Problem Installing Wacom Intuos Tablet on Mac M4 Sequoia [SOLVED]

[Ldina]

I just got a new Mac M4 Sequoia and nearly everything works fine, including Affinity (what I've tried so far, at least). 

My Intuos Pro (medium size) PTK-640 worked fine on my Intel Mac and Ventura, but will not install on my new computer. The latest Wacom drivers do not list the PTK-640 as supported, and I get a message to that effect when installing them. The WacomTablet_6-3-37.3.dmg driver does list my tablet and says it works with OS 10.15, but when I tried to load it, a message said I needed Rosetta to install the software and use my tablet?? (which I haven't tried...isn't Rosetta from waaaay back when??)

Has anybody had success installing an Intuos4, USB connected tablet on an M4 running Sequoia? Any suggestions?

If this won't work with my new Mac, any suggestions on an inexpensive, medium sized tablet that works well with Affinity and my Mac? I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, just pressure sensitivity, eraser and the normal stuff for drawing, sketching, etc.

Thanks a lot.

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, Ldina said:

Has anybody had success installing an Intuos4, USB connected tablet on an M4 running Sequoia? Any suggestions?

The driver I have is listed as 6.4.7-2 and you seem to have 6.3-37.3. Granted I am on an older Mac OS.

[Ldina]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

The driver I have is listed as 6.4.7-2 and you seem to have 6.3-37.3. Granted I am on an older Mac OS.

Thanks, Bruce. I tried all the latest drivers, but they bombed on my M4 Sequoia and said my tablet wasn't supported, or it didn't even show up when opening the Wacom software. This same tablet worked fine on my 2017 Intel MBP running Ventura.

 

[Old Bruce]

 

17 minutes ago, Ldina said:

... a message said I needed Rosetta to install the software and use my tablet?? (which I haven't tried...isn't Rosetta from waaaay back when??)

Way way back when. I do believe Rosetta was the name used when Apple switched to Intel chips and they have simply recycled the name for this chipset change.

I didn't immediately realize your tablet is at least one generation older than mine.

Weird that well made hardware will stop working because of software upgrades. I live in fear of having to upgrade my decade old machine and then find out the hard way that my audio interfaces won't work after about 20 years of flawless service. I hope they will but I don't know for certain.

[Ldina]

I finally got my Intuos 4 (PTK-640) graphics tablet working on my Mac M4 Max and wanted to explain what I did, in case others have this issue. This tablet is connected via USB to my Mac using a USB-A to USB-C adapter. I'm currently running Sequoia 15.1.1 on my new Mac (latest update as of this writing).

The latest Wacom Drivers do NOT support this older tablet. I kept looking at earlier and earlier Wacom drivers until I found the latest Wacom drive that listed my graphics tablet model as being supported. In my case, that driver was WacomTablet_6.3.37-3.dmg. 

First I completely uninstalled and deleted all of the previous drivers that did not support my tablet, then restarted my Mac to make sure I had a clean start.

I ran the above driver installer, which said that Rosetta had to be installed first to make software written for Intel Macs work with Apple Silicon computers. I had spoken to Apple previously and they said that should be fine because Rosetta acts as a bridge between some Intel and Apple silicon software. The Wacom install process asked me if I wanted to install Rosetta NOW, and I clicked Yes. After Rosetta was done installing, the Wacom software continued to load the driver.

It is vital to make sure Apple Privacy and Security Permissions are set to allow all the associated Wacom software to access the keyboard, etc. I looked at all the Privacy & Security categories and made sure WACOM software was enabled in any category where Wacom software showed up in the list. Once all Wacom permissions were turned on, I restarted my Mac. My tablet was unplugged this entire time.

After my Mac was fully restarted, I THEN plugged in my Wacom Intuos 4 tablet to the USB-C port, and all was working properly. The driver and tablet settings are also available from System Preferences if you want to change any of the default tablet settings. 

It took me much of the day to get it working. Hopefully, if anyone else is having similar issues installing an older Wacom Tablet on a Mac with Apple Silicon, this will help guide you. Maybe most people have newer tablets that work with Wacom's latest drivers (written specifically for Apple Silicon Macs), without requiring these steps, but if not, it's worth a try. Best of luck!

[Suny56]

On 11/23/2024 at 11:38 PM, Ldina said:

I finally got my Intuos 4 (PTK-640) graphics tablet working on my Mac M4 Max and wanted to explain what I did, in case others have this issue. This tablet is connected via USB to my Mac using a USB-A to USB-C adapter. I'm currently running Sequoia 15.1.1 on my new Mac (latest update as of this writing).

