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Question

How to permanently add custom gradients to gradient presets

Forum|Forum|24 days ago
June 30, 2026
5 replies
59 views

I’m trying to find a way to have custom gradients save permanently under my gradient presets in the gradient editor. I have tried everything: importing gradients, exporting gradients, clicking the new button, but no matter what I do every time I close and reopen photoshop all of my custom gradients are gone (I can reimport them, but I want them to just show up in their own presets folder automatically).

I know it’s possible because I do have one custom gradient that saves and returns every time I reopen photoshop, but it was years ago and I don’t know how I did it.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Can you be specific about ‘I’ve got my custom gradients saved as a preset folder that I can import’

Are you seeing a .grd file in the Presets\gradients folder?

Or do you mean you see your custom group in the Photoshop Gradients panel?

It MUST exist on the drive as a .grd file to be safely saved. If you do have such a file and still don’t see it when you restart Photoshop, then is that file in the right location?

Can someone with Tahoe, and who knows the Photoshop folder structure, paste the full file location here for Alex please?

[EDIT] We should have this sorted by now, so I’m wondering if we are understanding each other. If you show us screen shots of what you are seeing, then I wonder if we might spot what is going on.

A

AlexRoseyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Here’s what the gradient editor looks like when I freshly open Photoshop. It’s all the preloaded presets plus one custom gradient that I made years ago and don’t know how I saved.

Then I can click ‘import’ and find the custom gradient folder/.grd file.

This loads all the custom gradients that I wanted.

This workaround works fine for me, but if I quit Photoshop this custom gradient folder disappears and I have to import it again when I reopen Photoshop. I’m not sure if there’s a way to permanently add this folder to my gradient presets library so I don’t have to re-import it every time. Either way-- thanks for all your help!

Semaphoric

Community Expert

If you scroll down to the very bottom of the presets list, are any of them there? That’s where my new gradients show up. They are persistent, even though a cold restart. I usually drag them up to the top, so they’ll be visible by default.

A

AlexRoseyAuthor

Participating Frequently

They show up at the bottom when I add them (or import them), and save if I open new files, but are removed once Photoshop is fully closed.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Google’s Ai summarizer is extraordinary good now. You are way better off using Google to search this forum compared to the forum’s search bar. Note: My test gradient survived a restart without taking those steps, which is why I am wondering if you have a permissions issue. You should still double check your workflow and then check it again. There are instances where you seem to need to OK something, and then OK it again. The keyboard shortcut panel comes to mind.

A

AlexRoseyAuthor

Participating Frequently

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Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Hi Alex. Are you using the Gradient panel, and are these Classic or the new gradients?

Try opening the Gradients panel > hit the menu bars top right corner and choosing New Gradient Preset — That opens the editor

In the editor click on New and it will save it. You’ll know how to make a group to drag your custom gradients into.

The new gradients are not especially intuitive truth be told, and I am sure a lot of people have been frustrated by them.

A

AlexRoseyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes, I’ve tried this. I can create new gradients, but they disappear once I close and reopen photoshop.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Do you see it added to the Gradients panel after saving it?

What OS and version are you using? Some years ago I remember Mac systems having Permissions issues, but that was fixed with an update. That would do what you are describing though.

Presets are stored with Preferences until you export them, so when I check

...even after closing and reopening Photoshop, that location is empty. You need to substitute your user name of course. If you are on a Mac you can find file locations here.

However, if you create a new Gradients group and drag your custom gradients into it, and then export it.

I now have a .GRD presets folder with the current date and time.

This is true of all presets. Things like brushes (.ABR) etc. are not really safe until they exist as a preset file on a drive.

Check all of the above and see if that at least gives you a workaround. It won’t be a fix because those presets should still survive a restart.

I don’t have the knowledge to give you 100% specific and correct info from this point, but when I check the Photoshop Settings folder and list it by date the highlighted files have todays date and (close enough) time. You need to check the Settings folder and see if those files are updating when you close Photoshop.

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