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Reset the application's preference file on macOS

Lily
  • Updated

QUESTION

For troubleshooting strange behavior, I need to reset the application's plist. How can I do so?

 

ANSWER

The application's preference list file (the plist) is a document updated on-the-fly with the current state of the application. Everything from window sizes to the current Next Capture Naming format is stored in the plist. It is named 'com.phaseone.captureone##' (for Capture One 12 and older versions) or 'com.captureone.captureone##' (for Capture One 20 and newer versions), where ## is the application version number. It resides in ~/Library/Preferences/.

To reset it to it's baseline, "vanilla" state, open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). You'll get a blank prompt:

Screenshot_2020-06-05_at_9.14.05_AM.png


Copy and paste the string starting with "defaults..." below depending on the version of Capture One you have. Then press Enter.

 

For Capture One 22

defaults delete com.captureone.captureone15

 

For Capture One 21

defaults delete com.captureone.captureone14

 

For Capture One 20

defaults delete com.captureone.captureone13

 

For Capture One 12 and older versions

defaults delete com.phaseone.captureone12

NOTE: Use the number that corresponds to your Capture One version instead of '12'.

Screenshot_2020-06-05_at_9.15.11_AM.png

 

 

There won't be a confirmation that it's completed, though if something goes wrong it will notify you. This will clear out the basic application cache and return Capture One to a “vanilla” state - all your custom settings, recipes, etc will remain, however, they will be reset back to the defaults. To re-enable them, simply choose them from the applicable menu.

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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Thomas Olbrich
    • Edited

    > It is named 'com.phaseone.captureone##', where ## is the application version number.

    Just a note: A file named "com.phaseone.(...)" appears to exist on my Mac only as "com.phaseone.mediapro.plist", whereas it seems the according preference files for CaptureOne are stored in the user library folder, too – but named differently: "captureone" instead of "phaseone":

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.captureone.captureone13.plist
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.captureone.captureone14.plist
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.captureone.COOpenWithPluginPluginHost.plist
    0
  • Lily
    • Edited

    Hi Thomas,

    This is also mentioned in the article.

    If you run Capture One 20 and later versions, this will be .../com.captureone.captureone[number]/...

    0
  • Michael
    • Edited

    Running this command (on a Mac) removes/resets all the Batch Image Rename presets. Can you tell me where these are stored so that I can back them up first?

    0
  • Lily

    Hi Michael,

    The preference file is stored in ~/Library/Preferences/.

    0
  • Deirdre Ryan

    Hi I'm trying to do this, but being on an M1 machine, the Terminal is asking for a bunch of things that may potentially mess up my login settings:

    The default interactive shell is now zsh.

    To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.

    For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050

    I need help with this...

    0

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