Moving settings from old mac to new mac

[tar4heel2]

Went from 2019 MBPro 15-inch Sonoma to 2023 M2 Sequoia, 16-inch, 32RAM, 1TB storage. Tried to reinstall PS. 18 years of actions and other settings did not move. Intructions I find in myriad places do not work; instructions do not match what I see in PS. Someone has the answer. I cannot be the only one with this stupid problem. How does Adobe not have clear, understandablde, easily navigatible instructions on how to do what should be a straightforward process, VERY common thing. I've done ZERO work today just trying to fix this. Sometimes Adobe just makes me want to tear the NY phone book in half.

PS v26.7.0
Mac Sequoia
Setting up new computer; tried moving the app like always. PS would not work, got an error msg telling me to reinstall, which I did. NOTHING - no settings, etc - moved w/ the reinstall. Yet, my plug-ins and filters - Nik, OnOne, etc moved.
None of my actions, layouts, workspaces, etc. transferred. Instructions to move manually do not match what I'm seeing in PS. So far, Sequoia is the Mac version of Windows Vista.

[nikunj.m]

Hi, thanks for reaching out! You can go to the folder location mentioned here: https://adobe.ly/3STzlWE

Once there, copy the files and move them over to the new computer and save them to the same location, replacing the folder on your new computer. 

Hope this helps! 
Thanks,
Nikunj

[tar4heel2]

This doesn't work. I did just what you said, word for word, and it doesn't work. Please provide step-by-step instructions written for an average Macbook Pro user. I don't do this everyday, and everytime I do the process has changed.

For instance, you say "Quit Photoshop" then go to the "Preferences" folder. WHICH preferences folder??? Where do I find it? How do I access the Photoshop preferences folder if I quit the program? Do you mean the Mac OS Preferences or the Photoshop preferences in the Library folder - which I did - to no avail.

Please give me accurate info on how to solve this problem, or direct me to instructions to revert back to Sonoma.

[AxelMatt]

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

[tar4heel2]

This doesn't work either. The navigation sequence you see in the instructions, "Edit>Migrate Presets>Export/Import" does not match what I see. The "migrate presets" only works to move presets from an old version of PS to the new version on the same machine. It does not provide functions to move presets from one installation on a new computer.

Please provide CORRECT instructions!

[D Fosse]

For what it's worth, and I do realize this isn't the answer you want, but here goes: Migrating settings is a bit risky and IMO best avoided. It can cause problems down the road. Save out actions, brushes etc and reload in the new installation. Reinstall plugins where applicable.

Settings are rewritten on every application exit, so are prone to corruption by irregular shutdowns. Small errors will accumulate, and with new application code in the new version, latent problems can surface.

Corrupt preferences usually look like application bugs and are often mistaken for that.

The settings file contains a lot more than your own user settings. It's the entire application configuration, including lots of hidden and inter-dependent parameters. The settings are stored in your user account, not with the program files. When Photoshop starts up, it reads the configuration from your user account. Deleting this folder returns the application to clean, out-of-the-box factory state.

But if you do need to access old settings, they are in your user account.

Ten minutes to set up fresh settings (and reloading your saved actions etc) is well spent.

[tar4heel2]

See attached screenshot. This is a SS of the directory structure of my user account. Where are my actions located? I cannot find them. A search for ".atn" shows nothing. Also, please show me where my other settings are. 

If I hear you correctly, you're saying when someone buys a new computer and wants to move a Photoshop installation with years and years of accumulated actions, settings, layouts, etc. cannot be safely and efficiently moved/migrated to this new computer? Are you telling me Adobe cannot convey instructions to a user to solve this problem?

I don't mean to sound like I'm frustrated, but I am frustrated. Almost two days spent to the exclusion of everything else to solve what should be an everyday process that millions of users do every day.

I do not dive under the hood of Photoshop for this kind of thing often; last time I had a new computer - 2019 - the process was simple, it worked and took 10 minutes. I'm at two days now with no solution. HOW do you find this acceptable?

[silk-m]

First, open the "PhilHawkins1" folder.

Next, open “Show View Options” from the Finder menu.

Check "Show Library Folder".

This will cause "Library" to be displayed.

Copy Sonoma’s

'/Users/PhilHawkins1/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2025' Folder and

'/Users/PhilHawkins1/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop 2025 Settings' Folder

Save it in the same location in Sequoia.

Hope this helps! 

[tar4heel2]

I really, really appreciate all the effort you went to w/ editing screenshots; that was some work. You're not going to believe this, but I already did that; again, no cigar. You'd think that would work, but not for me. Thanks again!

[tar4heel2 · Accepted solution]

Well, success at last. I tried the last-resort trick; retransfer the computer user account again. Deleted the first iteration on the destination computer, setup thye transfer again w/ Migrate Assistant. 

Nailed it. All is well.

Thanks so much to those who tried to help. Bunch of great people here!