Known Participant

Question

Please stop making updates erase settings

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 24, 2024
12 replies
2082 views

It's very frustrating that everytime Photoshop updates it erases all of my customizations. All keyboard and mouse shortcuts, all preferences, all get reset back to default which is beyond annoying, especially since there is no way to export a preferences file that can be re-loaded after performing an update.

Windows

S

SassyLang

Participant

This just happened to me! Thankfully I have Time Machine so if you find the folder where the Workplaces are kept, go into Time Machine and go back prior to the update, you can restore those workplace files into the current folder. 🙂

G

gidion_1243

Participant

Couldn't agree more with you!! It takes time to set these things up!!

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Photoshop just updated AGAIN (25.9.0) and once again ALL MY SETTINGS AND SHORTCUTS are gone.

This is incredibly frustrating.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Photoshop just updated AGAIN (25.9.0) and once again ALL MY SETTINGS AND SHORTCUTS are gone.

This is incredibly frustrating.

By @alexcomeauphoto

Alex, can you check Manage Updates in the CC Desktop app and make sure Import previous settings and preferences is checked?

I thought that this was not even an issue with dot updates. I updated the beta version to 25.10 today, and the update happened so fast, it couldn't have been a full reinstallation, so it's unlikely it was going to forget settings.

Do you use a custom workspace? I can't say for sure it would fix it, but I can tell you that I have never lost settings and shortcuts. It's a super useful feature because you can repurpose shortcuts acording to context. I set and reset my workspaces with actions triggered by Function keys. It can become addictive being able to see all your panels shoot back into place at the press of a single key.

What OS are you using? This page tells you were Photoshop files are located. I said I've never lost my shortcuts, but if I did it wwouldn't matter because I have them backed up.

https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/photoshop/kb/preference-file-names-locations-photoshop.html

If you are using Windows, you'll find your custom workspace .psw files here:

C:\Users\[Your User Nam]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024\Adobe Photoshop 2024 Settings\WorkSpaces (Modified)

D

Digital Twins

Known Participant

I never had this issue, except for now. I was confused why all my settings were at the default state. Never had this problem before. So something must have been screwed up with the latest update.

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

As someone else mentioned, it tends to happen more often with major updates as opposed to minor bug fixes, but I've even had it happen then. It happens to me all the time. Very frustrating.

D Fosse

Community Expert

It's supposed to happen with major version updates. Unless you deliberately migrate settings.

It is not supposed to happen with minor dot updates.

Earth Oliver

Legend

For years i've been asking Adobe to backup those settings (and others, like Actions) to the cloud in case of issues like this, but the request has gone nowhere.

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Even just the ability to save a config file to a backup location that can be loaded after a reset would be huge and so simple. Tons of other software packages have it.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Have you verified that the Creative Cloud desktop app installer is set up to not throw out your settings? I keep “Import Previous Settings and Preferences” enabled for both automatic and manual updates, so that a new version always opens and works like the previous version did. In the screen shots below, the top shows options during a manual update, and the bottom is for if you enabled automatic updates. A lot of people just click through that screen, but it pays to stop and read it…it controls whether or not the new version carries forward your old settings and erases the old version!

(The screen shots below are some I dug up from last year, so there may be some differences between it and the current Creative Cloud app, but the options are there.)

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alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Yes, those are my settings, but for whatever reason it's not carrying over my settings.

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Another day, another instance of Adobe reverting all my settings back to default. All my keyboard shortcuts, quick menus, everything, all gone. This is beyond frustrating.

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

I will try that, thank you

D Fosse

Community Expert

If this happens consistently, I'd take a closer look at Windows user privileges and permissions.

Maybe it's enough to right-click the Photoshop icon and "Run as Administrator". You should only need to do that once. That has been known to cure some permissions problems in the past.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

I always have my Workspaces and shortcuts after major updates. Presets sometimes need hunting down. Isn't there an option to keep Preferences ISTR?

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Not that I've found. Other programs have "Import/Export" settings area in preferences, but not PS. You can save a copy of the preferences folder and copy and paste it into the new PS folder after an update, but it only works 50% of the time if the file formats and paths all stay the same, but sometimes those change for no reason, so it can't find your backups.

Mind boggling that such a highly customized piece of software doesn't have a way to save and load settings. Even Camera Raw lets you load settings, but PS does not.

A

alexcomeauphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Every time my Photoshop updates it reverts everything back to default. Brushes, keyboard shortcuts, toolbars, workspace preferences, everything.

Now that I know about that folder, I will make a backup of it, but it's still strange that a software package like this doesn't have an "Import" / "Export" settings feature like many other programs do.

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