Problem 1 — The AppImage will not run

Work through these general Linux checks in order; they resolve the great majority of AppImage no-start cases for any application, including PlotJuggler:

1. Executable permission. A downloaded AppImage is not executable until you set the bit: chmod +x PlotJuggler-4.0.0-x86_64.AppImage, then run it as ./PlotJuggler-4.0.0-x86_64.AppImage. Launching from a terminal (rather than double-clicking) also shows any message the program prints.
2. glibc version. The PJ4 AppImage requires glibc 2.35 or newer — Ubuntu 22.04 or later, or an equivalent distribution. On an older system the file can be perfectly downloaded and still be unable to run. Check with ldd --version. If your glibc is older, your realistic options are a newer system, the PJ3 AppImage, or building from source — not re-downloading the same file.
3. Wrong architecture. PJ4 4.0.0 ships an x86_64 AppImage only; there is no PJ4 aarch64 AppImage. On ARM hardware, the PJ3 line still provides an aarch64 AppImage.
4. Corrupted download. Compare the file’s SHA-256 with the GitHub digest listed on the Download page (sha256sum <file>). A mismatch means download again.
5. General AppImage runtime issues. As general Linux guidance, some minimal systems lack the FUSE support AppImages traditionally use; running the AppImage from a terminal will surface this class of problem, and distribution documentation covers enabling it. We flag this as general guidance, not a PlotJuggler-specific error.

Full AppImage steps are in the Ubuntu install guide.

Problem 2 — PJ4 vs PJ3 package confusion

Two generations are installable at once, and their names are similar enough to cause real confusion:

Decide the line first — PJ4 for the current app, PJ3 for ROS — then use only the names and files for that line. The apt repository guide covers the PJ4 channel in detail.

Problem 3 — The ROS package is not found

If sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-plotjuggler-ros cannot locate the package:

1. Check the distribution name. The ROS Index lists plotjuggler_ros 2.3.1 for humble, jazzy, kilted, lyrical and rolling. A distribution outside that list has no documented apt package.
2. Check $ROS_DISTRO is actually set. In a fresh terminal where you have not sourced your ROS setup, the variable can be empty, producing a package name that cannot exist. Echo it: echo $ROS_DISTRO — or type the full name, e.g. ros-humble-plotjuggler-ros.
3. Update package lists with sudo apt update after sourcing ROS, then retry.
4. Confirm your ROS apt source is configured — the PlotJuggler ROS package comes from the ROS package infrastructure, so a machine without the ROS repository set up cannot see it.

The full walkthrough is the ROS 2 install guide.

Problem 4 — Windows: installed, but where?

The PJ4 Windows installer installs for the current user, with no administrator rights needed. Two confusions follow from that. First, readers who expect a system-wide install look in the wrong places or under a different Windows user account — check under the account you installed with, in Windows Settings → Apps. Second, readers who cancelled a UAC prompt out of habit sometimes assume the install failed; PJ4 does not require elevation, so simply run the installer again and complete it. If the program truly is absent afterwards, re-run the installer from the official file on the Download page and watch it finish — and verify the SHA-256 first if the file came from anywhere else.

When to reinstall — and when not to

Reinstalling helps when the wrong file or package was installed (Problem 2) or a download is corrupt (checksum mismatch). It does not help when the underlying requirement is missing — an old glibc, an unlisted ROS distribution, or a Mac DMG that does not exist for the version you want (see the macOS guide). Match the problem to the checks above first; it is faster than reinstalling on hope.

Option A — The one-liner

The PJ4 documentation provides an install script that sets up the repository and key for you:

curl -fsSL https://apt.plotjuggler.io/pj4_install.sh | sudo sh

After it finishes, install the package itself if the script has not already done so in your case, and verify the install:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install plotjuggler4

Note the package name carefully: it is plotjuggler4, with the 4. That is deliberate — it keeps the PJ4 line distinct from PJ3 packages such as the ROS packages described in our ROS 2 guide. Confusing those names is a common setup error; our troubleshooting guide covers it.

Option B — Manual keyring and source setup

If you prefer to see every change made to your system — a reasonable preference — the PJ4 documentation describes the manual equivalent:

1. Download the repository keyring from https://apt.plotjuggler.io/plotjuggler-archive-keyring.asc.
2. Install it as /etc/apt/keyrings/plotjuggler.asc, the path the source entry below references.
3. Add this source line to your apt sources:

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/plotjuggler.asc] https://apt.plotjuggler.io stable main

1. Refresh the package lists: sudo apt update
2. Install the package: sudo apt install plotjuggler4

The signed-by option scopes the key to this repository only, which is the modern, safer way to add a third-party apt source — the key is not trusted for other repositories.

