Won’t run, and crashes the editor
If trying to run Bridge from UE5 on Mac results in a) Bridge not starting and b) UE5 crashing, it’s the same issue Unreal 5 has always had: the node-bifrost.app included in UE5 doesn’t run in contemporary versions of OSX. The Mac used to popup an error dialog saying “node-bifrost is damaged and can’t be opened” but now (possibly since the recent OSX update) it no longer even does that, and either way Unreal copes with it not running by crashing to the desktop.
Previously you could just google the error message to find the solution, but if you haven’t seen it before (or like me, you just couldn’t remember it) you don’t have a lot to go on. I found the name of the .app in the debugger, which was enough to remind me.
Anyway – the solution is simple: Quixel have uploaded a newer version of the .app which you can download from this thread.
Update: Quixel have closed their forums so the thread is no longer accessible. You can see it via google cache, but in case the .app is also deleted later I’ve posted a copy here – replace the one in UnrealEngine/Engine/Plugins/Bridge/ThirdParty/Mac with it, then right-click and select ‘Open’ to let OSX know it’s safe.
Add button doesn’t do anything
Short version: if you download an asset, hit ‘add’, and nothing happens… just drag and drop the asset into the editor instead.
I have no idea what the issue is here. There is a lot of talk about very similar issues on the web, mostly around the fact that the Bridge you can download from Quixel is capable of exporting to multiple other apps, where the one built into UE5 can (not unreasonably) only export to UE5, and if you have left over config files from a full install trying to direct to a non-UE5 app that will cause problems… but that wasn’t the case for me. I’ve never used Bridge outside UE5. I deleted any files I could find on the hard drive relating to Bridge, and it didn’t solve the problem. But given drag and drop works, none of that seems relevant anyway. *shrug*