On modern Macs with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 chips), Wine runs through Rosetta 2 , which adds another translation layer. Performance becomes sluggish, and some users report that SAM fails to recognize running Steam processes because of architecture mismatches.
For users who trust the command line more than a GUI, you can bypass SAM entirely and use (the Steam Console Client) with Python scripts to manipulate achievements. This is essentially building your own command-line version of SAM. steam achievement manager mac
Because Steam Achievement Manager is a legacy x86 app, running it on a modern Mac involves two layers of translation: On modern Macs with Apple Silicon (M1, M2,
Never use SAM while playing a game on a VAC-secured server (like CS2 or TF2). This is essentially building your own command-line version
Historically, Mac users could rely on "Wine" wrappers or the built-in functionality of Steam Play to run Windows games. However, SAM is not a game; it is a utility that interacts with the Steam client. This distinction causes significant headaches for macOS users.
Sometimes a game fails to "pop" an achievement you clearly earned.