Where apps hide your files

Where each editing app wants your LUTs

Updated 2026-10-28 · 7 min read

There is no single LUT folder on a Mac. Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve each read their own, and each has a way to open it. Here is where to put your files, and the in-app shortcut that avoids guessing.

The three folders

Final Cut Pro:    ~/Library/Application Support/ProApps/Custom LUTs/
                  ~/Library/Application Support/ProApps/Camera LUTs/
Premiere Pro:     ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Creative/
                  ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Technical/
DaVinci Resolve:  /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/

The Final Cut Pro paths are from Apple's guide, the Premiere Pro ones from Adobe's LUT FAQ on its community forum (an all-users version under /Library also works), and the Resolve path from Blackmagic's manual. Each has caveats, covered below. Most .cube files work in all three apps, so keep one master folder of LUTs and copy into each app as needed.

To open any of these in Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and paste the path. Final Cut Pro and Resolve also have a command that opens their own folder (Reveal in Finder, Open LUT Folder), which is the safest route.

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro does not want you to drop files in a folder: it imports a LUT, then keeps a copy. Apple's guide describes two kinds.

Custom LUT effect. In the Effects browser pick the Color category and double-click Custom LUT to apply it to a clip. In the Video inspector, open the LUT pop-up in the Custom LUT section and choose Choose Custom LUT. Pick a .cube or .mga file, several files, or a whole folder. A folder shows up as a submenu. To open the storage folder, choose Reveal in Finder from the same pop-up. Apple gives the folder as ~/Library/Application Support/ProApps/Custom LUTs/.

Custom camera LUT. This one converts a log camera format into a working colour space. In the Info inspector (with the Metadata View set to General, Extended or Settings), the Camera LUT pop-up menu has an Add Custom Camera LUT command, which asks you to pick the output colour space. These are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/ProApps/Camera LUTs/, and the same pop-up has Reveal in Finder.

To share LUTs with another editor, select the files in those folders, choose File > Compress in Finder and send the ZIP, as Apple suggests. The other person imports them with the commands above.

Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro reads LUTs from Adobe's shared Common/LUTs folders. Adobe's FAQ on its community forum gives two places on a Mac, and in both you create the subfolders yourself:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Creative and .../Technical, for your user account only;
• /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Creative and .../Technical, for every user, which needs an administrator password to create.

Files in Creative appear in the Look menu in Lumetri Color's Creative section, and files in Technical appear in the Input LUT menu under Basic Correction. Premiere scans these folders when it starts, so restart it after adding files. Adobe also warns against putting LUTs inside the Premiere Pro application itself, because an update, a shared project or a Media Encoder export breaks that setup.

You may find empty Input and Output folders in the user-level LUTs folder already, left by another Adobe app. Lumetri's menus read Creative and Technical, so add those beside them.

The method that always works is Browse. In Lumetri Color, open the Input LUT or Look menu and choose Browse to pick a .cube file from anywhere. No install needed, but the clip then points at that file, so keep it in a stable place and do not rename it.

DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic's manual gives the Mac location as /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/. Put LUTs there, in subfolders if you like. The controls are in Project Settings > Color Management > Lookup Tables: Open LUT Folder opens the folder your copy of Resolve reads, and Update Lists makes new files appear without a restart. The manual notes that the Mac App Store version keeps its LUTs in a different, self-contained location, so use the button rather than guessing.

Note the top-level /Library. That is the system library, not the one in your home folder. Copying into it asks for an administrator password.

Recent versions can also read extra folders: the Resolve 18.6 manual describes a LUT Locations list in the General panel of the System preferences (DaVinci Resolve > Preferences > System > General), where Add points Resolve at a folder you choose, such as your master LUT folder. Click Save to keep the change.

What file types

The .cube format works across all three. Final Cut Pro also takes .mga, and Resolve's manual lists other formats too.

Keep one master folder

Instead of hunting through three apps, keep your LUTs in a folder you choose, such as ~/Documents/LUTs, organised by purpose. Import or copy from there. If you ever lose an app's copy, you still have the originals.

Space

LUT files are small: a common 33-point .cube is about a megabyte, and a 65-point one several megabytes. Check a folder with du -sh <folder>. Duplicates across three apps are not worth worrying about.

Why searches miss these files

.cube names are often cryptic, and Spotlight and Finder searches leave out results from ~/Library and the system /Library where the three apps keep their copies.

Finding them again later

Typing .cube into Everywhere lists LUT files by name across the Mac. The app folders above sit in ~/Library/Application Support and /Library, which it indexes from the start; a pack in Downloads or on an external drive, even one you have unplugged, shows up once Everywhere has Full Disk Access. A search for Custom LUTs takes you straight to Final Cut Pro's folder. Press ⌘↵ to reveal one in Finder. It matches file names only, so it cannot tell you what a LUT looks like.

Common questions

Where do LUTs go in Final Cut Pro?

Import them with Choose Custom LUT in the Custom LUT section of the Video inspector. Final Cut Pro stores them in ~/Library/Application Support/ProApps/Custom LUTs/, and Reveal in Finder opens it.

Where is the LUT folder for DaVinci Resolve on Mac?

Blackmagic's manual gives /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/. In Project Settings > Color Management > Lookup Tables, Open LUT Folder opens the right folder for your edition and Update Lists loads new files.

How do I add LUTs to Premiere Pro?

Use Browse in the Input LUT or Look menu of Lumetri Color to pick a .cube file, or create Creative and Technical folders in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs (or in /Library/... for all users), copy the files in and restart Premiere.

What file format should a LUT be?

.cube works in all three apps. Final Cut Pro also accepts .mga.