I have not used JOdin, but it cannot be much different from the other methods !
Simplest things first USB cable; you will know you need a data cable rather than a charging cable. Avoid any USB hubs.
USB ports within the Mac - does the machine manual indicate if some ports are less optimally connected. On a PC or laptop sometimes the back ports are connected directly to the motherboard and the front ports are effectively off an internal hub. Speculating USB 1, 2, 3 should be compatible (within limits), but it is unknown to me why sometimes a USB combination just won’t work. Maybe Samsung introduce some unknown sensitivity?
Maybe that version of JOdin won’t work on your Mac. Speculating, it may be difficult to juggle the correct version of Java to go with your JOdin download?
This document gives the instructions to install Heimdall on OSX https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Benjamin-Dobell/Heimdall/master/OSX/README.txt it is quite simple:
These instructions are for OS X operating systems.
Installing Heimdall and Heimdall Frontend Binaries:
- Run “Heimdall Suite.pkg” and follow the instructions.
- Reboot your system.
- Done
This is the source: https://github.com/Benjamin-Dobell/Heimdall – I know, too much to read – but as detailed there the “packaged” version is expected to be available through Glass Echidna. This may not be a very up to date way to proceed, but it may well work with an older device.