diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index ea3bea56..956f3202 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -18,7 +18,11 @@ libgmodule_dep = dependency('gmodule-2.0')
 
 libcanberra_dep = dependency('libcanberra', version: '>= 0.22',
                              required: get_option('libcanberra'))
-dbus_glib_dep = dependency('dbus-glib-1', required: get_option('dbus'))
+dbus_required = get_option('dbus')
+if host_machine.system() == 'darwin' and dbus_required.auto()
+  dbus_required = false
+endif
+dbus_glib_dep = dependency('dbus-glib-1', required: dbus_required)
 
 global_deps = []
 if cc.get_id() == 'msvc'