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moviesign37
Participating Frequently
April 21, 2026
Question

Photoshop bypassing system printer profile folder

  • April 21, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 29 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?

    2 replies

    M
    moviesign37Author
    Participating Frequently
    April 22, 2026

    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
    Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 21, 2026

    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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