Now as menu items, Not the old "S" and "A" buttons in the main window of earlier versions of Backuplist+.

Adding System or Application preferences automatically

This feature is useful if you don't have a lot of space on your storage device (not a big issue any more!) and want to save all your essential preference files. Selecting "Add System Preferences to current set" or "Add Application Preferences to current set" in the File menu (see above picture) will automatically collect all the most important system and application preferences for you. You don't need this feature if you backup your whole Home folder, or Library/Preferences folder since they already include all these files. I have left this feature because it is still useful if you want a quick set of replacement preferences for your apps.

Your personal System preferences reside in Home Folder/ Library/Preferences and include:
Mail (includes all your mail messages and settings: a Mail folder and also a mail preference file are needed.)
Safari (bookmarks and settings)
Address Book (Addresses, settings etc.)
Fonts (fonts you installed yourself)
iChat
Widgets
Etc.

Many other individual system preference files that you would need to restore your settings will be backed up too. The two folders for System preferences and Application preferences appear in the list with an asterisk and represent all these numerous files. The files themselves don't appear in the list since there are too many of them ( the folders with an asterisk are symbolic and just represent them.)

system preferens

When you back up these System and/or Application Preferences, a new folder called "User Preferences" will be created in your backup folder. It has an asterisk like this:

one system folder

Inside you will find a folder usually called "Users" and or "System" or "Library" depending on the source files. This represents the same folder structure as on your own hard drive but only contains any special System and/or Application Preference files that you have selected for backup as noted above. They will reside in their respective folders, such as "Users/UserHomeFolder/Library", "Users/UserHomeFolder/Library/Preferences", "Users/UserHomeFolder/Library/Application Support."

This allows backuplist+ to collect your System and Application preference files in one place from which you can easily restore to their original locations which is mirrored in the backup folder. If for instance you have Adobe Photoshop, these preference files can be in several locations, such as "/Library/Application Support/Adobe" and if you do not want to backup your whole computer, you can restore your specific application preferences from these.

Note: The only files that end up in these special folders are the many preference files that are useful for restoring the look and feel of your system. They are represented by the special folders in the main list window you see above. They are selected from a list (see below) and any other folders or files in your list window will backup into the destination folder itself, and not these special folders. It is extra insurance in a way and an easy way to know where to put them back if you need to restore your computer after a crash.

To edit the Application Preferences:
In the File menu you can select "Edit Application list" and add or delete the name of any applications you commonly use (third party applications only, such as Adobe or Filemaker etc, other than the Apple applications that come with your Mac.) You can then select "Edit Application preferences" to edit that list which is a list of the actual file paths that have been scanned. Delete whole lines to remove them and don't add any extra punctuation.

You can also view the complete System Preferences list. Go to File menu > Show System preferences list. This list cannot be edited but gives you an idea of what it contains. The combined size of these files is small so you can easily add this group to your list (Add System preferences by selecting "Add Application preferences to current set" in the main File menu.)

add preferences

 

To restore System or application preferences


Find the Special folder called User Preferences and open it and follow the instructions inside. Basically replace the preferences files back into the folders they came from. You can also see what folders they came from in the path lists below. All the individual folders such as Mail, Fonts, Scripts, Ical, etc can be restored the same way - just copy them back into their original folders (see folder list below or just find them in your original preferences folder and replace them there with the backup copies.)

 

These are the lists of preference files backuplist+ uses "adding" system preferences.

This list are large important folders that appear in the main list window separately and are copied to the main backup directory, not to the special preferences folder.

/Library/Application Support/Address Book
/Library/Application Support/iCal
/Library/Calendars
/Library/Mail
/Library/Safari
/Library/Fonts
/Library/Widgets

These files all get copied into the special "User Preferences" folders (explained above) and not into the main backup directory.

/Library/Preferences/AddressBookMe.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.alarmsCache.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.AlarmScheduler.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.sources.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChatAgent.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPhoto.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintCenter.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.BezelServices.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.BluetoothFileExchange.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfig.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MenuBarClock.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.menuextra.battery.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Stickies.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetInfoManager.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.keychainaccess.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.isync.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconnect.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Backup.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.client.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Automator.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FontBook.plist
/Library/StickiesDatabase
/Library/Daily Startup Items
/Library/Favorites
/Library/Printers
/Library/Keychains
/Library/Contextual Menu Items
/Library/Scripts
/Library/Preferences/iMovie
/Library/iTunes
/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins"