Mac OSX: How to Download, Install, and Start APT
Supported Systems
Hardware: (HST users only): Apple Silicon chips (M1/M2/M3) currently cause the HST Orbit and Visit Planners to run much more slowly. An Apple Silicon native version of the language APT uses for the HST Orbit and Visit Planners is in final testing by our vendor. We have a version of APT with that beta installed that we can give you. Please contact us at help@stsci.edu.
Operating System: APT requires Mac OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) or higher.
Depending on your institution's computer security measures (firewalls, blocked ports, etc.), you may initially have communication trouble with APT. If you have any concerns please see our Server Connectivity knowledge article.
NOTE: APT is delivered as a native installer package on Mac OS X, so the download is named "APT.pkg".
1. Uninstall the previous version
Note: If you are going to install APT in the same folder as a previous version, please remove the previous version first. But if you are going to install in a separate folder, you would only need to uninstall to save disk space (and possible version confusion).
To get rid of the old version: delete the entire folder where you installed it.
2. Download and install
Download the installer below then double-click APT.pkg to start the installation.
(If you have trouble installing APT, please see the Troubleshooting Tips at the bottom of these platform specific Installation instructions.)
3. Start
Once you have installed APT you invoke it by clicking on it. Go to the installation folder (default installation folder has a name like Applications/APT_202x.x/) and double click on APT.
4. How to find out about new releases
We maintain a distribution list for announcing new releases of APT. This may be helpful to people who install APT for others to use. Just send a blank email to: apt_release_notice-subscribe-request@maillist.stsci.edu (Unsubscribe by sending a blank email to apt_release_notice-signoff-request@maillist.stsci.edu)
5. Troubleshooting
If there are problems with the installation you can turn on debug logging and sometimes that will reveal the problem. (For instance, one user found that there was a permissions problem and all that was needed was to run "Repair Disk Permissions"). This debug log would also be useful to send us if you can't figure out the problem. Contact us (through help@stsci.edu) if you have problems with installation.
To turn debug logging on while running APT:
- Go to the folder where you installed APT.
- Double click on the apt script in the bin folder.
Known Installation/Download Problems:
- We have recently had two instances of people having problems installing APT on Mac. ("APT.pkg" can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.) The root cause appears to be connectivity to the Apple server for this check because the installation eventually worked without any intervention. You can try again later or override the check if you are in a hurry (right click on the installer and select 'Open' you will see the same dialog but with an option to proceed). (93248)