Clear deleted actions/brushes/tools from Actions/Brushes/Tools panels

[Laura...]

How can I clear the list of action folders from the Actions panel context/hamburger menu?

In the attachment Actions.png, every single action set listed has been deleted (intentionally -- I want them to be deleted), and when I click on its menu item, I get the error shown in Not Found.png. Some of these items have been deleted for years, through several versions of Photoshop. How can I clear the clutter?

Selecting "Clear All Actions" only clears the Actions panel itself, not the menu. "Reset Actions" and "Replace Actions" similarly only affect the menu.

The Brushes and Tools panels have have the same issue, showing persistent lists don't update when you delete files.

I've seen this question posted numerous times over the years, but I haven't been able to find any actual answers. I suppose that if I completely cleared out all of my Photoshop preferences and reset the program to stock, that might do the trick, but I really don't want to lose other settings. Is there any other way to clear these menus?

[J453 · Accepted solution]

I suspect the Preferences for Photoshop have held onto these entries. As an experiment, if you restore your preferences using this manual method does the menu clear out?

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually

If that doesn't solve it, you can quit Photoshop and put the Settings folder back.

[Laura...]

That did it. Thanks! I cleared out all of the relevant files from the settings folder,* and no more cluttered menus.

* For anyone else with this issue, that folder is...

On Windows: [drive]:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [version year]\Adobe Photoshop [version year] Settings

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