Staying updated

This is the real reason to use the repository. Once it is configured, future PlotJuggler 4 releases arrive through your normal update flow:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

No re-downloading installers, no checking release pages. Compare that with the single-release .deb from GitHub Releases — sudo apt install ./plotjuggler4_<version>_amd64.deb — which installs exactly one version and never updates itself. The .deb files and AppImage are linked from the Download page if you prefer that route.

Checking what you have

• apt-cache policy plotjuggler4 shows the installed version and the candidate the repository offers — the quickest way to confirm the repository is active.
• If sudo apt install plotjuggler4 reports that the package cannot be located, the source was not added or the update step did not run — redo the steps above in order, and confirm your system is Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12+, the versions the PJ4 guidance covers.
• Remember the line split: this repository is a PJ4 channel. It does not provide PJ3, and it is not the channel ROS users should use for the ROS plugin packages.

Removing the repository

If you ever want to undo the setup, remove the plotjuggler4 package with apt, delete the source entry you added, and delete /etc/apt/keyrings/plotjuggler.asc. Nothing else on the system depends on them.

Next: launch PlotJuggler 4, open a CSV, MCAP or ULog file, and confirm plotting works. Then explore the other guides from the Install hub.

The facts, in one place

• PlotJuggler 4.0.0 (21 September 2026) ships three binaries: a Windows installer, a Linux AppImage and a Linux .deb. No macOS .dmg is among them, and the PJ4 preview builds (3.999.x) shipped no macOS binary either.
• The last releases with macOS binaries were PJ3 3.16.0 (10 March 2026), 3.15.0 and 3.14.4, which included macOS-arm64.dmg and macOS-x64.dmg builds.
• PJ3 3.17.x — including the current PJ3 release, 3.17.2 — ships no macOS dmg.
• The PJ4 documentation points macOS users to building from source (the repository’s docs/BUILDING.md).

Option 1 — Use the PJ3 3.16.0 native builds

If you need a native Mac app today and the PJ3 feature set is enough — time-series plotting, CSV and ULog files, Lua custom functions, layouts — the 3.16.0 DMGs are the last official native builds. Our Pretty Links shortcut go/pj3-mac takes you to the official 3.16.0 release page on GitHub, which lists both builds:

1. Open the PJ3 3.16.0 release page.
2. Download PlotJuggler-3.16.0-macOS-arm64.dmg on an Apple Silicon Mac, or PlotJuggler-3.16.0-macOS-x64.dmg on an Intel Mac.
3. Open the .dmg and install the application as you would any other Mac app, then launch it and load a test CSV or ULog file.

Be clear about the trade-off: 3.16.0 is two PJ3 releases behind 3.17.2 and a full generation behind PJ4. You get a genuine, official native binary — but not the current version, and not PJ4 features such as video, 3D, MCAP/Parquet support or Python scripting.

Option 2 — Build PlotJuggler from source

Building from source is the documented route to a current PlotJuggler on macOS. The project repository (now under the PlotJuggler GitHub organisation) carries build instructions in docs/BUILDING.md for the PJ4 line, and COMPILE.md/BUILDING.md in the PJ3 era. Expect a developer workflow: clone the repository, install its build dependencies as the document specifies, configure and compile. If you have never built a Qt/C++ application before, allow real time for the first build — this is a legitimate option, but it is not a two-minute install, and we will not pretend otherwise.

What NOT to trust

• Random “PlotJuggler for Mac” DMG sites. If a site offers a “PlotJuggler 4 for macOS” download, it cannot be an official binary — none exists. Treat unofficial DMGs of unknown origin as a security risk and do not install them.
• Sites claiming an official Mac App Store or portable Mac version. No such official channel is documented by the project.
• Version confusion. A page offering “the latest PlotJuggler for Mac, v3.17.2” is wrong on its face: 3.17.2 has no macOS asset. The last version with one is 3.16.0.
• Our own mirror warning: this site previously listed a macOS download of unverified origin; it has been removed from the Download page for exactly this reason.

A note on why this matters here specifically: the PlotJuggler author has publicly warned users about impersonation sites. The safest habit on every platform — and the one this site now follows — is official GitHub files as the primary channel, with checksums where GitHub publishes them. The Windows guide and Ubuntu guide show what a normal, verifiable install looks like when official binaries do exist.

So what should a Mac user actually do?

1. Need PlotJuggler occasionally for files? Install the official PJ3 3.16.0 DMG for your chip via go/pj3-mac.
2. Need current features? Build from source following the repository’s BUILDING.md, or run the Linux version on a Linux machine/VM you control.
3. Either way, bookmark the Download page — if an official PJ4 macOS binary ever ships, it will appear in the GitHub release asset list there first.

