Lost Actions

[GButch]

Photoshop updated this morning.  Now all my custom actions are gone. The defaults are there, but I don't use any of them.  Some of the missing actions were created years ago.  What is the correct location for the actions I created?  have backups but I don't know the correct place to look for them.  Running Windows 10 64 Bit on a Dell XPS8910.  My actions were there earlier in the day before the update.. 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Try here:

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

One should manually save out each action set "folder" individually to a .atn file using the menu on the upper right of the action panel window.

Loaded .atn files or newly created and unsaved action sets are temporarily stored in the Actions Palette presets file (Actions Palette.psp). This file should be considered temporary and may be subject to corruption or loss, which is why making an explicit save to .atn file for each individual action set is strongly advised.

The Actions Palette.psp file can often be used to migrate the entire panel/palette or to possibly retrieve unsaved actions. The location of the Actions Palette.psp file can be found in locations similar to:

Mac:
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 Settings⁩/Actions Palette.psp

Win:
C:\Users\username\appData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Adobe Photoshop 2022 Settings\Actions Palette.psp

(Replace “username” with your user account name and also replace ???? with your version name/number. On Windows OS, the appData directory is hidden by default).

Good luck!

[FrangipaniOz]

Hi Steven, I have also just lost all my years of personally made *.atn files as a result of a photoshop update. PS online support have been useless. I have found the file you mention in the support commentary below. Please excuse my ignore, but what do I do with it to recover my actions please? Thank you, Fran

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Hi Steven, I have also just lost all my years of personally made *.atn files as a result of a photoshop update. PS online support have been useless. I have found the file you mention in the support commentary below. Please excuse my ignore, but what do I do with it to recover my actions please? Thank you, Fran

By @FrangipaniOz

If you backed up your .atn saved files, then reload them.

If you never actually saved your files as separate .atn files, then there is a very slim hope that an older version of the Actions Palette.psp file will recover the actions.

All paths are as above and at the linked blog post, there should be no need to repeat them yet again.

[kevin stohlmeyer]

Did you save your actions after creating? If not, they were only temporary in the application with no resource files to recover.

This may help:

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

Specifically:

Save and load presets

You can move actions and presets across different versions of Photoshop on same or different desktops by saving them and loading them into the target application.

SOURCE COMPUTER: On the computer that has the presets you want to migrate, do the following:

1. Open Photoshop.
2. Choose Edit > Presets > Presets Manager.
3. Choose the desired option from the Preset Type drop-down menu. For example, choose Brushes.
4. Select the desired presets. For example, select the brushes that you want to migrate.
5. Click Save Set and then, click Save. For a set of Brushes, then Photoshop creates a . ABR file at the following location by default:

• (Windows) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Presets\Brushes
• (macOS) Applications/Adobe Photoshop <version>/Presets/Brushes

[PECourtejoie]

Kevin, thank you, I'll send a message to the helpx team as this page needs to be updated, as the preset manager now only shows the contours and tool presets. Users can use Edit/Presets/Import Export Presets or Migrate presets.

[GButch]

I hate to seem quite so lame.  I find no reference to Actions under Presets.  I have had a preset group named "Postproduction" across any number of PS versions and across years.  It appears to be gone.  I am in a bit of a panic as I am doing a project that uses several of the actions I created.  I worked on the project and used some of the actions this morning.  Adobe advised of an update. I installed the update.  When I opened the updated version my actions were gone.  There was a brief flash on the screen about a file error.  What I need is to find my action collection in either my Carbonite or Acronis backup and attempt to restore it.
GB….

[Stephen_A_Marsh · Accepted solution]

If you can't find any saved .atn files, then as I previously mentioned, your only possible hope is finding an older backup of:

C:\Users\username\appData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Adobe Photoshop 2022 Settings\Actions Palette.psp

Obviously changing the username and the version of Photoshop as required for your setup.

Good luck!

[GButch]

First of all, Thank you.  I recovered "Action Palette.psp" from a recent backup and immediately saved the actions group that had gone missing.  My blood pressure is slowly going back to normal.  But if you will permit a short rant, I have been a PS user for about 20 years.  I have taken a good number of PS classes and have owned several PS reference books which I regularly used. Through all of that, I have no recollection of anyone suggesting I needed to save my custom actions separately from the Actions Palette.psp file. Apparently I have been on the high wire without a net for years and years and didn't fall until yesterday.  Again, to those whose posts saved my actions, Thank you.   GB.....

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, indeed, normally added actions are loaded from an .atn file anywhere on your computer, but you now have the link to where to place them in order to get them migrated.
Actions created in Photoshop, live in its preferences files, at the risk of said file to become corrupted.

You now know how to save an action set, in order to secure it on your computer.

If you do have other assets/presets you rely upon, now might be a good time to save them on another support, or on "the cloud."

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

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@GButch wrote:

First of all, Thank you.  I recovered "Action Palette.psp" from a recent backup and immediately saved the actions group that had gone missing.  My blood pressure is slowly going back to normal. 

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You're welcome! That is great news, the outcome is not always this rosy!

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But if you will permit a short rant, I have been a PS user for about 20 years.  I have taken a good number of PS classes and have owned several PS reference books which I regularly used. Through all of that, I have no recollection of anyone suggesting I needed to save my custom actions separately from the Actions Palette.psp file. Apparently I have been on the high wire without a net for years and years and didn't fall until yesterday.  Again, to those whose posts saved my actions, Thank you.   GB.....

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I really wish that Adobe and others would make this crucial requirement more obvious, which is why I wrote that blogpost. Obviously YMMV on what different authors write about.

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, @GButch  (and others) if you want to know almost everything about actions, check the mother of all actions tutorials, that Danny Raphael wrote, and for wich I did some editing. it is still available on the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20081015014833/http://www.atncentral.com/tutorials.htm

[GButch]

As in pretty much all things, the problem is that you don't know which things you don't know.  Thanks again to everyone who helped me pull my butt out of the fire. 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

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@PECourtejoie wrote:

Hi, @GButch  (and others) if you want to know almost everything about actions, check the mother of all actions tutorials, that Danny Raphael wrote, and for wich I did some editing. it is still available on the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20081015014833/http://www.atncentral.com/tutorials.htm

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I remember when Danny first posted that at RetouchPro, how time flies!