Where apps hide your files

Cities: Skylines folders: saves, mods, maps, assets

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

The original Cities: Skylines stores everything you make in one Library folder named after its developer. Here is the path, what each subfolder holds, and what to know about cloud saves, Workshop mods, logs and Cities: Skylines II.

The location

Paradox's support pages give this as the Mac folder for the original Cities: Skylines:

~/Library/Application Support/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines

Everything you make lives in it. The community modding documentation describes the layout:

Folder	What it holds
Saves	Save games
Maps	Maps you made in the Map Editor
Addons/Mods	Code mods you installed by hand
Addons/Assets	Assets saved from the Asset Editor
Addons/ColorCorrections, Addons/Import, Addons/MapEditor	Colour look-up tables, files to import into the Asset Editor, and brushes and heightmaps for the Map Editor
Snapshots	Pictures taken in the Map and Asset Editors
WorkshopStagingArea	Items being prepared for upload, present only while needed

The game's settings file, gameSettings.cgs, sits at the top of the folder, according to PCGamingWiki.

~/Library is hidden in Finder. Choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), paste the path and press Return. From Terminal:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Colossal\ Order/Cities_Skylines

The game creates the folder on first launch, and some subfolders appear only once you use the feature.

Save files

Saves, maps and assets all use the game's own package format, .crp. Each city in Saves is one .crp file, and a city built with many mods and assets can be large. Rename or copy files only with the game closed, and keep the .crp ending.

The save dialog lets you choose, for each save, whether it goes to the Steam Cloud. A city saved that way may not be in Saves: Steam keeps cloud files under its own userdata folder, which Paradox support lists as Steam/userdata/<Steam ID>/255710 (on a Mac, inside ~/Library/Application Support/Steam).

If a city loads with missing buildings, the cause is usually a mod or asset that is no longer installed, not a damaged file. Put the item back before blaming the save.

Mods and Workshop items

Mods you download by hand go in Addons/Mods. Items you subscribe to on the Steam Workshop are not stored there. Steam keeps them under its own folder, one numbered folder per item:

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/255710

255710 is the game's Steam app ID. Manage subscriptions in the game's Content Manager or on Steam rather than moving Workshop files yourself, since Steam adds and removes those folders and manual changes leave Steam and the game disagreeing about what is installed.

The game folder and the log

Steam installs the game itself at:

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Cities_Skylines

To open it from Steam, right-click the game and choose Manage > Browse local files. On Windows the log is output_log.txt in the game's data folder. The Mac game writes a Unity Player.log instead; mod authors' guides give ~/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log, and one Mac player found it there after a Spotlight search showed nothing. To check, without opening anything:

ls ~/Library/Logs/Unity

Which game, which store

This page is about the original Cities: Skylines. Cities: Skylines II has no Mac version: Steam lists it for Windows only, and Paradox's support page says there is no native Mac client (it suggests GeForce Now instead). On the Mac, the original game is sold through Steam; the Epic and Microsoft Store editions are Windows only, so every Mac copy uses the folders above.

When a mod will not load

Work from the least to the most drastic step.

1. Start the game with mods switched off. Paradox support suggests adding the launch options --disableMods --noWorkshop (in Steam, the game's Properties, then the launch options box). If the game now works, a mod or asset is at fault.
2. Quit, then move the mods you added most recently out of Addons/Mods into a folder on your Desktop, remove the launch options, and add mods back a few at a time.
3. For Workshop items, unsubscribe in the Content Manager instead of deleting files.

Paradox notes that each major game update leaves many mods outdated, so check a mod's page for the version it supports. Its clean-reinstall steps delete the whole data folder, so move Saves (and Addons, if you want your mods back) somewhere safe first.

If a mod author asks for the log, send Player.log rather than a screenshot. A log can include your Mac username in file paths, so skim it before posting it publicly.

Space

Snapshots grows with every editor snapshot and is never cleaned automatically. The modding documentation says it can be deleted by hand with no side effects for the game; quit the game first and move it to the Trash rather than using Terminal. Workshop content is usually the largest part, and the way to shrink it is to unsubscribe.

Backing up or moving to a new Mac

1. Quit the game.
2. Copy Saves, Maps and Addons (or the whole Cities_Skylines folder) to another place.
3. On the new Mac, install the game, start it once, quit, and put the folders back.
4. Subscribe to your Workshop items again. Steam downloads them, so you do not need to copy the Workshop folder.

Why searching misses these

Spotlight and Finder searches leave out ~/Library, so a city name typed into them returns nothing. Workshop items are numbered folders, which are harder still to recognise.

Finding a city or mod again

Type a city's name into Everywhere and it shows the .crp save with its folder, including any copy Steam keeps under userdata. Typing Player.log finds the log, and a mod's name finds its folder under Addons or in the Workshop content. These folders sit in ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Logs, which are scanned without extra permission, and it searches names only, not what is inside a save.

Common questions

Where is the Cities: Skylines mods folder on a Mac?

Hand-installed mods go in ~/Library/Application Support/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/Addons/Mods. Steam Workshop subscriptions are stored separately under Steam's workshop/content/255710 folder.

Where are Cities: Skylines saves on Mac?

In ~/Library/Application Support/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/Saves, as .crp files. Cities saved to the Steam Cloud are kept by Steam under its userdata folder instead.

Is Cities: Skylines II on Mac?

No. Steam lists Cities: Skylines II for Windows only, and Paradox support says there is no native Mac client, suggesting GeForce Now instead.

How do I start Cities: Skylines without mods?

Paradox support suggests the launch options --disableMods --noWorkshop, set in the game's Steam Properties. If the game then works, add your mods back a few at a time to find the broken one.