Where apps hide your files

Finding Logic Pro's patches, channel strips and plug-in settings

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

Your own Logic Pro patches, channel strip settings and plug-in settings live in one folder inside Music, while the factory sounds sit elsewhere, and Logic Pro 12 moved those into a single bundle. Here are both, and how to install, back up and tell them apart.

The location

~/Music/Audio Music Apps

Your own Logic Pro patches, channel strip settings and plug-in settings go in this folder inside your Music folder, each type in its own subfolder. Apple's support article on moving Drum Machine Designer kits gives the patch folder:

~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Patches/Instrument

Community and sound-vendor guides give the others:

~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Channel Strip Settings
~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings
~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Sampler Instruments
~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Samples

Logic creates a subfolder the first time you save something of that kind, so a missing one is normal. Apple's article predates Logic Pro 12; Apple Community threads from Logic Pro 12 users still describe Audio Music Apps/Patches as the folder behind User Patches.

To open it, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) in Finder, paste the path and press Return, or in Terminal:

open ~/Music/Audio\ Music\ Apps

Factory sounds live elsewhere, and Logic Pro 12 moved them

Apple's sound library article says that starting in Logic Pro 12 and MainStage 4, all the sound library files included with the apps, such as patches, Apple Loops and samples, are stored in one file called Logic Pro Library.bundle. The Logic Pro 12 user guide says it sits in your Music folder by default:

~/Music/Logic Pro Library.bundle

The first time you open Logic Pro 12, it clones your existing sound library into that bundle, which Apple says needs no extra space. You can move the bundle to another drive and point Logic at it in Logic Pro > Settings > General, where the Sound Library section has Locate and Show in Finder buttons. Apple adds that the new bundle is not compatible with older versions, so keep the old library if you still run Logic Pro 11.

For Logic Pro 11 and earlier, Apple's user guide lists the factory locations: patches inside the Logic Pro app, plug-in settings inside the app and in /Library/Application Support/Logic/Plug-In Settings, sampler instruments in /Library/Application Support/Logic/Sampler Instruments, and Apple Loops in /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple. Apple says patches inside the app may be added, updated or removed when a new version installs, so never save your own work there, in the bundle or in the system Library.

Saving a patch

Apple's user guide: select the track, open the Library, click Save in the lower-right corner of the Library and name the patch. After the first save a User Patches folder appears in the Library, and saved patches go into it, usable in any project. If MainStage 2 or later is installed, patches saved in MainStage appear in a MainStage Patches subfolder of User Patches.

Patches are .patch files. For a Drum Machine Designer kit built from your own samples, Apple's article says to save the project as a folder with Sampler audio data, copy its Quick Sampler folder, rename that copy to match the patch name, and put both in Patches/Instrument on the other Mac. That route needs Logic Pro 10.5 or later.

Patch, channel strip setting or plug-in setting

Kind	How you save it	Where yours go
Patch (.patch)	Save in the Library	Patches/Instrument for instrument patches
Channel strip setting (.cst)	Setting button, Save Channel Strip Setting as	Channel Strip Settings/<type>
Plug-in setting (.pst)	Plug-in window, Settings menu, Save Setting As	Plug-In Settings/<plug-in>

The menu names and the .cst extension are from Apple's guide. Apple says channel strip settings are specific to each channel strip type (instrument, audio, output, aux), and the save dialog asks you to pick the folder; an Apple Community reply names Instrument and Track subfolders. Apple also says a new plug-in settings folder must be inside that plug-in's folder. The .pst extension comes from community guides.

Installing patches someone sent you

A sound vendor's install guide: copy .patch files, or folders of them, into Patches/Instrument, audio into Samples, and .exs instruments into Sampler Instruments, creating any missing folder with exactly that name, then restart Logic if it was open. If a patch appears but plays nothing, the audio it uses is probably not where it expects.

Third-party plug-in presets are elsewhere

Presets for other makers' plug-ins belong to those plug-ins. Tutorials describe settings saved from Logic's plug-in header for a third-party Audio Unit as .aupreset files under ~/Library/Audio/Presets/<maker>/<plug-in>, and many plug-ins also run their own preset browser with its own folder, such as Serum's in /Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records. Check the maker's help.

Backing up and moving to a new Mac

Copy ~/Music/Audio Music Apps as a whole. On the new Mac, install Logic, open it once, quit, and copy the folder in before you open projects, so the patches they call for are there. Factory sounds download again through Logic Pro > Sound Library, so you need not copy those. Time Machine includes your Music folder unless you excluded it.

To see sizes without changing anything:

du -sh ~/Music/Audio\ Music\ Apps

On APFS, du counts cloned files at full size, so it overstates what a freshly cloned Logic Pro Library.bundle really uses.

Can I move the user folder?

Apple documents moving the sound library, not Audio Music Apps. Forum users describe moving it to another drive and leaving an alias in its place. That is a user workaround, not Apple guidance, so try it with a copy first.

Why searching misses these

Patch files are named after the sound and sit several folders deep. Factory content is inside the app, inside the library bundle or in the system Library, and Spotlight and Finder searches leave out package contents and Library folders.

Finding them again

Type a patch's name, or .patch or .cst, into Everywhere to list matching files with their folders, so you can tell your own from the factory copies inside Logic Pro Library.bundle or the app. Your Music folder is protected by macOS, so Everywhere finds those once it has Full Disk Access. It matches file names only, not the sounds, and ⌘↵ reveals a hit in Finder.

Common questions

Where does Logic Pro save user patches on a Mac?

In ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Patches/Instrument, according to Apple's Drum Machine Designer support article. Saved patches appear under User Patches in the Library.

Where are Logic Pro channel strip settings stored?

Your own are in ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Channel Strip Settings, in a subfolder for the channel strip type, such as Instrument or Track. The subfolder names come from an Apple Community reply, not Apple's guide.

Where is the Logic Pro 12 sound library?

In a single file, Logic Pro Library.bundle, in your Music folder by default. Logic Pro > Settings > General shows its location, with Locate and Show in Finder buttons, and you can move it to another drive.

How do I install patches in Logic Pro?

Copy the .patch files into ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Patches/Instrument, plus any samples into Samples, then restart Logic if it was open.