What Is Stored in the iChat Preference Files
What Is Stored in the iChat Preference Files
.plists Explored.
What is Stored in your Preference Files
All the settings you make in either the menu settings or in iChat Prefences are stored in four or five preference files, depending on the iChat version you are using.
- com.apple.ichat.plist
- com.apple.ichatAgent.plist
- com.apple.ichat.AIM.plist
- com.apple.ichat.Subnet.plist
- iChat 3
com.apple.Jabber.plist
They are all found in Users/(your account)/Library/Preferences. (mine looks like this for the path to /Users/ralph/Library/Preferences)
com.apple.ichatSubnet.plist is only created if you choose the Privacy section in iChat's Preference settings for Allow and Block lists of Buddies. The default for the setting is Allow All. If you have any trouble in resetting your Allow or Block list this is the flie to delete.iChat 3 Calls these Security Settings and they appear as a tab in the Accounts section
com.apple.ichatAIM.plist is the file where your login account name is held (to the AIM server). The proxy server settings and, if you have not cleared the list, the other account names you have entered in the Accounts Preference Section are also held in this file. Deleting this file can be useful (sometimes) if you are having problems connecting to the AIM server. You will lose all the AIM and Mac Account names used under one Mac user account.
- (Note the distinction between iChat Account/Screen names that you need to log on to the AIM server with and the Mac user account that you log onto your computer with. You can have more than one AIM log-in Account name stored in the Accounts Section of iChat Preferences and swap between them in the drop down found in the Accounts section. If you do this for a friend rather than set them up a whole Mac account on your computer they could send messages in your name by switching back as there is no check when doing so if you have asked Keychain to remember your Password.)
If you have asked KeyChain to remember your password (it makes it easier not to enter it at every iChat start-up) then you have to remember to delete the entry for the AIM/Mac account there as well.
com.apple.ichatAgent.plist stores your Buddy icon reference. And the "enabled" settings found in the Video menu for the Camera and the Mic. Essentially it is the .plist file for the background application iChatAgent that runs when iChat does. It broadcasts that you are on-line and sends you current Buddy icon to the server.
iChat 3
com.apple.iChat.Jabber.plist is where the details of your Jabber account(s) are held.
It has the same role for the Jabber side as the com.apple.ichat.AIM.plist does for the main side of iChat.
com.apple.ichat.plist is where everything else is stored.In No particular order:
- Your Status Messages,
- your Balloon and Text style choices for Text messages,
- the download folder for files (If you have changed it from the Desktop default).
- Other things like the position of the Picture in Picture during Video chats
- and the postion on the screen that the various windows appear are also contained here
iChat 3
In iChat 3 there are extra settings held such as the Bandwidth calculation (those bits with BW in them).
All the iChat2.x .plists can be opened by TextEdit (or any other Text editor) from the "Open With" menu item in the Finder's File Menu and then navigating to the TextEdit (or other) application. If you have installed Developer Tools you can also open them in Property List Editor (the only way to open iChat 3 .plists), like I have in these demostration pictures. They are edtiatble and can be saved afterwards to make individual changes.
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© 2005 Ralph Johns: Edited 24/9/2005, 5/5/2006
Updated September 2006. Moved to Gargoyles and edited Mar 2007
Information Column
The point of this page was to give people a look at the .plists and hope that they might be able to find their way with them a bit.
I used to have a lot of trouble with four pictures on this page so ai have reduced it to just two examples.
