You may need to locate your Paperless library file but not be sure where you store it. This article will provide steps (and alternative methods) to locate your Paperless library file.

The Location Specified when Creating the Library

The first time Paperless is launched, Paperless displays a prompt to create a new library. When you create a new library, Paperless prompts you to pick a name for your library and specify a location it will be stored in. It should be possible to locate your Paperless library in the location you had specified.

Default Locations

The default location Paperless library files are saved in is the user's Documents folder (~/Documents/).

In releases of Paperless (and ReceiptWallet) previous to Paperless 2, libraries may have been saved to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Paperless/ by default.

Default Names

You may be able to locate your Paperless library file by searching for the library's name with Spotlight. The default name for Paperless library files are as follows:

• The default name for a Paperless 2 library file is Paperless Library.
• The default name for a Paperless 1 Document library file is Document Library.
• The default name for a Paperless 1 Receipt library file is Receipt Library.

If you do not see your library in your Documents folder, or if you are unable to find it with Spotlight, it may have been saved to a different location or under a different name from the default.

There are three ways to locate a Paperless library file:

• Load the library in Paperless and use the pulldown menu in the title bar to display the file in Finder.
• Search for all files with a specific file extension in Finder.
• Use Terminal commands we provide below to search for all Paperless libraries.

Method 1: Use Paperless to display your library file in Finder

Difficulty: Easy

In Mac OS, you can locate (almost) any currently-open file by holding the command key down and clicking the document's name in the title bar, at the very-top of the window. Doing this will cause a pulldown menu to display.

You can use this method to locate your Paperless library file in Finder by following these steps:

1. Open your Paperless library in Paperless.
2. Hold the control key and click on the name of the library file, in the title bar.
3. In the pulldown menu that appears, select the list item that appears directly below the name of your library.

This will cause a new window to display in finder; the window will display the folder your library file is stored in, and it will select your library file automatically.

Method 2: Use Finder to search for the Paperless library file

Difficulty: Medium

 You can use the Find (search) function in Finder to locate Paperless library files. You can specify file extensions for Find to search for and a location for it to search within; Find will return files that match the criteria you enter.

You can use this method to locate your Paperless library file in Finder by following these steps:

1. In Finder, select Find from the File menu. A set of search options and criteria should appear at the top of either the current window in Finder or a new window.
2. In the top stripe of the search options, set the location (either your whole Mac or the current directory) you would like Finder to search within.
3. Make sure the metadata type Finder is searching within is set to Kind.
4. For Kind, select Other.
5. Enter the file extension (without a period) of the file type you would like to search for.

Finder will return library items with the file extension you've specified.

Paperless library file extensions

Paperless library files may use one of three extensions:

• Paperless 2 library files use the file extension paperless.
• Paperless 1 Document library files use the file extension dwlibrary.
• Paperless 1 Receipt library files use the file extension rwlibrary.

Method 3: Use Terminal to search for the library file

Difficulty: Medium/ Hard

A fairly-simple (and common) thing that text-based command prompts can be used for is searching for files. Terminal makes this easy by allowing you to paste copied text directly to the command prompt. To execute a command once it has been entered (or pasted), press enter. Below, we will provide steps (briefly) to get started with Terminal and some example commands; feel free to copy our notes and paste them to Terminal to search for files.

Getting started with Terminal

Terminal is an application included with Mac OS. By default, it is stored in the Utilities folder (within your Mac's Applications folder).

Terminal Commands

Once you have opened Terminal, you should be able to simply paste commands you've copied from this page into the Terminal window and press enter to begin searching.

Note that searching could take several minutes.

Locate a Paperless 3 Library file

find / -name "*.paperless" 2> /dev/null | egrep -v com.marinersoftware.*

Locate a Paperless 2 Receipt Library file

find / -name "*.rwlibrary" 2> /dev/null

Locate a Paperless 2 Document Library file

find / -name "*.dwlibrary" 2> /dev/null