Export and import app settings
If you want to keep your app settings safe or clone the installation to an other Mac, you can easily export and import BetterDisplay settings.
Note
The article reflects app version v4.0.3
Starting with app version v4.0.3 you can use the following to export and import app settings (in standard macOS property list format).
You can use the following Terminal command to export app settings:
defaults export pro.betterdisplay.BetterDisplay ~/Desktop/BetterDisplay.plist
This command creates a file named BetterDisplay.plist on the desktop which contains the exported app settings.
The following command can be used to import app settings from an existing configuration file (provided that a BetterDisplay.plist file is located on the Desktop containing exported app settings):
defaults import pro.betterdisplay.BetterDisplay ~/Desktop/BetterDisplay.plist
Note: this operation overrides app settings. Import should be used only when the app is not running.
Please note that (depending on app configuration) display settings are tied to a unique system given identifier (UUID) of a display or various display hardware identifiers. Because of this when you import app settings exported on a different Mac (or from a previous macOS installation on the same Mac), display app settings will not apply properly on the new system. In order to fix that, you need to edit the exported settings using a plist editor (XCode or the free version of BBEdit). You can update display identifier data under the key named storedIdentifier@(...). An other way around this (if the target system has a display with the exact same hardware identifiers) is to change the display identification method to Match basic identifiers before exporting the settings file (Settings/Displays/(display)/General Settings/Additional settings.../Display identification method).
With app version 4.0.3 you can also use the app's settings to transfer the settings of a disconnected display (the display with the old UUID identifiers from a previous installation/export) to a currently connected display (same display but with new system identifiers). Use Settings > Displays > the currently connected display > Additional settings > Transfer settings from:
The commands are somewhat similar:
defaults export me.waydabber.BetterDummy ~/Desktop/BetterDisplay.plist
defaults import me.waydabber.BetterDummy ~/Desktop/BetterDisplay.plist
Settings file format of major app versions are incompatible (you can't import v1.x app settings to v2.x version or in reverse). It is not recommended to import the exported settings of a newer app version for an older app version even when the main version is the same.