Load your game on a Mac

You no longer need to turn off SIP

FMRTE now reads Football Manager through a small plugin that the game loads when it starts, so System Integrity Protection (SIP) can stay on.

The Set up the FMRTE plugin wizard prepares your copy of the game to load the plugin. You only need to do this once for each copy of the game.

Open the wizard

Start Football Manager, then select Load Game in FMRTE. If FMRTE can't connect, the wizard opens by itself. Select Next >.

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If the wizard doesn't open, set Settings → Support → Diagnostics → Game data source to Auto detect (the default). With Game process, FMRTE never uses the plugin.

Step 1: Find game

1. Under Games found, choose your copy of the game. FMRTE selects the running copy for you.
2. If you play on Steam, choose your Steam account.
3. Select Next >.

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If your copy isn't listed, select Browse… and choose the game's folder.

Steam on an Apple silicon Mac: Install Rosetta

Steam needs Apple's Rosetta to start the game with the plugin. If it's missing, the wizard shows Install Rosetta before the review. Select Install Rosetta (internet needed, about a minute). Or run the command shown in Terminal, then select Check again.

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note

Rosetta is only for Steam: Steam uses it to run FMRTE's small launcher. The game itself still runs natively on Apple silicon, not through Rosetta. The Epic Games Launcher, Heroic and the Desktop shortcut don't need Rosetta.

Step 2: Review setup

Check What FMRTE will change, then select Apply setup. What you see depends on where your copy came from:

Steam

Quit Football Manager and Steam first, then select Apply setup.

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• If the game already has Steam launch options, tick Replace the current Steam launch options to continue.
• If FMRTE can't change Steam's settings itself, it shows a Launch options line. Paste it into the game's Properties › General › Launch Options in Steam, then select I've set it in Steam.

If you use BepInEx mods: FMRTE adds its plugin to BepInEx's start script instead, and keeps your mods and Steam settings. You don't need to quit Steam.

Epic Games Store

Quit the game first, then select Apply setup. The wizard refuses while the game is running. You keep starting the game from the Epic Games Launcher and don't need another launcher.

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FMRTE then does the following:

• It adds a small start script, fmrte-launch.sh, to the game's folder, next to fm.app.
• It backs up Epic's record of the game and points it at that script. The record is ~/Library/Application Support/Epic/EpicGamesLauncher/Data/Manifests/<id>.item, and the backup is <id>.item.fmrte-backup next to it.
• If the launcher is open, it closes the launcher and opens it again so it reads the change. A launcher that was closed stays closed.

The game's own files don't change.

If you move or remove FMRTE, the game still starts from Epic, without the plugin. Run the wizard again to get the plugin back.

An Epic update may undo the setup. Run the wizard again if the plugin stops loading, or if the game stops starting from Epic.

Heroic (Epic)

Quit the game and Heroic first, then select Apply setup.

Heroic starts Epic games through Legendary, so FMRTE adds its plugin to Legendary's settings file, not to the game's settings in Heroic. With SIP on, a variable in Heroic's own game settings doesn't reach the game. The file is ~/Library/Application Support/heroic/legendaryConfig/legendary/config.ini. FMRTE keeps the rest of the file unchanged.

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If FMRTE can't change the file, the page shows the File and the Line or Lines to add. Quit the game and Heroic, open the file in TextEdit, make the change the page describes and save it. Then select I've edited the file.

Keep FMRTE in Applications on your Mac's own disk: Heroic can't load the plugin from a disk image or another drive.

App Store or other

Select Apply setup. FMRTE creates a shortcut app on your Desktop, named after the game with "with FMRTE" added, and leaves the game unchanged.

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If macOS asks, let FMRTE use your Desktop.

Before FMRTE changes a file, it saves a copy of the original next to it, ending in .fmrte-backup.

Step 3: Restart

1. Quit the game and start it again the new way:

   Steam

   From your Steam Library.

   Epic Games Store

   With Launch on the game in the Epic Games Launcher.

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   Heroic (Epic)

   With Play in Heroic.

   App Store or other

   From the FMRTE shortcut on your Desktop.

2. Wait until the game reaches the main menu.

3. Select Check connection.

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When the wizard shows The plugin is connected, select Finish, then Load Game. The status bar shows (Plugin) after the game version.

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If it says Not connected yet, make sure you started the game the new way, then select Check connection again. If Epic just updated the game, run the wizard again.

If setup stops

The message at the bottom of the wizard says what to do. The most common ones:

Message	What to do
macOS won't let FMRTE connect to this copy	Choose another copy, such as the Steam version, or select Use FMRTE without the plugin. That guide changes SIP: read “Unable to open process” on macOS first.
Quit the game before applying	Quit the game and try again.
The Epic Games Launcher is still closing	Wait a moment and try again.
FMRTE couldn't find Epic's record of this copy	Make sure the Epic Games Launcher lists the game as installed, then try again.
Epic starts this copy with a program FMRTE doesn't recognise	If another tool changed it, undo that change, then try again.
No Steam account with the game found	Start the game from Steam once, then try again.
FMRTE can't be set up from its current folder	Move FMRTE to Applications and try again.
Setup didn't finish	Try again. If it keeps failing, submit a bug report.

When you report a connection problem, attach plugin.log from FMRTE's log folder (Settings → Support → Diagnostics → Log folder → Open folder).

Update the plugin

After you update FMRTE, the game may still run the old plugin. The wizard then opens as Update the FMRTE plugin. Select Next >. If the Update the plugin page appears, select Update plugin. Then restart the game and select Check connection.

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Undo the setup

The wizard has no undo button. To stop the game loading the plugin:

Steam

In Steam, open the game's Properties › General › Launch Options and remove FMRTE's launcher line. With BepInEx, replace run_bepinex_arm64.sh in the game's folder with its .fmrte-backup copy.

Epic Games Store

The launcher only reads its records when it starts, and it can keep running after you ask it to quit, so make sure it has fully closed first.

1. Press Command-Q in the Epic Games Launcher.
2. Open Activity Monitor and search for Epic. If the launcher is still listed, select it, select the Stop button and choose Force Quit.
3. In Finder, go to ~/Library/Application Support/Epic/EpicGamesLauncher/Data/Manifests/ and open the .item file that has a .fmrte-backup copy next to it in TextEdit.
4. Set LaunchExecutable back to fm.app/Contents/MacOS/Football Manager 27, changing only the text between the quotes, then save the file. If the game hasn't updated since setup, you can replace the record with its .fmrte-backup copy instead.
5. Delete fmrte-launch.sh from the game's folder.
6. Open the Epic Games Launcher and select Launch on the game. It should start as usual.

warning

Do these steps in this order. If the record still names a deleted script, Epic can't start the game.

Heroic (Epic)

Quit the game and Heroic, then open ~/Library/Application Support/heroic/legendaryConfig/legendary/config.ini in TextEdit. In the game's section, find the DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES line. Remove FMRTE's path and the : next to it, or delete the line if FMRTE's path is the only one. Save the file.

warning

If you move or remove FMRTE, make this change too, or the game won't start from Heroic.

App Store or other

Move the shortcut to the Bin, and start the game the usual way.