How do I edit a .plist file?

Question

What's the best application to open and edit a plist file ?

wasn't me but someone voted to close... I think if you just changed your question to be more specific about what you're trying to do it wouldn't get any 'subjective' votes. — Robert S Ciaccio, Dec 24 '10 at 21:24
This is a good question. Several times, I have wanted to open a .plist file, but even with downloading an app it looked (very) difficult, so I gave up. — Nicolas Barbulesco, Mar 30 '14 at 00:39

score 108 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 05 '18 at 21:19

108

If the plist file is in the XML format, you can edit it in any text editor like TextEdit. If the plist file is in the binary format, you can convert it to XML first by running:

plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

If you want to go back to binary format after editing:

plutil -convert binary1 file.plist

If you have Xcode 4.3 or later, you can use it to edit property lists in a graphical editor like this:

Xcode 4.2 and earlier came with a separate application for editing property lists (/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Property List Editor.app/).

edited Nov 05 '18 at 21:19

Isaac Rabinovitch

197

answered Dec 24 '10 at 17:58

2

As pointed out by this solution, it is totally possible to use plutil -convert json $file (or xml), then edit the file with any editor (like vi), and finally convert it back with plutil -convert binary1 $file. – 7heo.tk Mar 31 '15 at 00:30
8

plutil -p <file> will "print property list in a human-readable fashion" instead of converting it – dentarg Mar 01 '18 at 22:05
3

This is the more complete answer and should be the accepted one. For example, you can't directly edit ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist without conversion. – Maurice Schleußinger Sep 26 '18 at 13:20

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 14 '23 at 07:12

34

A PList file, like Mankoff said, is just a specially formatted XML file, so you can actually edit and create them in a program like TextEdit.

Because of the specific nature of PLists to Development, however, using a special program like Xcode or Property List Editor becomes a much more fruitful endeavor. This is because it not only automatically formats the XML code for you, but it will actually translate the key identifiers and layers into readable words, and also for some values it will provide a drop-down menu to fill in the correct responses. Especially when dealing with iPhone plists, when multiple runtime variables can be set using the Plist, easily creating new fields and knowing what to put in them makes it so much easier.

You can get both Xcode and PList Editor from the Apple Developer website for free by downloading the latest Xcode release.

edited Apr 14 '23 at 07:12

slhck

2,274

answered Dec 24 '10 at 19:12

SeniorShizzle

1,481

13

IIRC some plist are compressed though, which makes them unopenable in a text editor without decoding them first. Apple tools do that automatically though, and back again. – Lloeki Aug 09 '11 at 07:59
Well perfect, more reasons to use Xcode 4! – SeniorShizzle Sep 29 '11 at 05:13
13

If only… ! But no, some .plist files are binary or something like this, and TextEdit is not enough for them. – Nicolas Barbulesco Mar 30 '14 at 00:42
Remember that, depending on the specific use case, there may be a tool better fit for the job, intended for editing a specific type of plist file. For instance, you can use Apple Configurator for editing iOS profiles (.mobileconfig extension) or Clover Configurator for editing Clover boot profiles. – Manchineel Nov 05 '18 at 21:50

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 26 '12 at 19:30

8

A fine program like TextWrangler can edit binary .plist files without first converting them using Terminal. Simply open the file like you would any other (i.e. drag-and-drop on the program icon, or the File open dialog, or Open With in the Finder or...)

answered Jan 26 '12 at 19:30

Daniel

34,803

1

But the values are unreadable. – Nicolas Barbulesco Mar 30 '14 at 00:46
Thanks for sharing this tip, Daniel. I have TextWrangler's big brother, BBEdit, and I had no idea that I had a nice plist editor all along. :) – Scott Johnson Feb 08 '21 at 21:45
1

@ScottJohnson BBEdit is both TextWrangler's big brother and successor (but it has an option now to use the old TextWrangler icon! Yay!) – Daniel Feb 09 '21 at 18:57

sez · Answer 4 · 2019-11-26T03:35:41.947

7

Since Apple got rid of the GUI Property List Editor, Xcode is the best free option if you want to be sure of the result.

There are some gotcha's using a generic code editor to edit plist files. Since dictionaries use entries like

<key>some key</key>
<string>some value</string>
<key>another key with boolean value</key>
<true />

You can create a valid XML file that is not a valid plist file, for example:

<key>some key</key>
<!-- oops, forgot to enter a value - still valid XML -->

<!-- valid XML, not a plist -->
<key>another key with boolean value</key>
<true>yes</true>

If you're willing to go commercial, Plistinator will edit both binary and XML plist files.

Full-disclosure: I'm the author of Plistinator and the $12.99 it costs pays for my ramen and rent.

edited Nov 26 '19 at 03:35

answered Mar 27 '14 at 09:30

sez

179

does it better than XCode? – georgexsh Nov 15 '17 at 08:36
Xcode is better than Plistinator on Mac - the UI is better, and its canonically Apple. It can be a pain as you have to install the whole of Xcode just to get the editor tool. Plistinator does do the directory search/scan and it also has a large edit field for entering free form text into values. Those features make Plistinator excellent for jobs like data driven apps and games. But for most jobs Xcode's editor is better. – sez Nov 16 '17 at 06:00

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 02 '21 at 04:58

On a Terminal window, you can use PlistBuddy, available at /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy.

PlistBuddy can read and modify values inside of a plist, either interactively or directly on the command line.

However, PlistBuddy is not a GUI editor.

Usage examples:

# Show full help
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -h
Print content of plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c print /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Print selected content of plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'print SkipPaths' /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

LosAlamos · Answer 6 · 2020-11-29T14:23:44.087

Free Visual Studio Code editor can open, edit and save plist files in binary format with the help of the Binary Plist extension:

A Visual Studio Code extension that enables editing of binary property list files as XML. It is inspired by the BinaryPlist Sublime Text package, although the experience is not as seamless (the user must agree to opening a binary file and the editing takes place in an additional tab). A virtual file system is used to achieve this using the FileSystemProvider API.

The extension is cross-platform but primarily uses the macOS plutil binary for conversion, the Python plistlib is used as an alterntative if available. The node package simple-plist is used as a fallback but due to JavaScript not having a float type real values that are whole numbers will be cast to integer types (a warning dialog is shown first).

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 05 '18 at 20:23

0

I have used PlistEdit Pro for macOS and found it to be useful and comprehensively feature rich.

answered Nov 05 '18 at 20:23

Nimesh Neema

51,809

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 28 '20 at 14:21

BBEdit will open plist files for editing, and do any necessary conversion of file types.

It will also handle file permission access, if needed.

You can also do things like create Text Filters to do things like encode/decode base64 encoding.

It's the essential text editor for Mac. (No connection to the company, just a user for 30 years...!)

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 15 '23 at 06:36

0

Checkout SimPLISTic - an alternate, cross-platform format for representing property lists

answered Jun 15 '23 at 06:36

cachius

271

How do I edit a .plist file?

9 Answers9

Print content of plist

Print selected content of plist

Linked