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Mac Preferences Backup

A tool to backup and restore Mac preferences.

This will backup and restore Application as well as System Preferences.

Motivation (.macos problems)

I wanted a solution to back up my settings for my Mac and one didn't really exist. Time Machine is a bit overkill for this.

At first I was trying to create a bash script to restore all my settings. I was trying to adapt the .osx .macos file from Mathias Bynens. I noticed that some of the cases for the domains were wrong/outdated and weren't actually changing the preferences they were intended to change.

Running defaults write with the wrong case for the keys or domains also causes problems as the defaults command may fail silently.

Requirements

  • Mac OS X greater than 10.9 (maybe older… didn't test)
  • Python 3.6

Installation

Install Homebrew

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew install clintmod/formulas/macprefs

Config

You can set the MACPREFS_BACKUP_DIR environment variable to specify where you'd like to backup the prefs too.

The default backup directory is ~/Dropbox/MacPrefsBackup.

export MACPREFS_BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/SomeOtherDir"

Backing Up

You can backup your preferences by running:

macprefs backup

You can also choose to backup selected preferences by running:

macprefs backup -t system_preferences startup_items preferences app_store_preferences internet_accounts

Following backups are currently possible:

system_preferences : Backs up /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist or /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist, depending on the availability.

startup_items : Backs up user launch agents, system launch agents and system daemon agents

dotfiles : Backs up all your dotfiles from your home directory.

shared_file_lists : Backs up ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/

preferences : Backs up ~/Library/Preferences/

app_store_preferences : Backs up your App Store preferences

internet_accounts : Backs up your ~/Library/Accounts

Note:

Make sure you have given full disk access to your terminal app for this script to work properly. You can run this command to open system preference window

open "x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_AllFiles"

Restoring

You can restore your preferences by running:

macprefs restore

Similar to Backing, you can choose to restore selected preferences by running

macprefs restore -t system_preferences startup_items preferences app_store_preferences internet_accounts
  • You might have to log out and then log back in for the settings to take effect.

Testing the Restore

  • Create a new user on your Mac
  • Make sure he's in the admin group
  • Log in as that user
  • Do the Getting Started steps
  • Update the Config
  • Grant the admin group read access to your backup files (substitute ~/Dropbox with your backup dir if different)
# grant admin group read on ~/Dropbox
chmod +a "group:admin allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity" ~/Dropbox/
# grant admin group read on ~/Dropbox/MacPrefsBackup recursively (-R)
chmod -R +a "group:admin allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity" ~/Dropbox/MacPrefsBackup
# grant dir list (execute) permission on all subfolders of ~/Dropbox recursively (-R)
chmod -R +X ~/Dropbox
# remove execute permission for other on all files and folders because
# +X adds other permissions
chmod -R o=-x ~/Dropbox
  • Run the Restore
  • Log out and log back in to confirm the restore succeeded

What it Does

  • Backs up all the preferences in ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences
  • Backs up all 'Internet Accounts' databases in ~/Library/Accounts
  • Backs up PowerManagement preferences
  • Backs up shared file lists (Finder Favorites in Sidebar) ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist
  • Backups up dotfiles ($HOME/.* (e.g. .bash_profile))
  • Backups up the $HOME/.ssh dir
  • Backups launch items /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Notes

  • Mackup

    • These scripts makes copies of plist files in ~/Library/Preferences and is not compatible with the way Mackup creates symlinks for some of these files. On the bright side though, if you use this as well as Mackup to backup and restore, everything should just work. Just remember that any preferences Mackup backs up won't be backed up by this tool.

  • Using defaults write

    • When you run defaults write and use the wrong/old case for the domain you can create a new plist file with the wrong case (e.g. com.apple.addressbook instead of com.apple.AddressBook).
    • The defaults app has a tendency to fail silently for some things. You might be trying to use old defaults write commands where the key is the wrong name.
    • Because of the above 2 reasons maintaining a bunch of defaults write commands in bash script can be error prone and the defaults command will fail silently.

Todo

  • Backup and restore /Library/Preferences (e.g. PowerManagement)
  • Installable via homebrew
  • Backup and restore shared file lists (Finder sidebar) ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist
  • Backup and restore dotfiles (e.g. $HOME/.bash_profile)
  • $HOME/.ssh dir
  • Startup Items /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  • Verify backup and restore
  • Write a util to generate a bash script of defaults write commands by diffing a new user account against the owned account

Problems

  • If you find a problem or a have a question feel free to file a bug here and/or send a pull request and I'll be happy to look at it and/or merge it.

Contributing

Getting started

  • Fork and clone then cd to this git repository
  • Run pip install -r requirements.txt

Running the tests

Getting your changes merged

  • Make your changes and push them to github
  • Make sure your changes have tests and pass linting
  • Open a pull request