QSettings works incorrectly if QSettings::UserScope is used. This was initially reported in QTBUG-37173. The sample code in QTBUG-37173 shows that if

settings.setPath(QSettings::NativeFormat, QSettings::UserScope, QDir::homePath())

the resulting actual settings file is set to:

<APP_HOME>data/Settings/PUBLISHER/settingsTest.conf

if the same call is made on another QSettings object in the same app, the same file is set to

<APP_HOME>/data/PUBLISHER/settingsTest.conf

which should be the same as for the first object, but it is not. Actually, even that is not fully correct either. The correct one should be

<APP_HOME>/data/<APP_NAME>.conf

where <APP_NAME> is QCoreApplication::applicationName(). The user might decide to set another path inside QDir::homePath(), QSettings has to follow accordingly.

Additionally, the documentation does not mention this aspect at all:

http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/qsettings.html

This has be to correct as well.

Please verify the Qt5 implementation of the same use case.