launcher, the editor usually stops around 4–10%. - After disabling a massive amount of everything, I got it to reache ~35% before freezing. This happened only once, was not able to reproduce. - The issue happens in both UE 5.6 and 5.7. - Zen Storage Server errors appear initially, but even after clearing Zen data and services the editor still hangs. What I already tried: - Removed Zen caches and services - Killed all Zen/Trace processes - Reinstalled UE 5.6 and 5.7 - Removed Epic/Unreal cache folders - Rebooted system - Launched editor directly from terminal - Used: Important observation: Launching from terminal with: “/Users/Shared/Epic Games/UE\_5.6/Engine/Binaries/Mac/UnrealEditor.app/Contents/MacOS/UnrealEditor” -NoSplash -NoSound -NullRHI -log" gets significantly further than launching through Epic Games Launcher. Relevant log behavior: - Unreal Trace Server launches successfully - Plugins mount successfully - Engine reaches: “LogInit: Object subsystem initialized” After that, startup eventually stalls/freezes. Anyone has had the same issue? Anyone have solutions? I can provide full logs if needed. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![jalle6511](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@jalle6511](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/jalle6511)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2026, 10:43am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unreal-engine-5-6-5-7-fails-to-start-on-apple-m5-macos-26/2720365/2 "2026-05-07T10:43:53Z")
Finally got it to work. Sharing the fix here as well: So my mac has multiple users on it. One of the users has an anti-virus software installed. When I opened Unreal Editor on that specific user, I was able to disable the anti-virus software (or more I just allowed it to recognize Unreal and Epic Launcher as safe). This made me bypass the first hurdle, and I got past the 10% problem! But I ended up getting another issue. Something is wrong with the IOS SDK or similar, and it doesn’t work on these new macOS systems, so it crashed when I wanted to open the Editor normally. This had a simply fix really, just opening through terminal with all Plugins disabled, such as “/Users/MY\_USER\_NAME/UE\_5.7/Engine/Binaries/Mac/UnrealEditor.app/Contents/MacOS/UnrealEditor” -DisableAllPlugins" I still couldn’t open through Epic Games Launcher, so I had to disable all plugins involving IOS through Terminal. Now everything works, even through EGL. If someone has similar issues I’m happy to help and explain everything I tried more thoroughly. ---
**Author:** ![NicoNicoJean](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@NicoNicoJean](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/NicoNicoJean)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2026, 10:23pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unreal-engine-5-6-5-7-fails-to-start-on-apple-m5-macos-26/2720365/3 "2026-06-06T22:23:25Z")
Hello there, So, I don’t know if my issue has something to do with yours, but I’m also on Mac and I also have troubles with UE 5.6 and 5.7 My rig is: iMacPro Intel 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon W 8 cores Mac OS Sonoma 14.8.4 Unreal Engine 5.5 works just fine. My issues: - with UE 5.6, the engine starts and the shaders load, but UE crashes just before getting to My Projects/New Project window - with UE 5.7, the engine can’t even cache the shaders. It usually stops at around 35% and then hangs forever Tried both engines, it always crashes. Uninstalled, installed 5.5 again, it works just fine again. For now, I believe I can live with 5.5, but I’m pretty sure I’d love to upgrade sooner or later 😃 If anybody has any idea, thanks in advance!