diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a0b69c9a1a..a26482faaa 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ ### Metadata
 
 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
-* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
+* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
 
 ### Misc
 
diff --git a/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py b/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py
index 3dc17bf593..10c7c43110 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py
@@ -4441,10 +4441,12 @@ def write_xattr(path, key, value):
             raise XAttrMetadataError(e.errno, e.strerror)
         return
 
-    # UNIX Method 1. Use xattrs/pyxattrs modules
+    # UNIX Method 1. Use os.setxattr/xattrs/pyxattrs modules
 
     setxattr = None
-    if getattr(xattr, '_yt_dlp__identifier', None) == 'pyxattr':
+    if callable(getattr(os, 'setxattr', None)):
+        setxattr = os.setxattr
+    elif getattr(xattr, '_yt_dlp__identifier', None) == 'pyxattr':
         # Unicode arguments are not supported in pyxattr until version 0.5.0
         # See https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5498
         if version_tuple(xattr.__version__) >= (0, 5, 0):