The Preferences Folder

Most Macintosh programs keep preferences files. These preferences are all of the settings that the program needs to run. These settings can range from specific user customizations to serial numbers for your specific license. Sometimes these files can become corrupted and will cause the program to crash unexpectedly.

Often one of the first steps to troubleshooting an application is to find all of their preference files and put them in the trash. The next time that the program starts up and tries to load its preferences files, it does not find them. The program will then rebuild all of these files using default values.

Although you will be looking for files, and will have to interpret filenames, programs do not make this task hard. Look specifically for files with the specified company and/or product name.

Note: Deleting a program's preferences files can sometimes cause the program to request that you reenter your serial number. Please do not delete these files without first making sure that this number is readily available.

Preference File Locations

Since Mac OS X is a multiple user operating system, most of the preferences are going to be located in your user folder (different settings for different users all more customization). Look here for these preferences:

Your program may also have preference files located in the system's preferences folder. These preferences are here: