When I open Settings, and click on the “Preferences.sublime-settings - Default” tab, I get a path in the title bar that’s non-existent (there is no Default directory under Packages):
Why is this the case, and where is this “Preferences.sublime-settings - Default” file?
The packages that ship with Sublime (which includes the Default package) are shipped as sublime-package files, which are just zip files with a different extension.
Those packages are common to everyone on the same computer that might use Sublime, so they’re not stored in the same location as your user installed packages so that they’re the same for everyone. This is also a subtle hint on the part of Sublime to remind you that you shouldn’t modify them. If you do, your changes will unceremoniously be clobbered when Sublime updates.
Some of the internal commands will open such files directly from within package files, but in doing so it makes the view read-only as a reminder that you can’t alter the contents and can’t save it back to where it came from. The command to edit settings is an example of such a command.
Thanks! I opened the console and noticed a message “Unable to open /Users/flow2k/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/Default/Preferences.sublime-settings” - so it looks like it tries to find this file in my User directory before going to the sublime-package files you mentioned (which I found in Sublime Text.app under Applications - thanks!)