Before you start

• A working ROS 2 installation, with your ROS environment sourced in the terminal you will use.
• Your ROS distribution name — this guide uses $ROS_DISTRO, which your sourced ROS setup sets automatically.
• Ubuntu package lists updated recently (sudo apt update).

Step 1 — Install the ROS package

The ROS Index lists the plotjuggler_ros package at version 2.3.1. Install it with:

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-plotjuggler-ros

If you prefer to spell the distribution out, the same command for the two most common cases is:

sudo apt install ros-humble-plotjuggler-ros
sudo apt install ros-jazzy-plotjuggler-ros

Use only the line matching your installed distribution. Mixing packages across ROS distributions is the most common cause of the “package not found” and dependency problems covered in our install troubleshooting guide.

Step 2 — Launch PlotJuggler

In a terminal with your ROS environment sourced, launch with:

ros2 run plotjuggler plotjuggler

The executable comes from the core plotjuggler package (the PJ3 application, whose last release is 3.17.2), while plotjuggler_ros provides the ROS integration: topic subscription, rosbag and rosbag2/MCAP loading through the ROS plugin set. For comparison, the ROS 1 equivalent launch command in the PJ3 documentation is rosrun plotjuggler plotjuggler.

Which ROS distributions are supported?

The ROS Index listing for plotjuggler_ros 2.3.1 names these distributions: humble, jazzy, kilted, lyrical and rolling. If your distribution is not in that list, the apt package described above is not the documented route for you — check the ROS Index page for the package before trying workarounds, because availability beyond the index listing is not something we can verify.

One version note matters here: the plugins documentation states that from the v2.3 series onward, the ROS plugins line supports ROS 2 only. ROS 1 support is frozen in older versions. So a modern ROS 2 install gets the maintained plugin line, while ROS 1 users are on a legacy branch by design, not by mistake.

Alternative — the snap, with limitations

The PJ3 documentation also recommends the snap on Ubuntu, sudo snap install plotjuggler, “to ROS users too”, while noting that the snap works with ROS 2 with some limitations. A separate plotjuggler-ros snap also exists. The snap is quick for evaluating PlotJuggler or plotting files, but for day-to-day ROS 2 topic and bag work, the apt package above keeps PlotJuggler inside the same environment as the rest of your ROS tools, which is why this guide leads with it. The plain-Ubuntu snap details are also covered in the Ubuntu install guide.

Alternative — build from source

If you need to modify the plugins or track development, the documented source route is to clone PlotJuggler/plotjuggler_msgs, the main PlotJuggler repository (now under the PlotJuggler GitHub organisation) and PlotJuggler/plotjuggler-ros-plugins into a workspace, then run rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y and colcon build. For most users the apt package is faster and easier to keep updated.

First checks after installing

1. Launch with ros2 run plotjuggler plotjuggler and confirm the main window opens.
2. Load a rosbag or MCAP file you trust and confirm its topics appear.
3. If you stream live data, start your publisher first, then connect PlotJuggler to the topic stream.

If the package was not found or the launch fails, the ROS section of the install troubleshooting guide works through the distribution-name checks step by step.

PlotJuggler 4 on Ubuntu — AppImage

The AppImage is the simplest PJ4 option and works on any suitable Linux distribution, not just Ubuntu. It requires glibc 2.35 or newer — Ubuntu 22.04 or later, or an equivalent distribution.

1. Download PlotJuggler-4.0.0-x86_64.AppImage (145,070,584 bytes) from the official release via the Download page, where the GitHub SHA-256 for the file is also listed.
2. Open a terminal in the download folder and make the file executable:

chmod +x PlotJuggler-4.0.0-x86_64.AppImage

1. Run it: ./PlotJuggler-4.0.0-x86_64.AppImage
2. Keep the file somewhere permanent (for example ~/Applications) — an AppImage is the program itself, not an installer, so deleting the file deletes the app.

If the AppImage does not start, work through the checks in our install troubleshooting guide — the usual causes are the executable permission and a glibc version that is too old.

PlotJuggler 4 on Ubuntu — single .deb

For a traditional package install of one specific release, download plotjuggler4_4.0.0-1_amd64.deb (109,778,188 bytes) from the official release and install it with apt so dependencies are resolved:

sudo apt install ./plotjuggler4_4.0.0-1_amd64.deb

A single .deb does not update itself. If you want future PJ4 releases to arrive through your normal system upgrades, use the apt repository instead — the dedicated guide is PlotJuggler 4 apt repository: install and stay updated, and it is the method the PJ4 documentation recommends for Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+.

