Plist file corruption

Question

Plist file corruption

I have noticed on just a few of my plist files that they seem skewed and become a pile of indistinguishable code.

not the usual xml based format.

for example bplist00ß- !"#$%&'()*+,-./01234bcdefghirqtgqwxy‰Š¨©q®¯ÀDÕÖ×qÙÚÛqÝëì BurnProgressWindowLocation_FXConnectToLastURL_NewWindowTarget EmptyTrashProgressWindowLocation CopyProgressWindowLocation_FXMaximumLabelLines^recent-folders

starts my finder plist file.

How can i rectify this? and what might cause this jumble?

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on May 28, 2006 3:31 PM

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Answer 1

May 28, 2006 3:55 PM in response to Austen Varian

Apple has defaulted the .plist file format in 10.4 to binary. You can no longer just edit a .plist file with a text editor.

There is a command line utility called plutil that can convert back and forth between the two formats. To convert a binary .plist file to XML format for editing, type this in the Terminal:

plutil -convert xml1 filename.plist

To convert an XML .plist file to binary for use:

plutil -convert binary1 filename.plist

You could also use the Property List Editor app that comes with the developer tools to edit the binary files without converting them.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

362,199 points

May 28, 2006 3:59 PM in response to Austen Varian

What are you using to view the file? If you use the PList Editor (part of the XCode Tools) it appears fine. If you view with a text editor, then you will get what appears to be a garbled file because not all the entries in the file are normal ASCII text.

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