Where Does Kate Store Settings and Sessions?
Kate splits settings, sessions, and UI files across config and data homes. The Linux and macOS paths.
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Kate keeps main settings in katerc inside the config home: ~/.config/katerc on Linux, ~/Library/Preferences/katerc on macOS. Plugin, snippet, and metadata files (katemetainfos, katevirc, kate-snippetsrc) sit beside it.
Sessions live separately under the data home in kate/sessions as .katesession files, with stash data alongside. UI layout comes from kxmlgui5/kate/kateui.rc. Flatpak installs remap both trees under ~/.var/app/org.kde.kate, so check there when the plain paths look empty.
Where Kate stores this, by platform
~/.config/katerc
Main settings. Sessions in ~/.local/share/kate/sessions, UI file at ~/.local/share/kxmlgui5/kate/kateui.rc. Flatpak moves both under ~/.var/app/org.kde.kate.
~/Library/Preferences/katerc
Main Mac config with sibling snippet and metadata files. Sessions under ~/Library/Application Support/kate. Same Flatpak style remap does not apply on Mac.
Frequently asked questions
how do i back up kate sessions
Copy the kate/sessions folder from the data home plus katerc from the config home. One holds open file sets, the other holds which session restores. Move both together to keep the link intact.
kate recreated a session i deleted, why
A startup shortcut or default may reference it (e.g. kate --start <name>), recreating the file each launch. Remove the reference, delete the .katesession file and its stash folder, then restart.
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