Where Does Skim Store Settings and Notes?
Skim preferences plist plus PDF notes and bookmarks on macOS.
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Skim keeps app preferences in its plist while per-PDF notes, bookmarks and reading positions ride inside extended attributes on the PDFs themselves. That split means settings and annotations back up differently.
Copy the plist for preferences and keep the PDFs for their notes. Moving a PDF preserves its Skim notes automatically through the attributes.
Where Skim stores this, by platform
~/Library/Preferences/net.sourceforge.skim-app.skim.plist
Main preferences including display defaults and SyncTeX settings. Per-document notes live in extended attributes on each PDF, so they travel with the files. Copy the plist with Skim closed to migrate preferences.
Frequently asked questions
Do Skim notes survive moving the PDF?
Yes on the same Mac, since notes live in extended attributes on the file. Some transfer methods strip attributes, so verify after copying.
How do I back up Skim settings?
Copy the plist above with Skim closed. PDFs carry their own notes, so no second backup is needed for annotations.
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