Questions tagged [plist]
A structured text file containing XML formatted properties. It also can be encoded as a binary-format file.
354 questions
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How do I tell MacOS to open TextEdit app at certain X and Y coordinates using a plist variable?
I've been looking at plist variables while trying to set the position and size of a window when the editor is launched. But I'm failing to guess or find the name of plist key for this.
I was following ...
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Run locate.updatedb nightly, not weekly?
man locate.updatedb says that the database for locate is updated weekly.
That is confirmed by /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist, which has
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer&...
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My automated "click" Applescript has just stopped working
Right up until a week ago, my simple Applescript that had to simply click on a specific coordinate on screen just stopped working.
Here is the Applescript:
tell application "System Events"
...
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1
answer
19
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Fix Microsoft Outlook Main Window Position
On a multiple display system, Microsoft Outlook always opens on the currently active display.
The previous position of Outlook is ignored.
The NSWindow Frame MainWindow value in the plist always gets ...
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1
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102
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macOS 14.6.1 : Mouse behaviors - Logitech wired and Magic Mouse controlled by the same settings
I have been useing a wired Logitech USB mouse for a couple years and all of a sudden it decided to slow way down. Thinking this was a preferences issue. Settings > Mouse, cranked the speed up to ...
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Reset Rosetta Flag for Desktop App
A little bit of background: If you make an app with no compiled Arm64 binaries in the Content/MacOS folder, MacOS erroneously identifies it as an Intel based app. After launching the app, MacOS will ...
- 141
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80
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Launchctl plist with StartCalendarInterval not executing
I have a plist which runs a script and if I launch it using StartInterval it runs the script but if I use StartCalendarInterval it doesn't run the script.
Further details are:
The plist is below and ...
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170
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LaunchDeamon file doesn't work [duplicate]
I have a .plist file in the LaunchDeamons directory. It's supposed to run a .sh file (which works) which creates a backup of a directory onto an external drive every day at 00:00. I have tried putting ...
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27
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no sound in plist on mac
I'm not able in my plist of sync to make a beep when finished.
this my code of plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD ...
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1
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148
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Is there any way to prevent a non-admin user from executing "launchctl unload" on macOS?
I started using a well-known program for self-control on MacOS called Cold Turkey. This program is very powerful, but it's not enough since I can open a Terminal as a non-admin user and execute the ...
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How to disable Smart Copy/Paste everywhere and/or in an individual app with Terminal? [duplicate]
Does anyone know how I can disable Smart Copy/Paste globally (or within an individual app's settings) using Terminal?
I know I can do this in the GUI for apps that support it (e.g. Safari, TextEdit) ...
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122
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Why failing to unload com.apple.sharingd.plist with launchctl nor with sudo nor with root?
[MacOS Monterey 12.7]
sharingd looks related with a weird window flash popup on desktop right after booting. As I researched, this daemon has to do with services that I don't need (AirDrop, Handoff, ...
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1
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78
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How to make this script successfully trigger at a certain time?
I'm not an AppleScript coder or a technical person by any means but I have done some research and came across a solution for my problem statement.
My problem statement
How to make a mouse click ...
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69
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How to prevent "Background items added" notification when running shell script with launch agent
I created a custom .plist file to run a simple startup.sh script when I log into my user, and added it to my /Library/LaunchAgents directory. Everything works as intended, however, every time my ...
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Zabbix agent daemon does not pickup a PID
(I've searched similar cases and could not find any)
I've installed Zabbix agent daemon for MacOS. I'm running it on Catalina.
The daemon ran just fine on installation, however after a while it ...
- 374
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2
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199
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How to Disable IconservicesAgent? I Don't use the GUI
IconservicesAgent is using 80-90% of my CPU, causing my macbook air 2018 to overheat just by turning it on.
I don't need this as I hardly use the GUI, I'm on the terminal 95% of the time, don't even ...
