Unwanted Photoshop update

[Davy25677736q3ar]

Hi,

I could just cry. Photoshop/Lightroom updated - I don't even remember clicking update, although I certainly did - but oh well, I had just THOUSANDS of custom actions, THOUSANDS of custom brushes, plugins... Everything gone. Months of careful tailoring and whoosh, goodbye. Not even really with any warning whatsoever I'd say. Because even if I did click update, for all the years I've been loyal to Creative Suite and before, I would really have appreciated some kind of warning or preventive backup/rollback measure...

Well I'll go cry now.

Regards

[ExUSA]

None of that is lost. It should have migrated over from the previous vetrsion (which may still be installed if you didn't tell Adobe to remove it) or otherwise it will all be in your Appdata folder.

[D Fosse]

And for next time, uncheck automatic updates in the CC desktop app preferences.

The way most experienced users do this, is to update manually after a new version is announced, and choose to keep the old version installed until you're confident the new version works reliably. Migrating settings is also optional.

For actions and brushes, always save them out from the flyout menu in the panel. Keep them in a safe place so they can easily be reloaded. That's not just for new versions, resetting preferences for troubleshooting purposes will also wipe them.

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

Hi Davy.  We've all been there, and know how frustrating these situations can be.

You are using Windows, so go to:

C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\

Your brushes and other presets will be in the Presets folder.

Actions might be a problem depending on whether you had exported them out to a .atn file.  Same thing with custom brush presets.  They need to be grouped in the brushes panel, and exported to a .abr Otherwise all presets, actions etc. are stored in the Photoshop settings file and can be lost with a major update.

I take it a step further and store my presets in a remote folder, and place a Windows shortcut to that location in the presets folder. This keeps them safe, and allows me to share the one set of presets to multiple Photoshop versions (current release, beta and 22.2 for Lighting Effects)

Custom workspaces are a useful way to store custom Keyboard Shortcuts and Toolbars.  It means you can reuse the same shortcuts according to context — the motion workspace is a good example as it has it's own shortcuts and is a confusing PITA. 

I do the same thing with workspaces as with presets placing a Windows shortcut 

The downside is that if you export a new preset or action etc., you have to remember to move it to your central location. On the other hand, presets you download only need to be placed in the one location to be available in all versions.

Good luck, and let us know if you find everything.  You might also like to turn off automatic updates. This needs to be done on an app by app, and version by version basis.  Advanced options are only available when Auto Updates are turned on.

[AxelMatt · Accepted solution]

@Davy25677736q3ar For the future you should backup your Photoshop settings.

See here: Re: How to backup all brushes, preferences, settin... - Adobe Product Community - 14526606