qiime2-amplicon-2026.1 install fails using conda on M2 silicon

Technical Support
1

failing using conda 26.1.1 on apple M2 silicon using the command:

CONDA_SUBDIR=osx-64 conda env create \
--name qiime2-amplicon-2026.1 \
--file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qiime2/distributions/refs/heads/dev/2026.1/amplicon/released/qiime2-amplicon-macos-latest-conda.yml
conda activate qiime2-amplicon-2026.1

it returns:

$ CONDA_SUBDIR=osx-64 conda env create \

>   --name qiime2-amplicon-2026.1 \

>   --file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qiime2/distributions/refs/heads/dev/2026.1/amplicon/released/qiime2-amplicon-macos-latest-conda.yml

conda activate qiime2-amplicon-2026.1

Channels:

 - conda-forge

 - bioconda

 - 


 - defaults

Platform: osx-64

Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): done

Solving environment: done



Downloading and Extracting Packages:



Preparing transaction: done

Verifying transaction: done

Executing transaction: done

ERROR conda.core.link:_execute(1033): An error occurred while installing package 'bioconda::bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-1.2.11-r43hdfd78af_1'.

Rolling back transaction: done



LinkError: post-link script failed for package bioconda::bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-1.2.11-r43hdfd78af_1

location of failed script: /opt/miniconda3/envs/qiime2-amplicon-2026.1/bin/.bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-post-link.sh

==> script messages <==

<None>

==> script output <==

stdout: 

stderr: 

return code: 1



()
2

Hey @splaisan,

We have seen a few cases of this popping up since the 2026.1 release - it appears as though there is some compatibility issue between the latest version of conda (26.1.1) and our 2026.1 release environment files. We've made some pretty substantial updates to our environment files in preparation for the 2026.4 release which we are hoping will resolve this issue but in the meantime our current workaround/recommendation is to downgrade to conda 25.11.1, which is the latest version without any compatibility issues. You can roll back your version of conda with the following command:

conda install -c conda-forge conda=25.11.1

Once that's been downgraded, you should be able to re-install QIIME 2 2026.1 without any issues.

Cheers :lizard:

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