Where are user specific preferences located on a Mac?

 

Back up and download Mac user and application preferences

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   Dec 9, 2020

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1. Overview
2. Considerations
3. Step 1: Back up Preferences and Application Support folders
4. Step 2: Test back up and restore
5. Restore your user and application preferences
6. Related topics

Who is this article for?

Incydr

Code42 for Enterprise

CrashPlan for Enterprise

CrashPlan for Small Business 

This article applies to Code42 cloud environments.

Other available versions:

On-premises

Overview

Code42 helps you get back to work faster by backing up and restoring your Mac computer's user and application preferences. Most applications save preferences as .plist or .pref  files. These files contain customized settings for your applications such as the default homepage for your Internet browser, how often an application saves your work, or an application's default font. 

This article explains how to back up and restore user and application preferences on a Mac computer. If you have a Windows computer, you can use Code42 to migrate Windows user profiles and data. 

Considerations

Applications store and interact with preferences differently. We recommend you review the application's documentation for its specific preference file location. You should also test backing up and downloading preference files for the applications in your environment. 

Step 1: Back up Preferences and Application Support folders

Most application and user preferences are stored under the following folders: 

•  /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/
• /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/

To make sure these folders are backed up: 

1. Sign in to the Code42 console. 
2. Select Administration > Environment > Organizations.
3. Select an active organization.
4. From the action menu  on the Organization Details page, choose Device Backup Defaults.
5. On the General tab, deselect Use device defaults from parent.
6. Select the Backup tab. 
   
7. Under File Selection, add :users to the included files. 
8. (optional) Click push  to apply this setting to existing users.
9. Under Excluded files, verify that you are not excluding .plist or .pref file extensions.  
10. (optional) Click push   to apply this setting to existing users. 

Excluding other files
You may want to exclude some files under Application Support from being backed up by Code42. See exclude or include files using file type and regular expressions for more information. 

Step 2: Test back up and restore

We recommend that you use a test device to test the back up and restore of each user and application preferences because applications may vary in the steps needed to successfully migrate preferences. Review the application's documentation for specific preference file locations.

Restore your user and application preferences

1. Download and install the Code42 app on the user's device. 
2. Download the backed up preference settings. You can do this a couple different ways: 
   • Use the Code42 console to begin a device restore. 
   • Use the replace device wizard in the Code42 app. Follow the steps in the replace your device article to download the entire User folder.

Related topics

• Back up Microsoft Outlook data
• Back up open files and databases
• Restore Microsoft Outlook data
• Replace your device