The latest Wacom Drivers do NOT support this older tablet. I kept looking at earlier and earlier Wacom drivers until I found the latest Wacom drive that listed my graphics tablet model as being supported. In my case, that driver was WacomTablet_6.3.37-3.dmg. 

First I completely uninstalled and deleted all of the previous drivers that did not support my tablet, then restarted my Mac to make sure I had a clean start.

I ran the above driver installer, which said that Rosetta had to be installed first to make software written for Intel Macs work with Apple Silicon computers. I had spoken to Apple previously and they said that should be fine because Rosetta acts as a bridge between some Intel and Apple silicon software. The Wacom install process asked me if I wanted to install Rosetta NOW, and I clicked Yes. After Rosetta was done installing, the Wacom software continued to load the driver.

It is vital to make sure Apple Privacy and Security Permissions are set to allow all the associated Wacom software to access the keyboard, etc. I looked at all the Privacy & Security categories and made sure WACOM software was enabled in any category where Wacom software showed up in the list. Once all Wacom permissions were turned on, I restarted my Mac. My tablet was unplugged this entire time.

After my Mac was fully restarted, I THEN plugged in my Wacom Intuos 4 tablet to the USB-C port, and all was working properly. The driver and tablet settings are also available from System Preferences if you want to change any of the default tablet settings. 

It took me much of the day to get it working. Hopefully, if anyone else is having similar issues installing an older Wacom Tablet on a Mac with Apple Silicon, this will help guide you. Maybe most people have newer tablets that work with Wacom's latest drivers (written specifically for Apple Silicon Macs), without requiring these steps, but if not, it's worth a try. Best of luck!

Hey Ldina, thank you so much for your very detailed post!

I also have  and Intuos PTK 640 + macbook pro under Sequoia 15.1. The  tablet then does NOT wok and i am getting crazy !!

I am not a mac expert,  so i am afraid when i read your post "The Wacom install process asked me if I wanted to install Rosetta NOW, and I clicked Yes."

What does it mean? You go somehow backward in terms of Mac OS system??

Thank you for your answer and i am now trying to find WacomTablet_6.3.37-3.dmg.

But still afraid with clicking YES to ROSETTA 

[Ldina]

6 hours ago, Suny56 said:

I am not a mac expert,  so i am afraid when i read your post "The Wacom install process asked me if I wanted to install Rosetta NOW, and I clicked Yes."

What does it mean? You go somehow backward in terms of Mac OS system??

Thank you for your answer and i am now trying to find WacomTablet_6.3.37-3.dmg.

But still afraid with clicking YES to ROSETTA 

Here's the link to the Wacom driver that supports the PTK-640 (Intuos 4 USB tablet). Download the same driver I did because you have the same tablet and the same OS. I assume you are using a Mac with Apple M-series processor.  https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support/product-support/drivers

Follow my previous instructions EXACTLY. You need to remove all the previous Wacom drivers before installing 6.3.37-3. Also restart your computer after Uninstalling the old drivers and before installing your new one.

When launching the 6.3.37-3.dmg installer, it told me it could not install without first installing Rosetta. So, I simply clicked the Rosetta link in their installation menu, which first installed Rosetta. Once Rosetta was finished installing, the Wacom installer continued installing their driver automatically. I did check with Apple before installing Rosetta and they said this should be okay. It was and worked fine for me. The same procedure should work for you too.

Hope this answers your questions. (I'm not a Mac expert either!)

EDIT: I did NOT go backwards to an earlier OS with my MacBook Pro. My new M4 Mac came with Sequoia installed and that's what I'm using. The WACOM driver that supports our Intuos 4 PTK-640 was written for INTEL Macs and was never updated to work with Apple Silicon Macs (as I understand it). So, Rosetta is a bridge that allows this Intel Mac driver to work on Apple Silicon Macs. Rosetta acts as a translator that allows this old driver to still work on Apple Silicon. That's the best I can explain it, and my knowledge on the subject isn't very deep. All I know is that it worked!

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Suny56 said:

But still afraid with clicking YES to ROSETTA 

If you do not know what it is or what it does, you can refer to https://support.apple.com/en-us/102527 for what Apple says about it.

[Ldina]

38 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If you do not know what it is or what it does, you can refer to https://support.apple.com/en-us/102527 for what Apple says about it.

