diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 2f50c9446922e19a97aa6c790155003d6c835ff0..0605a361b9a9c102946713db32d342b8750ca6a9 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -106,11 +106,14 @@ include (conan) # self-provided in 'cmake' directory
 #
 # download and build all dependencies
 message (STATUS "Installing dependencies from Conan (this may take some time)...")
+if(NOT APPLE)
+  set(SETTINGS compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11) # not available on MacOS
+endif()
 conan_cmake_run (CONANFILE conanfile.txt
                  BASIC_SETUP CMAKE_TARGETS
                  BUILD missing
                  BUILD_TYPE "Release"
-                 SETTINGS compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11)
+                 SETTINGS ${SETTINGS})
 #
 # add cnpy temporarily. As long as SaveBoostHistogram does not save to parquet directly
 #