Where did my actions go?

I just upgraded PS to 26.11 and lost all my Actions.

On my MacBook, the path .....

Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

..... doesn't show [version] it shows [year].  I have a folder named "(Beta) Settings" and "2025 Settings" and "2024 Settings" .... all with a timestamp showing they have been updated "Today at 7:09pm" 

I suspect the current settings (after the upgrade) might be in the "(Beta) Settings" but I'm not sure.

I renamed the files Actions Palette.psp and Adobe Photoshop (Beta) Perfs.psp with the prefix (old) to preserve them and copied the corresponding files from the Adobe Photoshop 2025 Settings folder. I closed and quit Photoshop and relaunched it .... it didn't work. Any suggestions?

@melissan61535612 

More here:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/01/photoshop-custom-action-file-backup.html?m=1

Actions are stored at this folder path within your user account, in the standard macOS Preferences folder:

Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

For future reference, that’s the second item listed in the table on this page:

Preference file functions, names, locations | Photoshop

If they disappeared after a major version upgrade, a possible cause is that “Import Previous Settings and Preferences” might have been deselected for that upgrade. If that option is deselected, old settings are not carried forward.

As to how to get them back, your post says you are using a Mac, so if you are maintaining a current backup using Apple Time Machine or other backup software, all you have to do is use the backup software to roll back the folder at the path above to a time before the upgrade was done.

If you were using Photoshop 2022 and you just upgraded to 2023, then another possibility is that your custom actions are still on the Mac, but in the Preferences folder for Photoshop 2022. If you do find them there, copy them into the Preferences folder for Photoshop 2023, and they should come back.

In the future, if you make custom Actions, it’s recommended to do what Kevin said, which I also do: I organize the actions I create into action sets (folders) separate from the Default Actions set, and keep my own copies by exporting them as .atn files. That way, if the group inside the preferences folder gets lost, I just re-import the exported action sets.

Hi @melissan61535612 did you have them previously saved as atn files?

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preset-migration.html