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User profile for user: Scott Macpherson
Scott Macpherson Author
User level: Level 3
880 points

What are .localized files?

What do the 0 byte files named ".localized" do? I've found this explanation online:

"In Mac OS X folders name is always the same, regardless of the localization, but the Finder has the ability to show some names in a localized form.
The ".localized" are 0 bytes file stored in several folders, this placeholder tells the Finder that the folder is a "localizable" folder."

which doesn't really help me! Are they simple bookmarks which tell Finder that the files are stores locally, and can therefore be displayed and handled differently from remote files?

Mac mini, iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Nov 30, 2005 6:37 AM

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User profile for user: biovizier
biovizier
User level: Level 5
7,925 points

Posted on Nov 30, 2005 11:55 AM

The ' .localized' files just indicate (by their presence) that apps should display the "localized" name for a given folder if one has been defined. So for example, instead of the folder names that ' ls' would show as "Library" or "Users", someone with their language set to "French" in the "International" pref pane would see "Bibliothèque" or "Utilisateurs" in "Finder" or through "Open" and "Save" dialogues.

This can sometimes cause confusion - for example, a person once posted that they accidentally renamed their "Public" folder, but after changing it back, other users could no longer access their folder over the network. It turns out that the person had a non-English language setting, and had renamed the folder back to the visible "localized" name, which had the effect of changing the folder's actual name from "Public" to something else. Since they were translating everything to post to this site, it took a while before everything was sorted out...

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User profile for user: biovizier
biovizier
User level: Level 5
7,925 points

Nov 30, 2005 11:55 AM in response to Scott Macpherson

The ' .localized' files just indicate (by their presence) that apps should display the "localized" name for a given folder if one has been defined. So for example, instead of the folder names that ' ls' would show as "Library" or "Users", someone with their language set to "French" in the "International" pref pane would see "Bibliothèque" or "Utilisateurs" in "Finder" or through "Open" and "Save" dialogues.

This can sometimes cause confusion - for example, a person once posted that they accidentally renamed their "Public" folder, but after changing it back, other users could no longer access their folder over the network. It turns out that the person had a non-English language setting, and had renamed the folder back to the visible "localized" name, which had the effect of changing the folder's actual name from "Public" to something else. Since they were translating everything to post to this site, it took a while before everything was sorted out...

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What are .localized files?

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