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86
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My launchd scripts are not run after boot but after login
I want to start a shell script when a MacOS (14.2.1) machine boots. But the scripts is executed only when I log in, not directly after the system has started.
I wrote a plist definition like this:
>...
3
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1
answer
427
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How can I troubleshoot when the locate database isn't built on macOS?
I”m struggling to have a locate database built on my Mac to index all files under /opt.
$ locate locate
WARNING: The locate database (/var/db/locate.database) does not exist.
To create the database, ...
- 425
2
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1
answer
214
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Can't disable Macbook Pro M1 Trackpad Force click by editing .GlobalPreferences.plist
I'm learning how to make a dotfiles backup/restore system for my Macbook Pro M1 (on Monterey 12.7). I was trying to run some:
defaults write
commands to see how it will affect the OS. Some of the ...
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994
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MacOS: How can I unlock a system plist file to edit? [trying to get rid of a stray Netskope VPN entry]
I'm trying to get rid of a stray Netskope Client (NSClient1) VPN entry that wouldn't go away. I found its traces only in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist - this is the system's ...
- 141
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579
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Where does Pages store its list of recently opened documents?
I'm currently creating a raycast extension for quickly opening recently opened Pages documents.
Now, I have to find a way to access the documents and their pathnames. I
tried following this answer and ...
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2
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2
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418
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MacOS system properties reference (mentioned in .plist files)
Is there a reference of MacOS system properties that we can change through Intune policies? For example, minimum Password length requirement, password lifetime, etc.
I wonder what other system ...
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474
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How to refresh plist
If I make a change to a plist file, how can I subsequently force a refresh so that it is reflected? Do I need to logout and log back in, or can I run a command?
- 177
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88
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launchctl agent not starting jobs that involve external volumes [duplicate]
I am new to lanuchctl. On my Mac running macos-ventura, I have created several plists that all load fine but will not run (neither by launchctl start nor by specifying RunAtLoad in the plist.
(Thanks ...
- 115
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0
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53
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Help troubleshooting pbcopy.plist: Trying to copy contents to clipboard
I'm trying to add a command to copy content to MacBook Pro M1 Max Ventura 13.4 clipboard from a remote server. To test it on localhost, I setup the plist file like so:
launchctl load /Users/jerba/...
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1
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588
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What went wrong with my launchd plist?
I set up a launchd plist to run a shell script every morning at 8 AM
(see Is there an easy way to automatically schedule a move of files matching a certain pattern from a user directory to a USB drive?...
- 924
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119
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Is it possible to set the click force higher than system settings allows?
Is it possible to edit whatever plist contains magic trackpad preferences (MacBook Pro 2023) on Ventura to increase the force required for regular click beyond what the "slider" in system ...
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2
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342
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Add keywords to an app file
Some built-in Mac apps have keywords attached to them, to allow for easier searching in Spotlight:
How would I add these keywords to a third-party app? For example, adding the keyword "Chat"...
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121
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Cannot drag and drop nor hover, on the whole system, when Razer mouse is plugged in
I have only been able to identify that it happens when that mouse is plugged in because, with any other mouse, it doesn't happen. Sporadically it fixes itself but I have not been able to figure out ...
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2
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1
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193
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Unable to pick settings in us.zoom.config.plist
I want to configure Zoom’s setting by pushing the plist file to the device from MDM.
After pushing the customized us.zoom.config.plist to my macOS device through MDM, I am able to find the plist file ...
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0
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749
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How to Prevent Uninstalling Chrome Extension on macOS
There is an extension that I want to make harder to delete or disable on Chrome, how can I go about doing this? I have tried to edit the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy using:
defaults write com....
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199
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Update Microsoft Edge policy without adding management
My workplace internally manages our chrome installation. We have an internal extension store which we're able to install extensions from. This internal extension store is enabled in chrome via the ...
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3
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871
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How to parse values from macOS extended file attributes?
If you download a file from the internet using Safari, some extended attributes are added to the downloaded file, among which com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms which contains the original URL of ...
