Install the Mac app

The Mac app is what turns Prod Crate from a website into a folder. Until it is installed you can upload, search and download in the browser; once it is installed your whole library is a location in the Finder sidebar that your DAW can open like any other folder.

Install it

1. Download the Mac app from the download page. It arrives as ProdCrate.dmg, around 78 MB.
2. Open the .dmg and drag the Prod Crate icon onto the Applications shortcut in the same window.
3. Eject the disk image, then open Prod Crate from your Applications folder.
4. Sign in with the email address you signed up with. If you use a magic link, the link opens the app directly.
5. macOS asks to enable the Prod Crate file provider extension. Allow it — without it the Finder location cannot appear.

Prod Crate needs macOS 13 Ventura or later and runs natively on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

What you should see

A Prod Crate entry appears in the Finder sidebar under Locations, and a small crate icon appears in the menu bar. Open the sidebar entry and your library is there: every folder, every file, with real names, sizes, key and BPM in the Finder columns.

Nothing has been downloaded yet. Files that only live in the cloud show a cloud icon and take up no disk space until you open them. That is normal and it is how the library fits on a laptop.

Add your first samples

Drag a folder from your drive into the Prod Crate location in the Finder. The copy uploads in the background, the menu bar shows progress, and each file is converted to FLAC and analysed as it lands. A pack of a few hundred one-shots is usually sorted within a minute or two of finishing its upload.

If the sidebar entry never appears

• Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › File Providers and check that Prod Crate is switched on.
• Quit Prod Crate from the menu bar and open it again. The sidebar entry is created on launch.
• Make sure you dragged the app to Applications. Running it from the mounted disk image works once, but the extension will not register.
• If the menu bar icon is missing too, the app is not running. Add it to Login Items so it starts with your Mac.

Still nothing? Email support with your macOS version and the app version from Prod Crate › About, and we will work it out with you.