Use PiShrink in macOS with Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3...

[xavi-burgos99]

Use PiShrink on Apple Silicon macOS (via Docker Desktop)

Prerequisite

• Docker Desktop must be installed and running.

Install PiShrink with Docker

1. Enter your PiShrink directory

cd ~/PiShrink/

Note

I recommend using this directory for permissions and mounting simplicity.

2. Build the Docker image

docker build -t pishrink .

3. Add a pishrink shortcut to your shell

sudo nano ~/.zshrc

Add this at the end:

# pishrink shortcut
pishrink() {
  docker run --rm --platform linux/arm64 --privileged \
    -v "$PWD":/workdir \
    pishrink "$@"
}

4. Reload your shell

source ~/.zshrc

Shrink your SD-Card Image

1. List external physical disks to identify your SD-card (e.g. /dev/rdisk4)

diskutil list external physical

2. Unmount the SD-card

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/rdisk4

Note

Replace /dev/rdisk4 with the location of your disk.

3. Create a raw image of the SD-card

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk4 bs=4m status=progress of="raspi.img"

Warning

I recommend to copy the image to the internal storage of the mac.

Tip

Using rdisk instead of disk, and bs=4m to copy the image fastly. In my case, 64GB in ~25 minutes.

4. Eject the SD-card

sync && diskutil eject /dev/rdisk4

5. Adjust permissions on the image

sudo chmod 777 raspi.img

6. Run PiShrink to compress

pishrink -zv raspi.img raspi.shrink.img

Feel free to open a discussion if you have suggestions or issues.

[oixtron]

Thanks. Using that function instead of an alias for .zshrc finally fixed the "... is not a file" issue for me.

[jhubert]

This worked great for me. Thank you!

[jozefcipa]

Thanks, this worked well 🎉

[zamirkhan]

Thanks for this! When I run the pishrink command on a file that is 256GB, how long should it be until I see any sort of logs? I've a few minutes, but don't see any yet and I'm unsure if it's doing work or stalled.

[Drewsif]

Thanks for this! When I run the pishrink command on a file that is 256GB, how long should it be until I see any sort of logs? I've a few minutes, but don't see any yet and I'm unsure if it's doing work or stalled.

You should see some output right away. If you don't do an in place shrink and specify a new file to write to, it will copy the file which will take time on something that large. The most up to date directions for using docker are also here https://github.com/Drewsif/PiShrink?tab=readme-ov-file#macos-instructions