Loaded Custom Brushes Yesterday — All Gone Today in Photoshop

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
June 10, 2025
1 reply
184 views

Hello,

I'm kinda new to photoshop and yesterday I spent my whole afternoon unzipping new brushes and loading them in Photoshop. I created several brushes folders to arrange them to my liking (texture, landscape stuff) etc. They got loaded and I was able to try them.

Today, as I go again on Photoshop, i'm suprised that any of those brushes or folders are here. Not even one but the "basic/already there" photoshop brushes you have when you first install it.

What should I do? I had PLENTY of them and all are gone on PS

Windows

A

Aleke

Community Manager

Hi @JEON_CENA8675 — welcome to the community! 😊
Sorry to hear your brushes have disappeared — that definitely sounds frustrating.

Just to help us get a better idea of what might be going on, could you let us know which version of Photoshop you're using? Also, did anything change on your computer or in the app between yesterday and today? For example, did you reset your preferences, update Photoshop, or install any system updates?

When you get a chance, could you also check if your brushes are still stored in this folder on your computer?
C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\AdobePhotoshop CC [version]\Adobe Photoshop CC [version] Settings\

Let us know what you find — we’ll do our best to help you get everything back in place!

Thanks,
Alek

*(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*

J

JEON_CENA8675Author

Participant

I'm using Version Adobe Photoshop : 25.4.0 20240118.r.319 67d7f0b x64 on Windows 10

I did not update or install anything since yesterday. Installing the brushes was the last thing I did.

I don't even have the "C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\AdobePhotoshop CC [version]\Adobe Photoshop CC [version] Settings\"

@Aleke

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

This is Windows 11, and from memory, Windows 10 does it slightly differently, but you need to enable Hidden Files and Folders. By default, Windows keeps a lot of system files hidden to avoid inexperenced users stuffing them up. Note that the Appdata folder is slightly paler than other folders. This indicates that it is a Hidden item, but shows because I have it turned on.

How did you add/install the new brushes? If you are not aware of the Presets folder tree, then I am guessing that you double clicked the .abr files. That is an unsafe way to add presets. Always place them in the appropriate Preset folder.

I take it a step further and place presets in a My Documents folder, and place a Shortcut to that folder in the relevant Preset folder.

To create a shortcut, right click the folder. In Windows 11 you have to click on More Options to expand the list, but I think its right there. Drag, or copy and paste to the Prest folder, job done.

The advantage of this approach is that you never lose your presets with updates, and you share the same presets with all versions (current Release, beta, and 22.2 for 3D and Lighting Effects).

Note this is not the same as when you create your own groups or presets. They are stored in Photoshop settings unless you export them. You can do this either from the right click menu with the Brush selected (for Brush presets), or from the Brushes panel. Place your presets in a new Group and choose Export Selected Brushes from the fly-out menu. This will save them to a .abr file in the Presets folder, so in my case, I need to remember to move that .abr file to my custom location in My Documents.

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