Family Tree Maker on Mac: macOS Tahoe compatibility and fixes

macOS Tahoe (macOS 26) broke Family Tree Maker for a lot of Mac users. FTM 2024 is fine. FTM 2019 runs with known issues. FTM 2017 will not install at all. Here is exactly where each version stands, and what to do if you have already upgraded.

Applies to

FTM 2024 · 2019 · 2017 · 2014

Platform

macOS

Checked

September 2026

Which Family Tree Maker versions work on macOS Tahoe (macOS 26)?

Apple released macOS Tahoe on 15 September 2025. The publisher publishes a compatibility status per version, and the differences are stark enough to decide whether you should upgrade your Mac at all.

Separately from Tahoe, Family Tree Maker supports macOS Big Sur 11 and later. Anything older than Big Sur is outside the supported range regardless of version.

FTM 2017 will not install on macOS Tahoe — your actual options

This is the situation we see most. The program is gone, the tree file is fine, and the vendor has no fix coming because 23.3 predates the operating system by years. There are four honest routes, in order of how much they cost you.

1. Get the data out first, whatever you decide. Find the .ftm file and its matching media folder in Documents and copy both to an external drive. Nothing else matters until this is done.

2. Upgrade to FTM 2024. The straightforward answer. Upgrade pricing exists for owners of earlier versions, and 2024 opens 2017 files directly. What it costs.

3. Use another Mac or a PC still on an older OS. If you have one, install FTM 2017 there long enough to export a GEDCOM. That gives you a portable copy that any genealogy program can read.

4. Recover from the file directly. Where no working installation exists anywhere, the data can usually still be extracted from the file itself and rebuilt into a current format. That is file recovery, and we assess it before charging anything.

How to check which version you have before upgrading macOS

• Open Family Tree Maker and choose Family Tree Maker → About Family Tree Maker.
• Note the full build number, not just the year. 25.0.2 and 25.0.0 behave differently on Tahoe.
• Check your macOS version under Apple menu → About This Mac. Tahoe reports as macOS 26.
• If you are on FTM 2024 but an older build, install the free update before touching macOS.

Moving a Family Tree Maker tree from Windows to Mac

The tree file format is identical on both platforms, so this is more straightforward than people expect. The complication is always media, never the tree itself.

1. On the Windows machine, take a full backup with File → Backup and tick the option to include media files. Without that box, you move names and dates but no photographs.

2. Copy the .ftmb backup to the Mac, on an external drive or in a cloud folder used only for the transfer.

3. On the Mac, restore the backup rather than opening the file in place.

4. Expect to relink media. Stored file paths do not survive the move between operating systems, so images commonly show as broken until they are pointed at their new location. Full media relinking guide.

What FTM 2024 actually needs on a Mac

The published minimum is macOS Big Sur 11 or later, which includes macOS Tahoe 26, with 900 MB of disk space, 4 GB of RAM and a 1280 × 800 screen. Eight gigabytes of RAM is the recommended figure, and on a large tree with a lot of media it makes a difference you can feel rather than one you have to measure.

Worth noting if you run both platforms: the Windows build asks for less. Windows 10 64-bit or later, 800 MB of space and 2 GB of RAM. So an old Mac is more likely to fall below the line than an old PC of the same vintage.

Working on one tree from a Mac and a PC

This comes up constantly and gets guessed at more than answered, usually by one relative on a Mac and another on Windows who want to work on the family tree together.

Start with the good news: the tree file itself is the same on both platforms. A .ftm file written on Windows opens on a Mac and the other way round, with no conversion and no export. There is one Family Tree Maker, sold for both systems, using one format.

For two people working on the same tree, the route that actually works is the Ancestry link. Both machines sync to the same online tree, and current versions allow more than one computer to stay linked to it at once, so a Mac and a PC can both keep in step through the middle rather than passing a file back and forth. Passing files by hand, or exporting and importing a GEDCOM each time, introduces small errors on every trip and is a poor way to collaborate.

Where the Mac genuinely behaves differently

Most of the program is the same on both platforms. Three differences are worth knowing, because each one has caught people out:

• Oversized photographs. Images above 15 MB are handled differently. Windows shrinks a copy on the way to the online tree and leaves your original alone; a Mac skips the file entirely. Same tree, same photo, different result, and no message either way.
• Cloud services live in a different menu. On a Mac you connect to TreeVault from the Family Tree Maker application menu. On Windows it sits under Help. Instructions written for the other platform send you hunting.
• Changing the home person. On a Mac, if that is the only thing you change, it does not travel to the online tree on the next sync. Change something else at the same time and it goes across.

If small text on the Person tab is the thing bothering you, FTM 2024 added a feature that enlarges areas of the People workspace while you work in them and returns them to normal afterwards. It was built in response to exactly this complaint. macOS also has a system-wide Hover Text setting under Accessibility that magnifies whatever the pointer rests on, which helps in the corners the program itself does not cover.

Family tree charts and templates on Mac

A common search is "family tree template mac", but Family Tree Maker does not work from templates the way a word processor does. It generates charts from your data. On a Mac the process is:

• Pick a chart type: pedigree, descendant, fan or hourglass, depending on what you want to show.
• Set how many generations to include. Four to five is usually the limit for a readable single page.
• Adjust boxes, spacing and fonts in the chart options.
• Export to PDF for printing, which handles large formats far better than printing directly.

If charts print blank, cut off, or across too many sheets, that is a layout problem with its own fixes — see printing and chart problems.

Frequently asked questions

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