everyday mac tools

Reset app preferences on a Mac: find the plist and move it safely

· 7 min read

Most Mac apps keep their settings in a property list file named after the app’s bundle identifier, for example com.apple.TextEdit.plist. To reset app preferences on a Mac, quit the app, move that file to the Desktop instead of deleting it, clear the preferences cache with one Terminal command, and open the app again. The hard part is finding the file, because it can sit in one of three places.

Get the app’s bundle identifier

Preference files are named by bundle identifier, not by the name you see in the Dock. Ask macOS for it in Terminal:

osascript -e 'id of app "TextEdit"'

That prints com.apple.TextEdit. Use the app’s name as it appears in the Applications folder. Apps from other developers follow the same pattern, usually the company’s web address reversed and then the app name.

The three places a preference file lives

Replace com.example.app with the identifier you just found.

  1. ~/Library/Preferences/com.example.app.plist is the traditional location and still the most common for apps downloaded from a developer’s website.
  2. ~/Library/Containers/com.example.app/Data/Library/Preferences/com.example.app.plist is where sandboxed apps keep theirs. That covers every Mac App Store app and many of Apple’s own.
  3. ~/Library/Group Containers/ holds settings shared between an app and its helpers or extensions. The folder name is a group identifier that contains the bundle identifier or the developer’s name, with a Library/Preferences folder inside.

Two more locations turn up occasionally. ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ holds settings specific to this one Mac, in files with a long hardware identifier in the name. /Library/Preferences, with no tilde, holds settings that apply to every user and needs an administrator password to change.

The Library folder in your home folder is hidden by default. In Finder, open the Go menu and hold Option: Library appears in the list. Or choose Go, Go to Folder (Shift-Cmd-G) and paste one of the paths above.

One quirk in the Containers folder: Finder shows each container under the app’s display name instead of its identifier, so you may see two folders that appear to have the same name. The preference file inside still carries the real identifier.

Find it by searching instead

Spotlight leaves the Library out of ordinary results, which is why searching for a plist from the menu bar finds nothing.

In Finder. Open the Library folder, press Cmd-F, and set the scope to “Library” instead of This Mac. Click the + button, open the first pop-up menu, choose Other, and add System files. Set it to “are included”, then add a Name row with part of the app’s name.

In Terminal. This searches every location in your home Library at once:

find ~/Library -iname "*textedit*.plist" 2>/dev/null

On macOS Sonoma and later, Terminal may ask for permission to access data from other apps when the search reaches the Containers folder. Without that permission the results from inside containers are left out.

With a file search app. Everywhere catalogues every file on the Mac, including the Library, and answers as you type. Typing ext:plist textedit lists every matching preference file across all the locations above, and adding path:Containers narrows it to sandboxed copies. Space shows a Quick Look preview, Cmd-Return reveals the file in Finder, and Cmd-C copies its full path for a Terminal command. Two honest limits: it searches names and paths, not what is inside files, so it cannot tell you which plist contains a particular setting; and it needs Full Disk Access to see everything, telling you plainly which folders it is missing if you decline. It is a one-time purchase, free for a day with nothing held back. Find files by extension on a Mac covers the built-in ways to do the same kind of search.

Look inside before you change anything

Preference files are usually stored in a binary format, so opening one in a text editor shows gibberish. Two commands print it in readable form:

plutil -p ~/Library/Preferences/com.example.app.plist
defaults read com.example.app

defaults read takes the identifier alone and in most cases finds the right file for you, sandboxed apps included. Reading is harmless, and it often shows you the one setting that went wrong, which is a smaller fix than a full reset.

Reset the preferences safely

  1. Quit the app with Cmd-Q. Check that the dot under its Dock icon has gone.
  2. Drag the plist to the Desktop. Do not put it in the Trash.
  3. In Terminal, run:
killall cfprefsd
  1. Open the app. It creates a fresh file with default settings.
  2. If the problem is fixed, keep the Desktop copy for a few days, then delete it. If nothing changed, quit the app, move the old file back over the new one, run killall cfprefsd again, and look elsewhere for the cause.

Step 3 matters more than it looks. macOS keeps preferences in memory through a background process named cfprefsd, and it can write the old values straight back over your change. Stopping it is safe: it restarts by itself within a moment.

There is a Terminal route that skips Finder. Export a backup first, then delete:

defaults export com.example.app ~/Desktop/app-backup.plist
defaults delete com.example.app

To undo that, quit the app and run defaults import com.example.app ~/Desktop/app-backup.plist. What defaults write does, and how to undo one safely goes further into these commands.

What a reset will not fix, and what it can cost

Be careful with the container. For a sandboxed app it is tempting to move the whole folder in ~/Library/Containers. That resets far more than settings: the container also holds the app’s data, which can include documents, databases and downloaded content. Move only the plist unless you mean to start the app from nothing.

Expect to set things up again. Window layouts, toolbar choices, recent file lists and sometimes a license registration are stored in preferences. Have your license key to hand before resetting a paid app.

And a reset only helps when the settings are the problem. A damaged database or cache lives in ~/Library/Application Support or ~/Library/Caches; Application Support taking up space on a Mac explains what is kept there.

Questions

Why do my edits to a plist keep disappearing? Because cfprefsd holds its own copy in memory and writes it back. Change settings with defaults write while the app is closed, or quit the app and run killall cfprefsd after editing the file.

Is it safe to delete preference files for apps I have already removed? Yes. They do nothing without the app. They are also very small, so do not expect to recover meaningful space this way.

I cannot find a plist for the app anywhere. Where are its settings? Some apps, particularly ones that also run on other operating systems, keep settings in their own files under ~/Library/Application Support or in a hidden folder in your home folder whose name starts with a dot. Show hidden files in Finder explains how to see those.