Follow the steps below to access the Hidden Library Menu option on your Mac. Left-click your mouse anywhere on the screen of your Mac. This will reveal the Go Option in the top menu bar of your Mac. You can also click on the Finder Icon in the Dock of your Mac to activate the Go Option. Aug 27, 2009 #5 Make a back up on your desktop then delete the folder. If a program is haveing problems you can put the old.plist back. Make a back up on your desktop then delete the folder. If a program is haveing problems you can put the old.plist back. May 30, 2019 By default, the Library folder on Mac is hidden from the user. Apple keeps Library invisible in order to protect users from accidental deletion or modification of important files stored there: application settings, caches and other system files needed to run the programs. Therefore, you can safely delete everything in /Library. Of course you'll lose all preferences you may have set, etc. Of course you'll lose all preferences you may have set, etc. Delete Preferences Manually. Switch To Finder. Hold down the option-key and pick Library from the Go menu; Open the Preferences folder inside. Find the preferences you wish to delete, and drag it to the trash or your desktop. Most are named like 'com.company-name.application-name.plist' so you can see which application it belongs to.
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Sometimes you have a problem with System Preferences or something related to it, like it remembering your screensaver or desktop selection, or perhaps it won't launch or launches funky.
This procedure is for deleting the 'preferences' file(s) that is located in your (hidden) User/Library folder that can resolve issues like this.
When the computer is rebooted and the associated program launched again, it recreates this file, but blank of preferences, thus since it's rebuilt it's free of problems.
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System Preferences Mac
This procedure also works for other programs like iPhoto or iTunes, or whatever that stores a preference file (.plist) in the (hidden) User/Library folder, the procedure is the same, just sub out the program your having problems with .plist file instead of the System Preference .plist file below.
Known preference files issues:
com.apple.systempreferences.plist (corrupted/not launching System Preferences)
com.apple.desktop.plist (corrupted/not working desktop picture changes)
com.apple.safari.plist (safari issues)
See the Steps #12 and #13 for OnyX and it's preference file checker to find other corrupted preference (.plist) files that might be causing your issues.
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So we are going to delete a preference file in a hidden folder, this will only affect the preference file, not your personal files or programs.
1: Go to the Finder and select Go menu and Go To Folder
2: Now paste or type
~/Library/Preferences
You probably have folders called Mail, Safari, Logs, and Preferences, for example.If you don’t want to have to do this dance every time you want to open your Home/Library, select your Home folder in the Finder and choose View→Show View Options (or press Command+J). You should see several folders in the Home/Library folder; the exact number depends on the software that you install on your Mac. Home folder library mac.
Select Photos Preferences and, in the General tab, click Use as System Photo Library. In the iCloud tab, make sure iCloud Photo Library is enabled. It may not be, because you switched libraries. Download icloud photo library to pc.
3: Press GO! and a folder will appear
4: Scroll down and find
com.apple.systempreferences.plist com.apple.desktop.plist (or whatever program your having problems with)
5: There may be two of the same named file, drag the one you can to the Trash can
6: Restart the computer and open System Preferences (or problem program) and reset all your preferences again
What are system preference files on Mac OS X?
Your Mac's system preference files are files that store the rules (or parameters) that tell your apps how they should work. And you can find these preference files within each applications' contents.
And what about broken preferences?
Well, with time, these preference files can be corrupted (or broken) due to things like: an app crash, a sudden blackout, or even hard drive corruption.
Now, to fix them, we must delete them — Clean up these Mac preference files makes the app create a new, default preference file. This can help your app(s) operate correctly again. So, today, we'll go over two ways on how to remove system preference files: the easy way (with a utility), and the hard way (manually).
How to Fix System Preferences on Mac OS X | The Easy Way
Deleting preference files (well, refreshing them) on your Mac is incredibly easy with a Mac utility like CleanMyMac X. It scans your Mac for preference files that are broken and removes them with just a click of a button. CleanMyMac X contains a few cleaning modules responsible for cleaning your Mac in the most efficient manner. The System Junk module looks through your system and application folders to find different kinds of unneeded files, including broken application and system preferences.
Mac Delete File
To fix preference files on your Mac with CleanMyMac X, just:
- Download CleanMyMac X (click here to download it).
- Launch CleanMyMac X and select System Junk on the left.
- Click Scan.
- And then click Clean.
In a few seconds, your Mac will be cleaned of unneeded system data, including broken preference files. If you'd only like to remove the broken preferences, before you click Clean, select 'Review Details,' only checkmark the box that says 'Broken Preferences,' and then click Clean. CleanMyMac X makes reseting system preference files on Mac incredibly simple. And it does a ton more, too. You can read more about it here.
However, if you'd prefer to remove Mac system preference files yourself, check out the section below.
How to Delete System Preference Files on Mac OS X | The Hard Way
How to find system preferences on a Mac? All preference files are stored in [Your Home Folder]/Library/Preferences. Usually they named in this manner:
com.[name of the software vendor].[name of the application].plist
Now, if you have an application that works incorrectly, you can find the corresponding preference file in the above-mentioned folder and remove it from there. On the next launch of the application, it will recreate a default version of that file and then begin working properly. However, if this doesn't happen, that it may be a good decision to put the broken preference file back — They can be a bit temperamental. It's highly advised that you make a copy of the preference file before you delete it, just in case something goes wrong.
So, to remove unnecessary system preferences (or preference files that are bugging your your application), check the:
/Library/Preferences
…system folder. To do this, open a Finder window, press Cmd+Shift+G and type the above in. However, be aware that items stored in that location could be incredibly important to your system and how it functions, so you should be 100% sure about the files you're going to delete.
Closing the library mac photos. But again, we'd recommend looking into CleanMyMac X — it makes fixing and removing broken preference files on your Mac easy as can be.
We hope this article has helped you understand what Mac system preferences are, and how to delete system preference files on Mac.