Where apps hide your files

Final Cut Pro's Motion Templates folder

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

Custom titles, effects, generators and transitions for Final Cut Pro all live in one folder in your Movies folder, sorted by type, then category. Knowing that layout lets you install a pack by hand, share templates with another editor, or find out why a title has not appeared.

The folder

~/Movies/Motion Templates

Apple's Motion documentation gives this as the place where Final Cut Pro templates are saved, organised by template type. Open it from Finder with Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), or open ~/Movies and double-click Motion Templates. From Terminal:

open ~/Movies/Motion\ Templates*

On disk the folder is often named Motion Templates.localized. Finder hides the .localized suffix (a macOS convention for folders with a translated display name), but Terminal shows it, which is why the command ends with a wildcard. The suffix also matters when you create the folders yourself (see below). If the folder is missing, you have probably not saved or installed a template yet: saving a template from Motion, or running a pack's installer, normally creates it.

How it is organised

Inside Motion Templates, Apple's guide lists these template types:

Folder	What it holds
Titles	Title templates (.moti project files)
Effects	Effects (.moef)
Generators	Generators (.motn)
Transitions	Transitions (.motr)
Compositions	Templates made in Motion for use in Motion

Below the type comes the category, then an optional theme, then one folder per template. Apple's own example is Motion Templates/Effects/Blur/News/yourtemplatename/. The category is what you see as the group name in Final Cut Pro's Titles, Effects, Generators and Transitions browsers.

A single template folder holds:

• the project file (.moti, .moef, .motn or .motr, matching the type);
• large.png and small.png, the previews used in the browsers;
• an optional .mov preview movie;
• a Media folder with every image and clip the template uses.

Never move the project file out of its folder. It looks for the Media folder beside it.

Installing a third-party pack by hand

Most packs come with an installer or a drag-to-install step. If yours is just a folder, the rule is to recreate the same hierarchy: type, then category, then the template folder.

1. Quit Final Cut Pro.
2. Open ~/Movies/Motion Templates, creating it if needed.
3. Put the pack under the right type, for example Titles/<category>/<template folder>. Keep the category level: Apple Community answers call leaving it out a common mistake.
4. Start Final Cut Pro and look in the matching browser.

The .localized suffix is where advice online disagrees. Apple Community answers say the top Motion Templates folder and the type folder (such as Titles) need to carry .localized when you create them yourself, while the category and template folders keep plain names. Apple does not document this rule in the Motion guide. The reliable method is to let Motion or the vendor's installer create the folders, then add your pack inside them. If you must create them, select a folder in Finder, press ⌘I and check what the Name & Extension field shows.

Some installers write to a system-wide folder instead, such as /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro/Templates.localized, which serves every user on the Mac. FxFactory's help notes that Final Cut Pro loads third-party effects from a few locations. If a pack is installed but is not in your Movies folder, look there, or search for the pack's name.

Making your own and sharing templates

In Motion, you save a project as a Final Cut template and assign a category and an optional theme, and Motion writes the folder structure for you. To share templates with another editor, copy the template folders into the same hierarchy in their ~/Movies/Motion Templates folder, as Apple's documentation describes. Copy the whole template folder, Media included, or the title will open with missing media.

Missing titles and effects

If an installed template does not appear:

• Check the type folder. A title in Effects will not show under Titles.
• Check that a category folder exists between the type and the template.
• Quit and restart Final Cut Pro. One Apple Community answer says new titles can be picked up while it runs, but restarting avoids problems.
• Make sure the template's project file extension matches its type (.moti for a title).
• If a template appears but its images or clips are missing, its Media folder did not come with it.

Space and removal

Template folders are small unless a pack ships large video or particle media. To see which packs take space:

du -sh ~/Movies/Motion\ Templates*/*/*

To remove a pack, quit Final Cut Pro and move that pack's folder to the Trash in Finder. Removing a template does not delete anything from your projects, but any project that used it will no longer find that title or effect.

Backing up and moving to a new Mac

Copy ~/Movies/Motion Templates to the same place on the new Mac. Keep a copy of the vendor's installer too, since some packs also install fonts or plug-ins elsewhere.

Why searches miss these files

Spotlight does cover your Movies folder, but every template brings its own large.png, small.png and Media files, so a search drowns in look-alike results, and pack folders often carry the vendor's name rather than the title you see in Final Cut Pro. Templates installed under /Library, and the built-in ones inside the app, are left out of normal Spotlight and Finder results.

Finding them again later

Typing a pack's name, or an extension such as .moti, into Everywhere lists every title project by name, including ones in packs you have forgotten about. Your Movies folder is protected by macOS, so Everywhere covers it once it has Full Disk Access; packs installed under /Library are indexed either way. Press ⌘↵ to reveal a result in Finder. It matches file names only, not what is inside a template.

Common questions

Where are Final Cut Pro titles stored on a Mac?

Custom and third-party titles go in ~/Movies/Motion Templates/Titles/<category>/<title folder>. Apple's built-in titles ship with the app and are not in that folder.

Why is my Motion template not showing in Final Cut Pro?

Usually the folder hierarchy is wrong: it needs the type folder, a category folder, then the template folder. Also check the file type matches the folder and restart Final Cut Pro.

Do I need .localized on Motion Templates folders?

Apple Community answers disagree on which folders need it and Apple does not document it on its Motion page. Let Motion or the installer create the folders, then add your pack inside.

How do I share Motion templates with another Mac?

Copy the template folders, with their Media folders, into the same hierarchy in the other user's ~/Movies/Motion Templates folder, as Apple's Motion guide describes.