Photoshop Actions - Do they transfer

Question

I have a question that no one seems to give me an answer for.

Say I purchased an Action and put it on my desktop. The next step is to go into PS and load the action. When I load the action, does it automatically put it in PS files or does PS still point to the desktop to use? Or if I then delete the action off of desktop does the loaded action still work or because I deleted the action from the desktop, is it deleted forever?

I hope I explained that correctly

Stephen Marsh · Accepted Answer

@Averil2

Purchased or downloaded actions should always be backed up and kept in their original .atn file format. One should manually save a newly created temporary/unsaved action set “folder” as an .atn file using the menu on the upper right of the action panel window.

Loaded .atn files or newly created and unsaved action sets are temporarily stored in the Actions Palette presets file (Actions Palette.psp). The contents of this file should be considered temporary and may be subject to corruption or loss, which is why making an explicit save to .atn file for each action set is strongly advised.

Where "should" one save these .atn files? The answer is anywhere you like! By default, Photoshop may offer the following default save location:

Mac:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2022/Presets⁩/Actions

Win:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Presets\Actions

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/preference-file-names-locations-photoshop.html

If the .atn file is saved to the default application/program presets folder as above, the action will be listed and available in the action palette menu. This allows an action to be easily restored if it is removed without having to manually find and load the original .atn file. If there are many actions, this menu may become unwieldy due to the length of the added action sets.

Note: By storing saved action .atn files in this default application/program location, they will not be available to the built-in preset migration export tool (edit menu, presets, export/import presets).

For the built-in export/import presets feature to list saved actions for migration, they should be saved to a non-default location – the user level preset folder for actions:

Mac:

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2022/Presets⁩/Actions

Win:

C:\Users\username\appData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Presets\Actions

The Actions Palette.psp file can often be used to migrate the entire panel/palette or to possibly retrieve unsaved actions. This is by no means a replacement for saving each Action Set as an individual .atn file. The location of the Actions Palette.psp file can be found in locations similar to:

Mac:

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 Settings⁩/Actions Palette.psp

Win:

C:\Users\username\appData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Adobe Photoshop 2022 Settings\Actions Palette.psp

(Replace “username” with your user account name and also replace 2022 with your version name/number. The Windows appData or Mac Library directory may be hidden. You can search the web for how to make hidden folders visible for your OS if this is the case).

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

D Fosse · Answer

When you load an action (set) it is stored as a temporary item in your user preferences, in the machine user account. The user account is separate from the program files. If you need to reset preferences, which may happen for a number of reasons, actions are wiped and lost for good (along with brushes, presets etc).

That's why you should always save out actions and keep them in a safe place. If it's a purchased action, store the downloaded file.

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