Copying preferences Windows to Mac

[Bob Ulius]

Long time Windows user with everything "just right" and got my first Mac. Can I copy preferences for Photoshop and Bridge and save an awful lot of time trying to create identical environments?

Appreciate pointers. Thanks.

[LAMY2017]

Bob, you might try the steps in the AI-generated answer to my search on adobe.com:"moving photoshop preferences from windows to mac"

[Adobe's warning: "Generative AI overviews are experimental. Quality may vary. Overviews are not your Content."]

Moving Photoshop Preferences from Windows to Mac

To move Photoshop preferences from Windows to Mac, you need to manually copy the preference files from your Windows installation and then place them in the appropriate location on your Mac. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Locate Preference Files on Windows

1. On your Windows machine, navigate to the following path: C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [version]\Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings
2. Copy the relevant preference files you want to transfer (e.g., Actions Palette.psp, Brushes.psp, etc.).

Step 2: Transfer Files to Mac

1. Use a USB drive or cloud storage to transfer the copied files to your Mac.

Step 3: Locate Preference Folder on Mac

1. On your Mac, navigate to the following path: /Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings (Note: The Library folder is hidden by default. You can access it by holding the Option key and selecting Go > Library in Finder.)

Step 4: Paste Preference Files

1. Paste the copied preference files into the Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings folder on your Mac.

Step 5: Restart Photoshop

1. Open Photoshop on your Mac to see the transferred preferences in action.

[Bob Ulius]

Very cool. Thanks. Got the ones I desired over and working nicely.

I'll see if I can find the same for Bridge.

[D Fosse]

@Bob Ulius 

I would absolutely not recommend this! It's asking for problems.

The settings file contains a lot more than your own user settings. It is the whole application configuration, including lots of hidden settings, and a lot of it relates to the system configuration and hardware (such as the GPU). Those will obviously be very different.

Do not do this!