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paulc65657246
paulc65657246
Inspiring
November 21, 2020
Answered

Actions have disappeared in Photoshop 2021

  • November 21, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 10618 views

Starting to panic, all of the actions I have created and have downloaded have disappeared. All that is left are the ones shown in the attached screenshot. What's happened?

 

Can anyone help? Can I restore them?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer jane-e

    Jane,

     

    Thank you for you help.


    You're welcome, @paulc65657246 

     

    You can have several actions in a set, but if you make any change at all, save the set (folder) again. To test this:

    • Record an action or two
    • Save the set from the panel menu
    • Reorder or delete a step
    • Reset actions (panel menu) (without saving)
    • Load actions (panel menu) and load the .atn back in — what you did after saving is gone
    • Make another change and save the set this time
    • Reset actions, then Load actions and you have everything

    4 replies

    H
    hkniess73
    Participant
    January 18, 2023

    If you are backing up your computer/files, you may be in luck. Long story short - I imported a new action and, without realizing it, replaced all other actions. I looked for the Actions Palette.psp file on my computer, but the date showed it had already overwritten itself. So, I went to my cloud backup to locate the file in yesterday's backups. 

    • I closed Photoshop.
    • I opened my backup service to find the Actions Palette.psp file in yesterday's backups (as noted in other comments, this is a temp file, which loads your action panel each time you open Photoshop. This is why I forget to save actions...they are always there when I open Photoshop, unless I screw something up - like I did this time.)
      • This is where I located my file - under yesterday's date on the cloud backup: 
      • (Windows) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Presets\Actions
      • (macOS) Applications\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Presets\Actions
    • Downloaded the file to my computer.
    • Located the downloaded file and copied.
    • Opened the location of the current Actions Palette.psp file:
      • (Windows) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Presets\Actions
      • (macOS) Applications\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Presets\Actions
    • Then, I hit paste - replacing the latest version of this file with yesterday's version.
    • I opened Photoshop and BAM! 

    THEN, I went in to my actions panel and saved every action. Lesson learned.

      Stephen Marsh
      Community Expert
      Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 21, 2020

      Perhaps one of the following links will help:

       

      https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/01/photoshop-custom-action-file-backup.html

       

      If you are having problems finding the required folders, this script can open them for you:

       

      https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/script-to-help-back-up-photoshop-settings/m-p/11517871

      MarshySwamp/Backup-Photoshop-Settings

       

      Instructions on saving and installing scripts here:

       

      https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

       

      Good luck!

        paulc65657246
        paulc65657246Author
        Inspiring
        November 23, 2020

        Stephen,

         

        Thank you.

         

        Stephen Marsh
        Community Expert
        Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        November 23, 2020

        Please do yourself a favour and use the actions panel menu to save out each individual action set to an .atn file rather than relying on the .psp file (of course, backing up the .psp and .atn files on cloud or removable storage).

        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        November 21, 2020

        Actions do disappear if you don't save them out. They are stored with the rest of your preferences in your user account. If the 2020 preferences are still there, it may be possible to rescue them.

         

        In the future, save out.

          paulc65657246
          paulc65657246Author
          Inspiring
          November 21, 2020

          Thank you. How can I rescue them?

          D Fosse
          Community Expert
          D FosseCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          November 21, 2020

          Look under your user account (System disk > Users > your name> AppData > Roaming > Adobe).

           

          The preferences are a folder containing subfolders and individual files. If everything seems to be there, I think the simplest solution is probably to reinstall v 21. It will then find the old preferences, including actions, and you can then save them out to wherever you choose.

           

          As far as I can recall, unsaved actions are just written into the general preferences file. Not sure if it's possible to extract anything directly from there.

          jane-e
          Community Expert
          jane-eCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          November 21, 2020

          Did you save the Sets (folders) from the panel menu each time you made a change? You didn't say.

           

          ~ Jane

           

          paulc65657246
          paulc65657246Author
          Inspiring
          November 21, 2020

          Jane,

           

          I wasn't aware I had to do that, my apologies.

          jane-e
          Community Expert
          jane-eCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          November 21, 2020

          Saving action sets:

          https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/playing-actions.html

           

          Migrating actions:

          https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/migrate-actions.html

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