Fix: DistroAV Installation Failed on macOS (OBS NDI Plugin)

If you're installing OBS DistroAV version 6.1.1 or earlier on macOS and see the message "The installation failed", the issue is often caused by incorrect permissions in the OBS plugin folder.

In many cases, the installer is not actually broken. The problem is that the obs-studio/plugins folder is owned by root instead of your user account, so the installer cannot write the plugin files correctly.

Download DistroAV here

Why the Installation Fails

OBS stores plugins in this folder:

~/Library/Application Support/obs-studio/plugins

On some macOS systems, that folder may be owned by root instead of your current user. When that happens, the DistroAV installer cannot complete the installation.

Because the .pkg installer does not prompt for admin permissions during this step, it cannot automatically fix the ownership issue.

Step 1: Check the Plugin Folder Ownership

Open Terminal and run this command:

ls -ld ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio/plugins

If the result shows something like this, the folder ownership is the problem:

drwxr-xr-x 3 root staff 96 Jun 12 2024 /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/obs-studio/plugins

Step 2: Fix the Folder Permissions

Run this command in Terminal:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio/plugins

Enter your Mac password when prompted.

This changes the ownership of the OBS plugins folder and everything inside it back to your user account.

Step 3: Verify the Change

Run the ownership check again:

ls -ld ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio/plugins

After the fix, you should see your username instead of root.

Example:

drwxr-xr-x  3 yourusername  staff  96 Jun 12 2024 /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/obs-studio/plugins

Reinstall DistroAV

Once the folder ownership is corrected:

1. Run the DistroAV installer again
2. Finish the installation
3. Restart OBS Studio

If the install completes normally, the plugin should load correctly inside OBS.

How to Confirm It Worked

Open OBS Studio and look for:

Sources > Add > NDI Source

If NDI Source appears, the plugin installed successfully.

Quick Summary

If DistroAV fails to install on macOS, check whether the OBS plugins folder is owned by root. If it is, run the command below to fix it:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio/plugins

After that, reinstall DistroAV and restart OBS Studio.

Credit

Special thanks to Austin Block (austin12block) for identifying and sharing the solution to this issue GitHub