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Copying Customisations Between Macs

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richardsladetdj-creator edited this page Jul 10, 2026 · 1 revision

Copying Your Customisations to a Second Mac

You can copy everything you've set up in TangoDisplay — appearance settings, display profiles, background and artist images, and plugin presets — from one Mac to another. Handy when you build your set on one Mac and play live on another.

TangoDisplay keeps all of this in two places. Copy both to the second Mac and it looks and behaves identically. There's no cloud sync, so this is done by hand — but it's quick.

Before you start: Install the same version of TangoDisplay on both Macs, and quit TangoDisplay on both before copying anything.

What gets copied

You keep Where it lives
All settings (appearance, display, cortina rules, startup, advanced) A preferences file
Display profiles The TangoDisplay support folder
Background & artist images The TangoDisplay support folder
Plugin presets and chains The TangoDisplay support folder
Your current playlist (optional) The TangoDisplay support folder

Just two things to copy — a settings file and a folder.

Step 1 — Quit TangoDisplay on both Macs

Right-click the TangoDisplay icon in the Dock and choose Quit, or press ⌘Q with the app in front. Make sure it isn't running on either Mac.

(This matters — macOS keeps settings in memory while the app runs, and can overwrite your copy if the app is open.)

Step 2 — Find the two items on your first Mac

They live in your hidden Library folder. To open it:

  1. In Finder, click the Go menu in the menu bar.
  2. Hold down the Option (⌥) key — a Library entry appears. Click it.

Find these two items:

  1. The settings file — Library › Preferences › com.local.tangodisplay.plist
  2. The support folder — Library › Application Support › TangoDisplay

Faster route: Finder's Go › Go to Folder… (⌘⇧G), then paste ~/Library/Application Support/ or ~/Library/Preferences/

Step 3 — Send them to the second Mac

Easiest between two Macs is AirDrop:

  1. Select both the com.local.tangodisplay.plist file and the TangoDisplay folder.
  2. Right-click → Share › AirDrop, pick your second Mac.

No AirDrop? A USB stick, shared folder, or any cloud drive works just as well — copy both items across.

Step 4 — Put them in place on the second Mac

On the second Mac, open Library the same way (Go menu + Option), then:

  1. Put com.local.tangodisplay.plist into Library › Preferences (replace the existing one if asked).
  2. Put the TangoDisplay folder into Library › Application Support (replace if asked — or drag the old one to the Desktop first as a backup).

Step 5 — Restart the second Mac

Restart the Mac (Apple menu → Restart) before opening TangoDisplay.

Important: macOS remembers the old settings until it restarts, so skipping this can make your copied settings appear to "not take."

Open TangoDisplay — your profiles, appearance, images, and plugin presets should all be there.

A note about your playlist and music files

If you also copied setlist.json (your current playlist), the tracks point to the exact location of your music files. It plays perfectly if the second Mac:

  • uses the same macOS account name, and
  • has the same music files in the same folders.

If your music lives elsewhere on the live Mac, the settings still transfer fine — you may just need to re-add or re-link the tracks in the playlist.

Doing it again later

Whenever you change your setup on the first Mac, repeat Steps 1–5. Only the two items ever need copying.

Quick version (for the technically confident)

With TangoDisplay quit on both Macs, copy these to the same paths on the second Mac:

~/Library/Preferences/com.local.tangodisplay.plist
~/Library/Application Support/TangoDisplay/

Then on that Mac run killall cfprefsd (or just restart) so macOS reloads the preferences.

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