diff --git a/tinygrad/runtime/ops_metal.py b/tinygrad/runtime/ops_metal.py
index a828e74657..d0251324d4 100644
--- a/tinygrad/runtime/ops_metal.py
+++ b/tinygrad/runtime/ops_metal.py
@@ -198,7 +198,8 @@ class MetalAllocator(LRUAllocator[MetalDevice]):
     ret = msg("newBufferWithLength:options:", objc_id)(self.dev.sysdevice, ctypes.c_ulong(size), MTLResourceOptions.MTLResourceStorageModeShared)
     if ret.value is None: raise MemoryError(f"Metal OOM while allocating {size=}")
     return MetalBuffer(ret, size)
-  def _free(self, opaque:MetalBuffer, options): msg("release")(opaque.buf)
+  def _free(self, opaque:MetalBuffer, options):
+    if msg is not None and libobjc is not None: msg("release")(opaque.buf)
   def _transfer(self, dest:MetalBuffer, src:MetalBuffer, sz:int, src_dev:MetalDevice, dest_dev:MetalDevice):
     dest_dev.synchronize()
     src_command_buffer = msg("commandBuffer", objc_instance)(src_dev.mtl_queue)