Where apps hide your files

Finder sidebar files (.sfl3)

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

The folders pinned in Finder's sidebar are stored in small .sfl3 files inside your Library folder, next to the lists for recent items. The sidebar's look is kept separately, in Finder's own preference file.

The location

~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl3

That file holds the Favorites section of Finder's sidebar. On the Mac used for this guide (macOS Sequoia 15.6) it is a 6.5 KB binary property list. Older macOS versions used the .sfl2 extension, and leftover .sfl2 files can sit beside the newer ones after an upgrade, as they do here.

To open the folder in Finder, press ⇧⌘G (Go > Go to Folder) and paste everything up to com.apple.sharedfilelist. From Terminal:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist

Which file holds what

These files in that folder relate to the sidebar on the Mac used for this guide:

File	Holds
com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl3	The Favorites section: folders you pinned and the ones Finder shows by default.
com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteVolumes.sfl3	A list of volumes, most likely the Locations section. It is the largest file here (about 100 KB).
com.apple.LSSharedFileList.iCloudItems.sfl3	Items tied to the iCloud section.
com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ProjectsItems.sfl3	Present here, but its role is not documented.
com.apple.LSSharedFileList.RecentServers.sfl3	Servers you connected to recently.

Apple does not document these files. Only the FavoriteItems role is widely confirmed; the others are inferred from their names, so treat them as likely rather than certain. They are written by a background service, not by Finder directly.

Other files in the same folder, such as RecentApplications.sfl3, RecentDocuments.sfl3 and the ApplicationRecentDocuments subfolder, belong to the Recent Items lists, not the sidebar.

Don't read them as text

Each item is stored as a bookmark: a record that follows a folder even after you rename or move it. A text editor shows noise, and converting the file with plutil would print the full paths of your folders. Look at names, sizes and dates only:

ls -la ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist

Do not edit them. A damaged file can leave the sidebar empty.

What is kept somewhere else

The sidebar's look, as opposed to its list of items, is in Finder's preference file, ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. Key names there include ShowSidebar, SidebarWidth, a disclosed or collapsed state for each section (such as SidebarPlacesSectionDisclosedState) and FavoriteTagNames for the tags shown in the sidebar. Change these through Finder, not the file.

Changing the sidebar the supported way

• Add a folder: drag it into Favorites, or select it and choose File > Add to Sidebar (⌃⌘T). The command and its shortcut are in Finder's own menu file.
• Remove an item: Control-click it and choose Remove from Sidebar, or drag it out.
• Show or hide the built-in items such as Recents, Applications, Desktop, Documents, Downloads and iCloud Drive: Finder > Settings, then the Sidebar tab, under "Show these items in the sidebar".
• Tags: Finder > Settings, then the Tags tab, under "Show these tags in the sidebar".
• Hide the whole sidebar: View > Hide Sidebar.
• Reorder: drag items up or down.

If an item has gone missing, check the Sidebar and Tags tabs before suspecting a damaged file. iCloud Drive in particular has its own checkbox in the Sidebar tab, so a missing iCloud Drive entry is usually a setting rather than a damaged file.

Resetting a broken sidebar

If Favorites is empty, shows duplicates or will not save changes, a common fix is to move FavoriteItems.sfl3 out of the folder and log out and back in, so macOS writes a fresh default list:

1. Quit any apps you can, then in Finder drag com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl3 to your Desktop. It stays there as your backup.
2. Log out and log back in.
3. Add your folders to the sidebar again. Once it looks right, you can move the old file from the Desktop to the Trash.

Apple does not document this and it was not run on the Mac used for this guide, so keep the old file until you are happy. It only affects shortcuts; the folders themselves are untouched.

Why items turn grey or point to the wrong place

Because each entry is a bookmark rather than a plain path, a favourite keeps working after you rename or move its folder. The flip side is that an entry for a folder you deleted can keep pointing at the old folder (for example, one still in the Trash) instead of a new folder with the same name. A favourite on an external drive or network share that is not connected shows dimmed until the volume returns.

Both have the same fix, and it needs no file editing: use Remove from Sidebar on the stale entry, then drag the right folder in again.

Moving your sidebar to a new Mac

Migration Assistant brings the shared file lists across with your account. Copying FavoriteItems.sfl3 by hand is less reliable: bookmarks to folders that do not exist on the new Mac show as greyed-out entries, and dragging your folders into a fresh sidebar is often quicker than cleaning up.

Why search misses these files

Spotlight and Finder searches leave out ~/Library/Application Support, and the file names carry no word like "sidebar".

Finding the sidebar files again

Typing sfl3 in Everywhere lists every shared file list in one go, including the per-app files in ApplicationRecentDocuments, so you can tell the sidebar lists from the recent-items ones at a glance. This part of ~/Library is covered without extra setup. It matches names only, so it cannot tell you which folders a file points at.

Common questions

Where does Finder store sidebar favorites?

In ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/, in a file named com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl3. It is a binary file of bookmarks, so do not edit it by hand.

What is an .sfl3 file on a Mac?

A shared file list: a binary file in which macOS stores sidebar items and recent items as bookmarks. Sequoia writes .sfl3 files; older releases used .sfl2 or .sfl.

What is the shortcut to add a folder to the Finder sidebar?

Select the folder and press ⌃⌘T, which is File > Add to Sidebar. You can also drag the folder into the Favorites section.

How do I show iCloud Drive or tags in the Finder sidebar?

Open Finder > Settings. The Sidebar tab has the iCloud Drive checkbox among the items to show, and the Tags tab has the list of tags to show in the sidebar.