Unreal Mac OS Project Load Error Fix (Xcode Version Issue)

Error when opening a .uproject from GitHub on Unreal Mac OS

• Even after downloading the latest version of Xcode from the App Store, the following error occurred and the project would not open.

Failed to open selected source code accessor 'Xcode'.

Setting up bundled DotNet SDK
/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/UE_5.6/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/Mac/../../../Binaries/ThirdParty/DotNet/8.0.300/mac-arm64
Running dotnet Engine/Binaries/DotNET/UnrealBuildTool/UnrealBuildTool.dll Development Mac -Project=/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Documents/Unreal Projects/dd/dd.uproject -TargetType=Editor -Progress -NoEngineChanges -NoHotReloadFromIDE
Log file: /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Epic/UnrealBuildTool/Log.txt
Creating makefile for ddEditor (no existing makefile)
Platform Mac is not a valid platform to build. Check that the SDK is installed properly and that you have the necessary platform support files (DataDrivenPlatformInfo.ini, SDK.json, etc).

Result: Failed (OtherCompilationError)
Total execution time: 1.09 seconds

Solution

• The cause was that Xcode was too new, and Unreal could not recognize it.
• Since the recent beta version is Xcode 26 or higher, you must download Xcode 16.

Xcode 16 Download Link

xcodebuild -version
xcode-select --print-path

First, check if Xcode is installed with these two commands.

xcode-select --install

Try this to check if Command Line Tools are installed (if installed, it will show an error).

View the contents of the installed Xcode package - Contents - Developer, copy the path, and:

sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

• Reassign the path.

• Replace /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer with your actual Xcode installation path.

Check if the .xcworkspace file is properly generated in the project location.

Double-click the .uproject file in the project location to open the project.

Caution: Be sure to run GitHub LFS Initialize. Since Unreal asset files are large, they are uploaded via LFS. If you don’t initialize, the project will open without asset files.