Where apps hide your files

Hunting down a Mac game's save files

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

There is no single save folder for Mac games, but there are a handful of likely places and a quick way to find the right one. This gives you both.

The places to look

Mac games do not agree on one save folder. Check these in order, because nearly every game uses one of them:

~/Library/Application Support/
~/Library/Containers/<bundle id>/Data/Library/Application Support/
~/Library/Mobile Documents/
~/Documents/
~/Library/Preferences/

Application Support is the most common home for saves. The Containers path is for sandboxed games from the Mac App Store. Mobile Documents is where iCloud Drive keeps synced data. Documents is where some games, especially ports, drop a folder named after the game or studio. Preferences usually holds only settings, but games built with Unity that save through its PlayerPrefs feature keep that data in ~/Library/Preferences/<bundle identifier>.plist, according to Unity's documentation.

Application Support

Most Steam, GOG, Epic and direct-download games write to a folder in ~/Library/Application Support, named after the game or the studio. Some ports nest it one level deeper, under the publisher, so look inside folders such as a publisher name before assuming a game left nothing behind. Inside you typically find save files, a config file and sometimes a screenshots or logs subfolder.

To list candidates without opening anything, use Terminal with a part of the game's name:

ls ~/Library/Application\ Support | grep -i "part of the name"

Open the folder from Finder with Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and paste the path. Library is hidden by default.

Sandboxed games (Mac App Store and Apple Arcade)

App Store apps are sandboxed, so each gets its own container named after its bundle identifier, which is a reverse-domain string. The saves are inside the container:

~/Library/Containers/<bundle id>/Data/Library/Application Support/

Find the right container by listing names and matching on the developer or game:

ls ~/Library/Containers | grep -i "part of the name"

Inside, Data/Documents and Data/Library are the two places to check. You can copy a whole container out for a backup. Do not rename or edit its internals.

On an Apple silicon Mac, iPhone and iPad games installed from the App Store get a container too, but it can be named with a long ID such as EC171034-219A-4A2F-8157-C3E1122A0AFE rather than the bundle identifier, so the grep above will not find it. The changed-files trick further down will.

Games that ship through a developer's own installer are not sandboxed, so they ignore this location and use Application Support or Documents instead.

iCloud saves

Games that sync progress through iCloud Drive store it in a folder under:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/

The folder names are iCloud container identifiers with the dots turned into ~, such as iCloud~com~developer~game, and some start with the developer's team ID instead, like F3LWYJ7GM7~com~apple~garageband10. Apple's own apps appear as names like com~apple~Pages, which is a quick way to recognise the pattern. Some apps show their folder in Finder under iCloud Drive, but many are visible only through the Mobile Documents path.

Two cautions. Moving or deleting a file here syncs the change to every device signed in to the same Apple Account. And some games sync progress through Game Center or other iCloud services that leave no file here at all; their local copy is still in the game's container or Application Support folder.

Steam, and ports from other publishers

Steam games keep installed files in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps, but saves are usually elsewhere. Games with Steam Cloud also keep a synced copy under Steam/userdata. The Steam post covers that layout. Some Mac ports use a publisher's own folder, so a game from a well-known porting studio may have saves under that studio's name in Application Support rather than the game's.

For Minecraft, the details are different again: worlds are in ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves, covered in the Minecraft post.

When you cannot guess the folder

Play the game, save, and quit. Then ask the file system what changed in the last few minutes, skipping caches. This only lists names and reads nothing:

find ~/Library ~/Documents -type f -mmin -10 -not -path "*/Caches/*" 2>/dev/null | head -100

-mmin -10 means "changed within the last ten minutes". The save is almost always in the list, inside a folder carrying the game's or studio's name; the order is the order folders were walked, not newest first, so scan the whole list. It can take a minute on a well-used Mac. Run it right after saving, because background apps keep writing files and the list gets noisier as time passes. macOS may ask whether Terminal can access certain folders or other apps' data; declining just leaves those folders out.

Backing up and moving saves

1. Quit the game, so it is not writing.
2. Copy the save folder (not the whole game) to a backup drive or cloud folder.
3. On the new Mac, install the game, run it once so it creates its folders, quit, then copy the save into the same path.

Time Machine backs up ~/Library with the rest of your home folder, and Migration Assistant carries Application Support and Containers across when you move your account. For iCloud games, sign in with the same Apple Account and let the data sync before launching.

Space and cleanup

Saves are small, usually kilobytes to a few megabytes. If a game folder in Application Support is huge, it is typically cached downloads, video, logs or replay data rather than saves. Look at what is in it before deleting anything. Do not remove a folder just because it is large, because saves and caches often share one directory. To judge, open it in Finder's list view, press ⌘J and turn on Calculate all sizes, then sort by Size, or run du -sh on its subfolders.

Why searching for a save finds nothing

Spotlight does not return files from ~/Library, app containers or hidden folders, and save files are often named something like slot1.sav, profile.dat or a long hash, none of which is how you think of them.

Next time you need a save

If you remember even a fragment, such as slot, .sav or the studio's name, type it into Everywhere. It lists matching files from Application Support and Preferences, where Spotlight never looks, and from containers, iCloud folders and Documents once it has Full Disk Access; ⌘↵ reveals the hit in Finder. It matches names only, so a save called profile.dat will not turn up by searching for your character's name.

Common questions

Where do Mac games save their progress?

Most use a folder in ~/Library/Application Support named after the game or studio. Mac App Store games keep saves in ~/Library/Containers, and iCloud-synced ones in ~/Library/Mobile Documents.

How can I find a game's save file if I do not know the folder?

Play and save, quit the game, then run find ~/Library ~/Documents -type f -mmin -10 in Terminal to list files changed in the last ten minutes. The save is usually in that list, in a folder named after the game or studio.

Does deleting a game also delete its saves on Mac?

Usually not. Uninstalling removes the game's own files, while saves in Application Support, Documents or iCloud stay put. Delete those folders separately only if you want the progress gone.

Do Steam games store saves in the steamapps folder?

Typically no. Saves usually go to Application Support or Documents, and Steam Cloud games also keep a synced copy under Steam/userdata.