Some folders on my new Mac has .localized files in them.

I know they are related to localization (duh), but I don't need that, in fact I specifically want everything file system related to be displayed in English (even though I'm Swedish).

I am also aware that I can "hide" them with default settings in Finder. But I want to see other "hidden" files. Also, I often use the command line, and I don't want to be distracted by these files when I do ls -a.

So, I don't want these files to exist at all (not just hide them).

Is some process generating these files? If so can I stop that from happening? Can I just find and remove all of the .localized files?

Examples of folders I've found .localized files in: ~/Music, ~/Desktop, ~/Documents, ~/Applications, /Applications, /System

They always appear to be empty, having length zero.

This is on a Mac mini 2020 with an M1 Apple silicon processor and macOS Big Sur.

EDIT: Clarification: I am not talking about files with the extension .localized, I am talking about files with just the name .localized and nothing more.

2 Sorted by: Reset to default

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