hoakley Macs, Technology

Preference settings: where to find them in macOS Sierra (v2)

If you do have problems with getting Preference settings to stick, where do you look for the property list file containing them?

As a general principle:

  • Apple and App Store apps should now be accessed via ~/Library/Containers/[app signature]/Data/Library/Preferences, where [app signature] is something like com.corpname.appname
  • settings which apply to all users, particularly if they apply before a user logs in, are normally in /Library/Preferences
  • settings which apply to an individual user, only after they have logged in, are normally in ~/Library/Preferences (that’s the Library folder in your Home folder)
  • settings files should be named something like com.corpname.appname.plist, but many still aren’t.

If you’re in doubt, open the Preferences (or other) folder in which you suspect the file is stored, and order the files by time and date last changed, the newest at the top. Open the app/pane, make a change in the Preferences or other settings, and the property list should shoot to the top of the Finder window.

For some years now, preference files are handled in a deceptive way by macOS. If you try making manual changes to them, those changes are likely to get ignored and reset. Before making any changes to preference files, consult this article for the best solution.

The safest way is to use the command tool defaults in Terminal, with a command such as
defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.appvendor.appname.plist
where com.appvendor.appname.plist is the name of the preference file to be deleted, including the .plist extension. If you use this on preferences stored in the main /Library/Preferences, you’ll need to preface that command with sudo to obtain the necessary elevated privileges.

Here is a list of well-known preferences files, for macOS Sierra 10.12. These are essentially the same as in El Capitan, but Yosemite was slightly different, and earlier versions even more different.

Activity Monitor preferences ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ActivityMonitor.plist
Airport preferences /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
Ambient light sensor /Library/Preferences/com.apple.iokit.AmbientLightSensor.plist
App preference settings ~/Library/Preferences/[app signature].plist
App Store account settings ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.commerce.plist
App Store autoupdate settings /Library/Preferences/com.apple.commerce.plist
App Store settings ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.appstore.plist
Apple accounts enabled /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.accounts.exists.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.accountsd.plist
Apple Magic Mouse gestures ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist
Apple Magic Trackpad ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist
Apple Remote Desktop /Library/Preferences/com.apple.ARDAgent.plist
Archive Utility ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.archiveutility.plist
Audio MIDI Setup ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist
Audio settings /Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and /Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
Automator ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Automator.plist
Bluetooth configuration /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
Calculator exchange rates, etc. ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.calculateframework.plist
Calendar ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist
ColorSync calibrations ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ColorSyncCalibrator.plist
Contacts ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
Crash Reporter ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.CrashReporter.plist
Date & Time menubar clock ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.menuextra.clock.plist
Date & Time timezone auto setting /Library/Preferences/com.apple.timezone.auto.plist
Desktop ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
Dock ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
Emoji & Symbols palettes ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.CharacterPaletteIM.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.CharacterPicker.plist
Energy Saver settings were at /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist but as of 10.12.2 have moved to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist, and in 10.12.3 are in com.apple.PowerManagement.[UUID].plist, where [UUID] is replaced by your hardware UUID.
Find My Mac /Library/Preferences/com.apple.FindMyMac.plist
Finder ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
Help ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help.plist
iBooks ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.bookstoreagent.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist
iMessage ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imessage.bag.plist
Infra-red controller /Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleIRController.plist
iTunes ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist
iTunes, Aperture, iPhoto paths ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iApps.plist
Keyboard settings before login /Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist
Keyboard settings after login ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist
Login window /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
Miscellaneous preferences ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Network extensions /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist
Network interfaces /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist
Network settings /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist
Network Utility ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetworkUtility.plist
Photos ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Photos/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Photos.plist
Power Management were at /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist but as of 10.12.2 have moved to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist, and in 10.12.3 are in com.apple.PowerManagement.[UUID].plist, where [UUID] is replaced by your hardware UUID.
Printers /Library/Preferences/org.cups.printers.plist
Remote Access servers /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.RemoteAccessServers.plist
Safari ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist
Siri ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Siri.plist
SMB servers /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server.plist
Software updates /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.commerce.plist
Spaces ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.spaces.plist
Spotlight ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.spotlight.plist
Text substitutions (Keyboard pane, Text tab) in an SQLite database in ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/ under your UUID; not readily editable or removable
Time Machine backups /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Universal Access ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist
User dictionary in an SQLite database in ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/ under your UUID; not readily editable or removable
WiFi settings /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist

Some settings are not stored in preference files. Some essentials are set in the SMC or NVRAM, detailed here. Usernames, passwords, and security certificates are of course stored in keychains, which are covered in several other articles here. Traditional Unix config files are very rarely used by macOS, but may be used by services and servers running on macOS: check their documentation.

Recent Items are kept in ~/Library/com.apple.sharedfilelist, and full details are given here. The Launch Services database keeps track of document types and how they relate to apps, and is detailed here. Metadata attached to folders and files is stored in the file system’s volume metadata, and is detailed here.