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2
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Set environment variable for the whole GUI session (Aka without using `~/.zshenv`)
(EDIT OF 06/02/2023 : Previous title was
Variables set using launchctl setenv aren't part of environment in Mac OS 12 )
I'm a daily Linux user and decided to try Mac recently.
I have a Macbook pro 13&...
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425
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Launchctl load -w generate Service cannot load in requested session
I ran the following command:
launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/...plist
The plist file has the following values:
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>
<key>...
2
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0
answers
614
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Configure LDAP through command line (NOT Directory Utility) on Ventura and Monterey
I can configure Directory Utility to make Mac machines (Monterey and above) authenticate users through my OpenLDAP (Ubuntu-based) server and everything works perfectly fine.
But I need to do it ...
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2
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1
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317
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How can I get back menu bar icon of an agent app?
I use Clipy.app and it's an "agent app", which means it runs in the background and doesn't appear in the Dock.
By default, it shows the app icon on the top right of the menu bar of Mac. ...
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2
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405
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Custom macOS application bundle requires Rosetta even through it shouldn't
Since there is currently no DrJava application bundle for macOS, I thought I could be the one to make it because I want to use it anyway. From just searching on the internet I made the following ...
- 101
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0
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31
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Launchd script that edits its own schedule not working
I have 2 launchd plists that are basically entirely identical, save for the <StartInterval> settings. Both plists simply launch a shell script and redirects both stdout and stderr to files for ...
- 101
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80
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Write plist defaults value inside a named profile
How do I write a value inside a named profile, like so;
defaults write com.apple.Terminal "'Window Settings'.Basic.shellExitAction" -int 1
Obviously this doesn't work and also tried ...
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558
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Cannot get launchctl to run python script
I wrote a basic python web scraping program and am trying to get it to run automatically at 4 am every day but am having no luck. The .plist file and python code are as follows:
.plist:
<?xml ...
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1
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256
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Plistbuddy should not convert date format
in the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist the date format of the last backup date is in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ (i.e. 2022-10-31T08:43:45Z)
However, when I read this date with ...
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0
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427
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Why does defaults only read from files with certain extended attributes?
It seems that defaults read only works on property list files in certain folders (e.g. Desktop, Downloads) when the extended attribute com.apple.macl contains a specific value otherwise it reports ...
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525
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How to change a system startup daemon into a user launch agent
I'm using The Pritunl VPN software for one of my Mac's user accounts. The software installer creates a system LaunchDaemon found under /Library/LaunchDaemons called com.pritunl.service.plist
...
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4
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0
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1k
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How to run Plex Media Server at Startup With No Users Logged In
I'm trying to get Plex Media Server (PMS) to launch at boot time even if no users are logged in. I'm using Lingon to generate the plist file which ends up here: /Library/launchdaemons
Trouble is, it ...
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1k
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MacOS - Scheduled Launch Daemon Not Running
I'm creating a launch daemon on my MacBook (with Monterrey installed) to bring back the battery percentage to the lock screen. I was able to craft the following command and run it in the terminal ...
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1
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427
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Hidden unlisted Voice Control commands
Based on the answer of this question, we can see that the Voice Control feature of MacOS (and probably the one in iOS too) offers unlisted built-in voice commands. For example, the "Control Click&...
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Issues with Plist Daemon not running on start-up or for other users
wondering if any of you could kindly provide some insight.
I'm writing some scripts in order to automate the connection to VLC which is being hosted by one of our servers this is so that our customer ...
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0
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771
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Force reset system preferences cache
I'm trying to enable/disable time announcement feature that's present in Dock & Menu Bar > Clock > Announce the time with a shell script.
When I read the plist file, I can see that it's set ...
- 131
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259
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MacOS: Chrome- Can't edit UserDataDir policy on local home computer
I am trying to edit some Chrome policies on my own Mac (non organization) which I have admin access to. For example, the 'UserDataDir' policy (https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/?policy=...
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