Thanks, RCR. Nice to see that confirmation of what the Apple tech told me. 👍

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, Ldina said:

Nice to see that confirmation of what the Apple tech told me. 👍

FWIW, Rosetta for Silicon Macs is just a so-called "faceless" app that is not installed by default but can be installed if needed. So for instance installers written for Intel Macs won't work without it. As the Apple support page mentions, it also is useful for "universal" apps like AP that can't run plugins written for Intel Macs unless AP is opened using the "Open in Rosetta" option.

There are a few topics about using that workaround for some PhotoShop plugins that won't otherwise work on Silicon Macs.

[MR ELFIE]

I got the PTZ-630 tablet working but the the pencil wont do the Click "RETURN" function. IT clicks but does not function a RETURN button.

Any suggestions?

[GFS]

On 11/23/2024 at 11:38 PM, Ldina said:

and wanted to explain what I did, in case others have this issue

Ldina,

thanks so much for taking the time to summarise your findings.  I’m retired now and rather sadly my tablet (PTK-640) has been sitting idle for quite a while.  Now it’s New Year and my wife asks me to make her a NewYear best-wishes card for sending to clients and … oh dear … how do I do this again??? Apparently, 40 years as an adv-still-life photographer just idly drifts away.  But I’m grumpy, so I decided to give it a go and thanks to your post, it wasn’t too hard. 😊

I had to remove Wacom files manually from the System/User Libraries.  The Wacom Tablet Utility’s 'Remove' option told fibs about being successful.  Then I tried to import my Wacom settings/prefs from my sooooo very carefully backed-up copies.  It was confusing because I got 2 messages in the Wacom Tablet Utility.  1st said error, 2nd (below) said success.  I tried this 2 or 3 times and it didn’t help.  I also had a slightly worrying issue, that the Options button in the Wacom settings/prefs was crashing: 'LegacyLoader' (as I could see in Activity Monitor).  So I did a Restart and on an old Mac, I made a new backup of the Wacom settings/prefs and copied it onto my M Mac and now Restore gave me *2* success messages.  So WE NEED BOTH!!  This suggests to me that it was a permissions issue, probably down to the somewhat complex Settings for Privacy & Security.

Result - Whooopee!!  I have my absurdly complex Wacom settings/prefs all back were they belong … built, excessively obsessively, over ~13 years. 😊

Thanks again!

[Ldina]

19 minutes ago, GFS said:

Result - Whooopee!!  I have my absurdly complex Wacom settings/prefs all back were they belong … built, excessively obsessively, over ~13 years. 😊

Thanks again!

I'm glad it worked. Yes, the Wacom setup and removal process was...convoluted...to say the least. It took me a number of tries too and I had to be CERTAIN there were no remaining vestiges of the Wacom Tablet software on my Mac before it worked. I forget exactly what I had to do, but it sounds like what you experienced. Anyway, Glad it is working for you and that my post helped. 😁

 

[stoem]

I just wanted to add that I too managed to get an old Wacom Intuos pen tablet CTL-480 working on a brand new Mac Mini M4 Pro running Sequoia.

Thanks to the steps provided above I firstly removed all existing Wacom software and drivers, googled and found WacomTablet_6.3.37-3.dmg and installed it. I then rebooted (after granting some necessary permissions) and this was crucial because one particular system extension wouldn't otherwise.

After that the tablet reacted to the pen pressure but not pen movements. It was not until I enabled System Settings > Accessibility > WacomTouchDriver & WacomTabletDriver and rebooted again that the tablet worked. 

Up and running now.

 

Edited January 16 by stoem

[GFS]

14 hours ago, stoem said:

It was not until I enabled System Settings > Accessibility > WacomTouchDriver & WacomTabletDriver and rebooted again that the tablet worked. 

Just in case someone is trying and not finding these settings... they're in:

System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility > WacomTouchDriver & WacomTabletDriver.

Glad you got it working.  Another ✅ to add to the list. 😊

[denhol]

Thanks for the description, but my Intuos 3 tablet was not detected on MAC OS 15.3.

I found the Install-Wacom-Tablet-6.3.15-3-patched driver on the Internet, which I have been using for 5 years on my old I Mac. And it also worked on MAC OS 15.3. The tablet was detected and works great.

Maybe this will help someone.

[amergin]

For those of you who are not into the technical details there is an app on the app store "Connect My Tablet" which will walk you through all the steps one by one. It costs €13 which might seem unfair for an instruction manual, but it works.

[delbot]

On 3/5/2025 at 4:28 PM, amergin said:

For those of you who are not into the technical details there is an app on the app store "Connect My Tablet" which will walk you through all the steps one by one. It costs €13 which might seem unfair for an instruction manual, but it works.

i concur.. 

good further info on the reddits