Mac Guide

How to Export Photos to WebP Directly from Lightroom Classic (Mac Guide)

I did some digging into why the WebP plugin often throws a 'cwebp not found' error on macOS, and decided to share the solution here. To save you the hassle of trial and error, I’ve put together this quick guide to get everything working smoothly on your Mac.

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Important Notice: The steps below involve using Terminal commands (macOS). Please follow the instructions very carefully. By proceeding, you agree that you are doing this at your own risk. The author assumes no liability for any damage or software conflicts.

📁 Step 1: Downloading the Necessary Files (Original Sources)

We will need two free files: the plugin itself and the official encoder from Google.

1. WebP Export Plugin (by Marco De Maio)

   • Source: Author's Official Website

   • Scroll down to the Download section and download the ZIP archive with the plugin (it will contain a .lrplugin folder).

2. Official cwebp Encoder (by Google)

   • Source: Google WebP Libraries Repository

   • Find the stable Mac version in the list. Download libwebp-X.X.X-mac-arm64.tar.gz if you have an Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3), or libwebp-X.X.X-mac-x86-64.tar.gz if you have an older Intel Mac.

🛠️ Step 2: Preparing the Encoder

1. Extract the downloaded Google archive.

2. Open the extracted folder, find the bin folder, and copy only one file from it – cwebp.

3. Create a new folder in your Documents folder (for example, Documents/WebP/) and paste the cwebp file there. Important: the folder path must contain only English letters, with no spaces!

🔑 Step 3: The Secret macOS Fix (Bypassing Gatekeeper)

Note: Apple's security system will block this file from running because it was downloaded from the internet. We need to manually remove it from quarantine using Terminal.

1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac (you can find it via Spotlight Search).

2. Type the following command, making sure to add a single space at the end, but do not press Enter yet: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine

3. Drag and drop your cwebp file from Finder directly into the Terminal window. The Terminal will automatically fill in the correct path to the file.

4. Press Enter. If no error message appears, the fix was applied successfully!

🧩 Step 4: Installing the Plugin in Lightroom Classic

1. Extract the archive with Marco De Maio's plugin. Move the .lrplugin folder to a safe place (e.g., next to your new WebP folder in Documents).

2. Open Lightroom Classic.

3. In the top menu, select File -> Plug-in Manager.

4. Click Add in the bottom left corner and select your .lrplugin folder. The plugin will appear in the list.

⚙️ Step 5: The Perfect Export Settings

Unlike Windows, Lightroom on macOS requires the exact, absolute path to the encoder.

1. Select your photos and click Export.

2. At the very top of the window, in the Export To drop-down menu, select the new plugin – WebP.

3. Scroll down to the WebP section.

4. Critically important: In the Path to cwebp field, you must provide the exact path to your file. Click "Choose" or "Browse" and select the cwebp file located in your Documents/WebP/ folder.

5. Quality: Set it to 75–80. The file size will be perfect for websites (150–300 KB for a photo 1200px wide).

6. Click Export and you're all set!