Mac applications and program have one or multiple property files with .plist file extension. This plist or property file allows you to change the configuration or settings of apps which you can’t do it with the menu items. This is especially useful when you are not comfortable in handling Terminal command line. For example, you can easily edit the Finder’s plist file and add “Quit Finder” menu which is not available by default. If you are in a situation to edit a plist file, here is how you do that in Mac.
Find Plist File Location and Quick View Structure
Generally, you can find the relevant plist files under “Users > Username > Library” section. The files will be available under “Preferences” folder or under specific application’s folder. For example, you can find Safari plist files under “Users > Username > Library > Safari” while Finder plist file under “Users > Username > Library > Preferences”.
Since Library folder is hidden by default you need to enable viewing hidden files to navigate through the path. Alternatively, open Finder and go to “Go > Go to…” menu. In the pop-up that appears, type /Users/<Username>/Library/ and select the path from suggestions.
When you are in Library folder, you can navigate to Preferences or any other app’s folder and find the corresponding plist files. For example, go to Preferences folder and find com.apple.finder.plist file which is the property file for Finder app in Mac.
As you can see, Mac will show the preview of plist file’s XML content which you can read without opening the file. You can also press the space key when the file is highlighted to open Quick View to read file’s content. However, you will not be able to edit the file using TextEdit and you need special binary text editor apps for modifying the content. If you have any supported app installed on your Mac, Quick View will show a button to open the file with that app on top right corner. In my case, you can see “Open with Xcode” as I have Xcode app installed on the system.
Editing Plist Files with Xcode
Xcode is the all-in-one app from Apple for developing macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS apps. This is a huge app with +3GB in size. Though this is a default app in Mac for editing plist files, it does not come with macOS as it is not needed for normal users. If you have already installed Xcode for any other purposes, then open the plist from Quick View window. Otherwise, follow the below steps to install the app and edit plist files.
- Open App Store, search for Xcode and install the app.
- When you launch the app, it will prompt you to open / create a project. You can simply close this pop-up and go to “File > Open” menu for locating your plist file. However, this is a difficult task as you will not be able to find the plist file easily. This is the reason I have explained above on how to locate your plist from Finder app.
- So, launch Finder, navigate through Library folder and find the plist file that you want to edit.
- Simply double click on the file or control-click and select “Open With > Xcode (default)” option.
- The file will open in Xcode showing its content for editing. Plist file has three sections – key, type and value. Each key is a parameter (some of them may be available in app’s settings section) with a type and value. Select a key and press tab or simply double click on it to start editing. Similarly, double click on the value to edit or click the type to choose another type from the dropdown.
- For creating a new key, hover over any existing key and select the ⊕ icon to add a new item. Likewise, you can delete any existing key by clicking on the ⊖ icon.
- After modifying the file, press “Command + S” to save the content.
Make sure you have closed the app before start editing its property file. Otherwise, Xcode will not allow you to save the changes and show you a message that the file is being modified by another application. You need to discard the changes, close the app and redo the changes again.
Editing Plist File with BBEdit
As mentioned, Xcode is not an ideal editor for plist files, especially when you want to edit them occasionally. You can try the BBedit app which comes with 30 days evaluation version and is less than 25 MB in size. This is the replacement app for the obsolete TextWrangler from the same developers. Good part is that the free app will continue to work for file editing purposes after the evaluation period also.
- Go to App Store and search for “bbedit”.
- Find and install the free evaluation version of the app.
- Now, open Finder to location your plist file.
- Right-click on the file select “Open With” and choose BBEdit app.
- Unlike Xcode app, BBEdit will show the XML file content of plist file exactly as you see in Quick View window.
- Simply click on any key or its type/value and change the content. You can also select one or multiple lines and delete them easily.
- Finally, press “Command + S” to save your changes.
If you like the app, give it a try for a premium version which will cost you $3.99 per monthly or $39.99 per yearly subscription. You can purchase this directly from App Store.
Note: Visual Studio Code can’t open plist file in Mac. It will show the file has unsupported encoding error as shown below. The file will open with junk characters if you click “Open Anyway” button and continue to open with built-in Text Editor.
Final Words
Though BBEdit is super easy and lightweight app for editing plist files in Mac, it is error prone. Meaning, you can delete any lines and easily make mistakes. Since each key has a type and value, you should carefully edit the file with the columns as shown in Xcode. As a final warning, do not edit plist files unless you know what you are doing. Or at least, copy the original file as a backup which you can restore if anything goes wrong (like the app crashes or does not open at all).
