Where are keyboard text shortcuts stored in Mac OS X

Question

I’m writing an AppleScript which interfaces with the “System Preferences > Keyboard > Text” information and I wanted to know where the actual properties are being stored.

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 11 '18 at 19:46

3

Search ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/ for UserDictionary.db. Use "DB Browser for SQLite" app to view the .db file. Shortcuts are in the ZUSERDICTIONARYENTRY table, ZPHRASE and ZSHORTCUT are the columns you need.

edited Jan 11 '18 at 19:46

2540625

393

answered Dec 17 '16 at 21:05

bromptonista

43

My text replacements disappeared after upgrading iOS and macOS. I was able to restore them from this file in Time Machine, and your suggestion of DB Browser app helped confirm I found the right set. Thanks. – 2540625 Jan 11 '18 at 18:01

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 08 '15 at 23:52

2

~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/

In that folder are multiple folders containing different databases. These are not directly editable .txt files but rather .db files. Though you can copy and paste the folders from a different Mac and it will expand your own text shortcuts database.

answered Aug 08 '15 at 23:52

Colorado

36

Is it possible to edit these manually? – nodebase Feb 08 '16 at 17:39

Where are keyboard text shortcuts stored in Mac OS X

2 Answers2