PlotJuggler 3 on Ubuntu — snap (PJ3-recommended)

Switching lines now: everything below is PJ3, currently 3.17.2. The PJ3 documentation recommends the snap on Ubuntu, including for ROS users:

sudo snap install plotjuggler

The PJ3 documentation notes that the snap works with ROS 2 with some limitations. If you hit those limitations in a ROS workflow, the apt ROS packages in our ROS 2 install guide are the alternative.

PlotJuggler 3 on Ubuntu — .deb packages

PJ3 also ships distribution-specific .deb files on its GitHub release: for Ubuntu 24.04, plotjuggler_3.17.2_amd64_24.04.deb, plus builds for Debian bookworm and Debian trixie. All three are linked, with their GitHub SHA-256 values, from the Download page. Install the one matching your system the same way as above:

sudo apt install ./plotjuggler_3.17.2_amd64_24.04.deb

PJ3 additionally provides an aarch64 AppImage — something PJ4 4.0.0 does not ship — which matters for ARM single-board computers. Use the same chmod +x and run steps described for the PJ4 AppImage.

Which Ubuntu option should you choose?

Whichever route you took, launch PlotJuggler once and load a small CSV or log file to confirm plotting works before you rely on it for real data.

What you are installing

PlotJuggler 4.0.0 was released on 21 September 2026. The Windows asset is a single installer, PlotJuggler-4.0.0-Windows-x64.exe (123,170,335 bytes). According to the PJ4 documentation, it installs for the current user and no administrator rights are needed. There is no portable Windows .zip in the 4.0.0 release, and no separate 32-bit build — the installer is x64 only. PlotJuggler is open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0) and is maintained by Davide Faconti.

Step 1 — Download the PJ4 installer

1. Open the Download page and use the PJ4 Windows button, which links directly to the official file PlotJuggler-4.0.0-Windows-x64.exe on GitHub Releases.
2. Save the file to a folder you can find again, such as your Downloads folder.
3. Do not rename the file before verifying it — the checksum step below compares the file exactly as downloaded.

Step 2 — Verify the checksum (recommended)

GitHub publishes a SHA-256 digest for every release asset, and the Download page reproduces the full hash table. For PJ4 4.0.0 Windows, the expected SHA-256 begins 701b3deb and ends a407. Verifying takes under a minute:

1. Open PowerShell in the folder containing the downloaded file.
2. Run: Get-FileHash .\PlotJuggler-4.0.0-Windows-x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256
3. Compare the full output character by character with the value in the hash table on the Download page. If it differs, delete the file and download it again — do not run it.

Step 3 — Run the installer

1. Double-click PlotJuggler-4.0.0-Windows-x64.exe.
2. Because the install is per-user, you should not be asked for an administrator password. If your workplace machine blocks per-user installers by policy, that is a local IT restriction, not a PlotJuggler requirement.
3. Follow the installer prompts and accept the default install location unless you have a specific reason to change it.
4. Finish the wizard, leaving any “launch” option selected if offered.

Step 4 — First launch

On first launch you should see the PlotJuggler 4 main window: an empty plotting area ready for data. Good first checks are to open the application menus, confirm the Extensions Marketplace entry is present (File → Marketplace in PJ4), and load a small CSV file by dragging it into the window to confirm the program reads data correctly. PJ4 supports CSV, MCAP, Parquet, PX4 ULog and other formats, plus live streams such as ROS 2, MQTT, WebSocket and UDP. If the window opens and a test file plots, the installation is complete.

Because the install is per-user, PlotJuggler is installed under your own user account rather than system-wide. It will not appear for other user accounts on the same machine, and removing it is done from your own account through Windows Settings → Apps. Our install troubleshooting guide covers the “I installed it but cannot find it” case in more detail.

Installing PJ3 on Windows instead

If a tutorial, course or ROS workflow explicitly assumes PlotJuggler 3, install the PJ3 line instead. The last PJ3 release is 3.17.2 (11 May 2026), with the Windows asset PlotJuggler-3.17.2-Windows-x64.exe (84,425,721 bytes), also linked from the Download page with its GitHub SHA-256. The steps are the same: download from the official release, verify the checksum, run the installer. Keep the two lines separate in your mind — PJ4 guides, layouts and marketplace extensions should not be assumed to apply unchanged to PJ3, and vice versa.

Next steps

• Browse all platform guides on the Install hub.
• Using Ubuntu as well? Follow the Ubuntu install guide.
• Something failed? Work through the install troubleshooting guide before reinstalling.