User profile for user: Ariran
Ariran Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Contents of com.apple.desktop.plist?

Could someone provide a copy/paste or a screenshot of the contents of their com.apple.desktop.plist? The mac I'm working with doesn't have one, but there are preferences I'm trying to set for public lab computers that are (hopefully) contained within that plist.


I created an empty com.apple.desktop.plist file and stuck it in /Library/Preferences and restarted the computer. The file populated... with some very unhelpful data that isn't in XML format like the other plists.


Would someone be willing to go find their desktop.plist and give me some clue as to what the contents are *supposed* to look like? Is this the plist that determines the desktop background, for instance?

iMac, Running Sierra

Posted on Jun 28, 2017 8:41 AM

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13 replies
User profile for user: Eric Root
Eric Root
User level: Level 10
685,793 points

Jun 28, 2017 8:53 AM in response to Ariran

The com.apple.desktop.plist isn't in the hard drive level Library/Preferences and the file you put there should probably be removed. The .plist is in your User Library.


Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences and the .plist should be there.

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User profile for user: Ariran
Ariran Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jun 28, 2017 9:28 AM in response to Eric Root

I didn't put the ~ on the path in the original post, but I definitely put the file in the user's Preference folder, not the hard drive's.


I've looked many times in the user's Library for the desktop preferences; the desktop.plist isn't there, which is why I created one. I also use command+shift+period to show hidden files and folders. The .plist isn't in the user's ~/Library/Preferences folder. I'm currently at home on my own Mac and I just took a look in my own ~/Library/Preferences folder and there too the plist is missing. This seems to be a thing in Sierra now.

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User profile for user: Ariran
Ariran Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jun 28, 2017 9:37 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

The desktop background mainly, though I don't know what other preferences are saved in the desktop plist because I don't have one so I can't see what's in it. There might be other things it sets that I need.


I need to have a .plist file I can turn into a .mobileconfig so we can load those onto all of our public computers in the computer lab.

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User profile for user: Glenn Leblanc
Glenn Leblanc
User level: Level 6
12,559 points

Jun 28, 2017 9:48 AM in response to Ariran

There may be a .plist file involved also, but I don't know which it would be. Maybe the dock.plist file. By that .db file determines which picture was chosen.

Another example is a com.apple.screensaver.plist file which Sierra is not using. The screensaver.plist file is located in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost folder.


Apple keeps changing things around and sometimes old .plist files get left behind.

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Contents of com.apple.desktop.plist?

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