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3. wiki/src/install/inc/steps/install_with_etcher.inline.*.po
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<h1 id="etcher" class="step">Install <em>balenaEtcher</em></h1>

<p class="upgrade">In thise following steps, you will install an intermediary Tails using the Tails USB
image that you downloaded earlier.</p>

<p class="upgrade">In the following steps, you will install an intermediary Tails using the Tails USB
image that you downloaded earlier.</p>

<p><a href="https://etcher.balena.io/"><i>balenaEtcher</i></a> is the Free Software tool that we recommend to install Tails from macOS.</p>

<div class="attack">

<p>We [[stopped recommending|news/rufus]] <i>balenaEtcher</i> to install Tails
from Windows in 2025 because <i>balenaEtcher</i> shares [[!tails_ticket 16381
desc="sensitive information"]] to the Balena company that allows identifying
who is installing Tails.</p>

<p>We have not updated our installation instructions for macOS yet.</p>

<p>If you are worried about being identified as a Tails user, you can instead:</p>

<ul>
<li>[[!toggle id="dd" text="Install Tails using `dd` on the command line"]].</li>
<li>Install Tails using <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/"><i>Raspberry Pi Imager</i></a>.</li>
</ul>

</div>

</div>

Open the **Terminal** utility from **Applications**&nbsp;▸ **Utilities**.

Execute the following command:.

Execute the following command.

Plug your USB stick into the computer.

Plug your USB stick into the computer.

Execute again the same command:.

Execute again the same command.

Take note of the device name of your USB stick.

Take note of the *device name* of your USB stick. In this example, the USB stick is 8.0 GB and its device name is <span class="codemmand-placeholder">/dev/disk1</span>.
Yours might be different.

In this example, the USB stick is 8.0 GB and its device name is <span class="command-placeholder">/dev/disk1</span>.
Yours might be different.

Execute the following command to safely eject the USB stick. Replace <span class="command-placeholder">device</span> with the device name found in step 6.

Execute the following command to safely eject the USB stick. Replace <span class="command-placeholder">device</span> with the device name found in step 6.

<p class="pre command-template">diskutil unmountDisk <span class="command-placeholder">device</span></p>

<p class="command-template">diskutil unmountDisk <span class="command-placeholder">device</span></p>

<p class="pre command-template">dd if=<span class="command-placeholder">tails.img</span> of=<span class="command-placeholder">device</span> bs=16m && sync</p>

<p class="command-template">dd if=<span class="command-placeholder">tails.img</span> of=<span class="command-placeholder">device</span> bs=16m && sync</p>

<p class="pre command-texamplate">dd if=/Users/me/tails-amd64-3.12.img of=/dev/rdisk9 bs=16m && sync</p>

<p class="command-template">dd if=/Users/me/tails-amd64-3.12.img of=/dev/rdisk9 bs=16m && sync</p>

<div class="note">
<p>If you get a <span class="guilabel"code>Permission denied</spancode> error, try
adding <code>sudo</code> at the beginning of the command:</p>

<div class="note">
<p>If you get a <code>Permission denied</code> error, try
adding <code>sudo</code> at the beginning of the command:</p>