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JennethLeeD
JennethLeeD
Known Participant
January 25, 2025
Pergunta

Presets, actions, brushes, font favorites etc won't copy over with Photoshop update

  • January 25, 2025
  • 2 respostas
  • 516 Visualizações

I finally updated from Photoshop 2021 (v 22.5) to Photoshop 2025 (v26.2). When given the option before installation, I unchecked "Remove older versions," but I made sure "Import previous settings and preferences" was checked. (I don't trust updates and have learned the hard way that I shouldn't ever delete an old version of something until I'm guarenteed the new one has no issues.)

 

Opening Photoshop 2025, I noticed that my workspace was recent to default (not a huge problem to manually fix), but I didn't have any of my actions and none of my brushes except for the system defaults, and though I had all my fonts, none of them were designated as favorites.

 

I've spent a lot of valuable time today trying to figure out what happened. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling again, double-checking if the preference option was checked, etc.

 

So I have a couple of specific questions:

  1. What exactly is supposed to copy over when you mark "import previous settings and preferences"? Because I'd expect brushes, actions, etc would carry over.
  2. Does Edit>Presets...>Migrate Presets have anything to do with my problem? Other forums have mentioned these, but Photoshop 2025 tells me it can't find any to migrate from 2021.
  3. Where are the .atn and .abr files actually stored in the application? I can't get a straight answer to this. I've gone all through the 2021 application. For actions, I've looked in Users>USER NAME>Library>Applicaiton Support>Adobe>Adobe Photoshop 2021>Presets>Actions and it's completely empty. I also looked in Applications>Presets>Actions, and while there are .atn files in there, I don't recognize any of them. They're not mine, and they weren't in my Photoshop 2021 actions panel in the software. When I try to save actions from within 2021 and save it in Applications>Presets>Actions, I get an error message that says I don't have permission, but I can save them to Users>USER NAME>Library>Applicaiton Support>Adobe>Adobe Photoshop 2021>Presets>Actions. I just don't know how I feel about writing to files under Library...
  4. When you load or import a brush or action, are those .abr and .atn files linked or copied into the application? If copied, again where do they go??
  5. How do I get everything—presets, brushes, actions, font favorites, etc—to transfer over whenever I update? Because I do NOT want to manually import every .abr and .atn and then compare my 2021 font favorites with my 2025 manually. That's absurd, so I know I'm missing something.

 

This is why I hate updating, because inevitably something goes wrong, and I just can't afford to lose this much time on work to figure it out every time an update comes out. Can someone PLEASE help it make sense? I know it's not supposed to be this complicated.

 

Technical stuff:

2019 13" MacBook Pro, Sonoma 14.6.1

Photoshop 22.5 and 26.2

2 Respostas

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 26, 2025

Hi @JennethLeeD 

 

I can't answer your question because IME you can't always be sure what will and won't survive an update.  I don't think I have ever lost a custom workspace with its custom toolbars and shortcuts, but I invariably seem to lose Actions.  Brush presets are another casualty sometimes, but you can usually find them in the previous version folder.  (Sorry, can't tell you that location for Mac OS from the top of my head.

 

So what I have done for some years now, is to store those settings in a My Documents folder, and place shortcuts to that folder in the appropriate preset locations.  This makes it easier to share between release and beta versions, and means I don't lose those assets.  On the downside, it means a bit of house-keeping.  If you create a new Action Workspace etc. you will, at some point< need to move or copy to your central location.

 

Reading your post again, I must be missing something because I can't remember font favourites ever surviving major updates.  

JennethLeeD
JennethLeeDAutor
Known Participant
January 26, 2025

Thanks so much—this is helpful information. I just started taking advantage of font favorites somewhat recently, and just assumed information like that would be carried over. If not, that answers at least one question (though definitely a bummer).

 

Your advice of storing everything in a designated spot is also helpful. I might have to do this just in case—sounds like it saves you some headache.

 

Figured this might also be my cosmic punishment for waiting FOUR years to update...things might just not like to migrate that far.

 

Thanks for the help!

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 26, 2025
quote

Figured this might also be my cosmic punishment for waiting FOUR years to update...things might just not like to migrate that far.

 

By @JennethLeeD

 

That might be a case of 'Many a true word said in jest.'  I mentioned some presets can usually be found in previous versions, but if you skipped a few updates, that might not have worked for you.  As you can see, I still have folders going back several versions.

I still have content in the previous version brush presets, which is the shortcut I talked about plus a .abr group I remember making for a forum answer.

 

But if I go back further there's almost no content.

 

So if the updater goes by version number rather that whatever is being updated from, then you could be out of luck.

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 26, 2025

See this help article on migrating presets, actions and settings.

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

 

The option to Import Previous Settings & Preference is located in Creative Cloud Desktop App.

 

 

If you neglected to import, you can copy them manually with Mac Finder. They're saved in your last Photoshop version at this location:

<Username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop <version> Settings/

 

  • Actions Palette.psp
  • Brushes.psp
  • Contours.psp
  • CustomShapes.psp
  • Default Type Styles.psp
  • Gradients.psp
  • Patterns.psp
  • Styles.psp
  • Swatches.psp
  • ToolPresets.psp

 

Hope that helps. 

 

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
JennethLeeD
JennethLeeDAutor
Known Participant
January 26, 2025

Thanks—to clarify, would I be copying the old brushes.psp file from Photoshop 2021 and replacing any default brushes.psp file currently in Photoshop 2025?

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 26, 2025

@JennethLeeD 

Since you had the foresight to keep the old verson installed, what you do is open that old version, and save out your actions, brushes and presets. Reload in the new version. You do all this from the fly-out menu in the panel.

 

Always save this out and keep it in a safe place for easy reloading. It can be stored wherever you want.

 

With a five version gap, going into the user account and copy-pasting stuff over might not work so well.

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