Photoshop bypassing system printer profile folder

Forum|Forum|28 days ago
April 21, 2026
3 replies
48 views

Last year, my company switched everyone to PC laptops and it’s been trouble ever since. Latest issue: Photoshop printing. If we can even get the list of printer profiles to appear, they all appear to be video settings.

Doing what investigation and experimentation I can (they have these machines locked down to an insane degree), looks like Photoshop is ignoring the system profile folder C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color in favor of its own folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Color\MPProfiles. This seems to be filled with profiles After Effects and Premiere need.

I tried (on my personal PC) moving all the video profiles into a Video folder but PS still displays them. I don’t want to remove them entirely as I figure AE and PP are using them for something. But I also can’t add the actual printer drivers to this folder due to the aforementioned locked-down nature of the work computer.

So my question is two-fold: do I need all these video profiles, and can I point Photoshop to the system profile folder so we don’t have to try to manually put things where Photoshop THINKS they should be? And is this just a case of “Adobe Knows Best” or is this an install issue?

M

moviesign37Author

Participating Frequently

Did some more experimenting. Photoshop seems to show the exact same list as After Effects (157F, ACES Academy Color Encoding Specification SMPTE ST, ACEScct, etc.). Illustrator shows a truncated list of the same set, but also has Adobe RGB, Apple RGB, ColorMatchRGB, etc. Premiere just lists 4 Rec. options.

So it looks like PS and AE are simply reading the profiles from the Adobe/Color folder, and AI is pulling some from Adobe/Color and some from System. Odd thing is, no application sees the Xerox ICC profile IT dropped in both the Adobe and System folder.

So how do I get the non-video applications to ignore the video profiles and how do I get them to see the new printer profiles?

Sameer K

Community Manager

Thanks for the updates. I’ll clarify this for you.

Photoshop currently does not have the ability to sort available color profiles and digital cinema profiles from the MPProfiles folder are incorrectly displayed in the Printer Profiles menu. Other apps like Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom Classic correctly exclude these profiles.

Thanks!
Sameer K

M

moviesign37Author

Participating Frequently

Srishti,

Thanks for the response! While I love the idea that this is, once again, a function of these dreaded laptops, I see the same behavior on my home PC, which shouldn’t have any such restrictions. I’m no PC guy, so I certainly haven’t done anything funky on there that might restrict permissions.

Is there maybe some PS prefs file I can manually update to point PS to the right folder? Would temporarily moving the MPProfiles folder and launching PS force it to look elsewhere? It seems like it’s mostly just a misdirect.
Let me know if you have any ideas. I’ll pass them along to my IT guys.

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi @moviesign37

Thank you for reaching out. The issue you’re seeing is not typical behavior for Photoshop. The video profiles you’re seeing are used by After Effects and Premiere and aren’t needed for printing.

This is most likely due to permissions or restrictions on your work computer preventing access to the system color profiles. You can try reinstalling the printer driver, and the next best step is to contact your office IT team to check access to Windows Color Management and the ICC profile folders.

Thanks, Srishti Bali | Community & Engagement Strategist, Digital Imaging | Adobe

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