Update completely deleted all my preferences, presets, plugins, workspaces, etc.

Just following up, as several other users have now reported similar behaviour.

There's something particularly concerning about Creative Cloud no longer recognising an existing Photoshop installation and presenting the next version as a fresh installation rather than an update.

Adobe has a troubleshooting article specifically addressing installed applications disappearing from Creative Cloud:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/troubleshoot/app-setting-issues/apps-tab-doesnt-show-installed-creative-cloud-apps.html

It explains that damaged user information or credentials can cause Creative Cloud to lose track of installed applications.

Unfortunately, correcting that problem afterward won't necessarily restore missing preferences, actions or workspaces.

Given that multiple users are now reporting similar experiences, I think it would be worth having Adobe investigate whether there's a common issue with Creative Cloud's application detection or the installation process.

Could those affected confirm their operating system and whether Photoshop appeared as "Install" rather than "Update" in Creative Cloud before the problem occurred?

It would be useful to establish whether everyone experienced the same sequence of events.

What boneheads pushed this update out without proper testing. On installation it asks if you want to keep all old versions and settings and I selected keep all and dont touch them. Well it did almost the complete opposite. Why do you need to change things that already work?????? LEAVE THEM ALONE. Creating a new action is a bit more clunky and the new crop tool is total crap. If you want to cancel a crop, the cancel button is gone, click on a different tool and it just applies the crop. STOP TRYING TO UPDATE THINGS THAT ALREADY WORK.

My actions were also deleted in the 27.11 update! Man, test out your update before you roll it out! Ridiculous.

I can understand the frustration, particularly if you've spent years building up custom actions, brushes, presets and workspaces.

Before assuming everything is permanently lost, there are a couple of things worth checking.

Photoshop stores most of its preferences and workspaces separately from the application itself.

Windows:
`%appdata%\Adobe\`

macOS:
`~/Library/Preferences/`

Look for folders named Adobe Photoshop 2025 Settings or Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings, depending on which version you were using.

You can also try Edit > Presets > Migrate Presets to see whether Photoshop can locate the previous installation's presets.

If the original settings folder has genuinely been deleted or overwritten, check whether Windows File History/Previous Versions or macOS Time Machine has an earlier copy. That may be your best chance of recovering everything without rebuilding it.

For future reference, you can back up your Photoshop settings by closing Photoshop and copying the entire Settings folder to a safe location. This preserves many preferences, workspaces, keyboard shortcuts and loaded presets.

I'd also recommend separately exporting anything particularly important, especially custom Actions (.atn), Brushes (.abr), Gradients (.grd), Patterns (.pat) and Swatches (.aco). Third-party plugins may need to be reinstalled separately.

One other important point Adobe discontinued Photoshop Preset Sync in version 25.0, so you shouldn't assume your custom presets are backed up to Creative Cloud.

Adobe has instructions for backing up and restoring preferences here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/get-started/settings-and-preferences/backup-and-restore-preferences.html

Unfortunately, none of this guarantees recovery if the files have already been deleted and there are no backups. But I'd certainly check those locations before giving up.

This is so unacceptable. Not another instance of Adobe not caring at all about how their updates and compete lack of care impact users. Shocking. 

Same thing here. The 27.11 install only appeared as a new install, not an update. I had to update to fix another issue with the image profiles in PS. CC did not show that I already had PS installed. I lost all of my workspaces. This is a workflow disaster, and to start over is a massive setback for me.

A bit late now, so this is just an attempt to backtrack what may have happened. This is hindsight, but may be useful for others reading this. 

The likely explanation is that the CC app lost the link to the Photoshop application - but Photoshop itself was still installed and fully functional. In other words - a CC app problem, not a Photoshop problem.

One easy way to rectify this is to sign out of the CC app and then sign back in again. This will normally force a rescan of all installed applications. If that doesn’t work, there may be corruption in the CC app. This can be addressed by reinstalling the CC app, but choosing the “repair” option rather than a full reinstall.

A full CC reinstall is a bit more complicated. That requires, as I understand, first uninstalling all the individual applications (see link below).

Either way, when you reinstalled Photoshop, the old Settings folder was apparently deleted and overwritten. When that happens, when the folder is deleted, there’s no way to get it back. 

A full reset of preferences is always basic Photoshop troubleshooting, so for this reason it pays to be prepared. You can copy the whole Settings folder and store it in a safe place. You can/should also separately save out the critical parts like custom actions and brushes (which can’t easily be recreated). That way they can be reloaded not only in the current version, but also reloaded after a version update.

The thing about preferences is that corruption can easily happen because they are rewritten on every application exit. Corrupt preferences usually look like and are mistaken for application bugs. So for this reason I don’t migrate preferences, I prefer to take ten minutes to set it up fresh, and I always keep custom actions as a separate .atn file in a safe place. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/manage-apps/creative-cloud-desktop-app/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

Same exact thing here. I went to find a photoshop update because my computer was acting strange with my current version. Same result as you.
My libraries are fine in the cloud, but actions and preferences are gone.,  or I can’t find them.