Ok, I was able to track down another external drive I was free to experiment with.

I was first able to replicate the issue by formatting the drive as ExFAT, installing the standalone Factorio.app, and getting the JSON errror.

I then formatted to HFS+ ("Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" in Disk Utility ...

Eugene: Good thoughts. Looks like the drive is formatted as ExFAT. So not Apple native.

Nidan: That was my guess as well, and there is that actual json file you mention. But the __space-age__ and ._aquilo-tilesets.json parts of the failing path have me confused. They don't exist in my install that ...

I have some more data points on this.

I recently started getting this error on MacOS Steam, after having successfully played on MacOS steam many times. After a little head-scratching, I remembered I recently moved my Steam library to a separate volume (an external USB drive). I wondered if it were ...

I tried starting up a game with the preliminary 0.17 mod pack, but ran into an issue with power generation where "Wood Bricks cannot be smelted". FNEI still shows the Wood Bricks -> Charcoal recipe, my own crafting tab shows it (though not hand craftable, of course), but the furnace won't accept ...

I tried starting up a game with the preliminary 0.17 mod pack, but ran into an issue with power generation where "Wood Bricks cannot be smelted". FNEI still shows the Wood Bricks -> Charcoal recipe, my own crafting tab shows it (though not hand craftable, of course), but the furnace won't accept the ...