Where apps hide your files

Finding the Splice sample folder

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

The Splice app downloads samples to ~/Splice, a plain folder in your home folder, while presets go into each plugin's own folder. Here is how to open it, what lands where, how to move it safely and how to get everything back.

The location

~/Splice

Splice's help centre says the desktop app creates a folder called Splice in your home folder, Macintosh HD/Users/<your username>/Splice, when you download your first sound, and that everything you add to your Splice library downloads there. It is an ordinary visible folder, not inside Documents or Music.

To open it from the app, click the icon at the top right of the Splice desktop app to open Preferences, then click Go to folder. In Finder, choose Go > Home (⇧⌘H) and open Splice. From Terminal:

open ~/Splice

To find one sound, click the three-dot menu beside it in the app and choose Open Enclosing Folder (the Splice Sounds plugin calls it Show enclosing folder).

What else downloads there, and what does not

Splice's help lists where each route saves:

How you got it	Where it lands
Splice desktop app	Your Splice folder
Splice Sounds plugin (v0.7.0 and later)	The same Splice folder, organised by pack
Pro Tools and Studio Pro integrations	Your Splice folder
Ableton Live integration	User Library/Samples/Splice in Live's User Library
splice.com in a browser	Your Downloads folder
MIDI files	Downloads only (website)

The Splice Sounds plugin once kept its own library. Splice says that from version 0.7.0 the plugin and the desktop app share downloads, and a one-time migration merges the two libraries the first time you open the updated plugin.

For Ableton Live, the User Library defaults to ~/Music/Ableton/User Library, and Splice's help says to change the destination in Ableton > Settings > Library, where the Splice options are User Library, Current Project and Custom Folder.

Presets go to the plugin, or to Splice

Downloaded presets go straight into the plugin's own preset folder when Splice knows it, and into your Splice folder otherwise. Splice's help gives these Mac destinations:

/Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum Presets/Presets/Splice
~/Library/Application Support/LennarDigital/Sylenth1/Presets
~/Documents/Native Instruments/Massive/Sounds/Splice
~/Library/Application Support/Splice/Astra/Presets/From Splice

The first is for Serum. If you have moved Serum's preset folder, Splice puts Serum presets in ~/Splice/presets/Serum instead, and you copy them into Serum's Presets folder yourself. Spire presets always go to a Presets folder inside your Splice folder. Most presets then appear in the plugin's own browser under a Splice folder; Splice notes that you load Sylenth1 and Spire presets from the plugin's menu instead.

Changing the folder

Splice says you can move the Splice folder or rename it, provided you then set the new location in the app's Preferences. The order that keeps you safe:

1. Quit your DAW and the Splice app, so nothing is reading the samples.
2. In Finder, copy the Splice folder to the new place, for example an external drive. Copy rather than move until you have checked it.
3. Open Splice, open Preferences from the icon at the top right, and set the folder location to the copy.
4. Click Go to folder to confirm it opens the copy, then play a sample from your DAW.
5. When everything works, move the old folder to the Trash.

Splice recommends keeping the folder on the Mac's own drive. If you use an external drive, connect it before you start Splice and quit Splice before you disconnect it. If Splice runs without the drive, it creates a new Splice folder in the default place as soon as you download again, and you have to link the app to the drive once more. Splice also suggests not making the app a login item in that setup.

DAW projects store the path of each sample, so a project that used samples from ~/Splice reports them missing after a move until you relink them in the DAW.

Re-downloading, backing up and a new Mac

The desktop app's Preferences have a Sync All button, which Splice describes as a one-time sync of all the samples in your Splice library that are not yet on this computer. That makes a new Mac simple: install Splice, sign in, and use Sync All, or copy your Splice folder into your home folder before you first open the app so nothing downloads twice. Anything you made or edited yourself inside the folder exists only on your Mac, so copy it. Time Machine includes your home folder unless you excluded it.

Space adds up quickly, and this reports the folder's size without changing anything:

du -sh ~/Splice

Deleting samples a project still uses breaks that project, so check before you clear any.

Why searching misses these

Splice keeps the file names chosen by each pack's creator, sorted into pack folders, so the name you remember from the website may not match the file. Presets are scattered across several plugins' folders, some in the system Library and in ~/Library, which Spotlight and Finder searches leave out.

Finding a sample again

Type a fragment of the sample or pack name into Everywhere, such as the key or tempo many sample names carry, and each result shows its folder, so you can see whether it sits in ~/Splice, an Ableton User Library or a moved copy. ~/Splice is not a folder macOS protects, so it is covered without extra permission, while anything in Music, Documents or Downloads needs Full Disk Access. It matches file names only, not the audio, and ⌘Y previews a hit.

Common questions

Where does Splice save samples on a Mac?

In a Splice folder in your home folder, ~/Splice, which Splice's help says is created when you download your first sound. Open Preferences from the icon at the top right of the app and click Go to folder to open it.

How do I change the Splice sample folder?

Quit Splice, move or copy the Splice folder, then set the new location in the Splice app's Preferences. Splice recommends a local drive; with an external drive, connect it before starting Splice.

Where do Splice Serum presets go on Mac?

By default into /Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum Presets/Presets/Splice. If Serum's preset folder has been moved, they go to ~/Splice/presets/Serum and you copy them into Serum's Presets folder.

Where does the Splice Sounds plugin save samples?

Since version 0.7.0, into the same Splice folder as the desktop app, organised by pack. Use Show enclosing folder in the plugin's three-dot menu to open a sample's file.