Unused Preference Files
To scan a Preferences folder for files and folders that no longer appear to be used, open the Cleaning menu and choose Scan Preferences Folder.
Mac OS X
There are multiple preferences folders in Mac OS X: One system preferences folder, one for each domain, and one for each user. Thus there are a minimum of three for a single user Macintosh running Mac OS X, and more if there are multiple users and domains. |
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Scan Preferences Folder supports scanning any one of the three folders available to you user, domain, and system for which you have sufficient access privileges. Preferences folders for which you do not have sufficient access privileges are not available. Select the folder you wish to scan from the available choices at the top of the window. |
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Apple strongly encourages developers to use the preferences tools provided in Mac OS X for saving and retrieving preferences. Preferences stored this way are saved in files created and managed by the operating system. Applications themselves do not create or access these file directly. These files have no file type or creator signature, and have names such as "com.skytag.FileBuddy.plist". This leaves File Buddy with no reliable mechanism to associate a preferences file with the application which uses it. |
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Fortunately, Mac OS X introduces a new piece of file system meta-data File Buddy can use to identify preferences files which aren't being used: the access date. The access date of a file is updated whenever a file is accessed, whereas the modification date is only updated if the contents of the file are actually modified in some way. For this reason, we strongly recommend using the option to use access dates when scanning preferences folders in Mac OS X. In Mac OS X it is by far the most reliable indicator of how recently software has accessed its preferences file. |
Mac OS 9
There is only one preferences folder in Mac OS 9, the system preferences folder. Mac OS 9 does not set the accessed date when files are accessed, so in Mac OS 9, File Buddy checks modified dates and creator signatures to identify unused files.
In both operating systems, File Buddy does its best to identify unused files, but cannot guarantee that files identified as possibly unused are in fact not used.
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