Where are my brushes stored ???

[Sanpanza]

So nothing I could find will tell me where my brushes are stored. Info seems to be out dated.

[SMOk3420]

Have you looked in your Window tab at the top?

[Trevor.Dennis]

Are you taking your Photoshop version into account?  If Windows, you also need to make Files & Folders viewable in File Explorer.   You'll obviously need to change the user name, and Photoshop version if you re not using CC2018.   

C:\Users\Trevor\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2018\Presets\Brushes

Check older versions, as Photoshop does not automatically bring presets across when updating

[Sanpanza]

Sorry, Trevor.Dennis, I should have mentioned that I am on Mac OS X and am using the most updated version of Photoshop 2018. I sometimes lose track of where I place a brush and there is no way to search for the location of the brush. So, I would like a way of searching for a brush; anyway.

[Theresa J]

Are you searching for the brush inside of Photoshop, or trying to figure out where it is stored on your computer?

[Sanpanza]

Hi TheresaJ​ I am trying to find the brush within the program firstly, but it would also be helpful to know where they are in the system: OSX PS 2018

[Theresa J]

That is helpful. I think the others assumed you were looking for them on your computer.

Where you find the saved brush depends on your version of Photoshop. In previous versions the brush is saved to the bottom of the Brush Presets panel. In the 2018 version, brushes are saved in the Brushes panel. Where is shows up depends on what you had selected when you created it. If you had a brush inside of a group selected at the time you saved a new brush, the new brush will get saved inside of the same group.

[Sanpanza]

Thanks @Theresa J.

The problem is that occasionally when I move brush presets around I accidentally dump it into one of many, many folders that I have by mistake. So if I don't know which I it fell into, then I have slog through all the folders to look for the brush preset.

[Theresa J]

Sorry @sanpanza. I can see how frustrating this would be. There should be a search function in the brushes panel, but I haven't found one.

[Sanpanza]

Then how could I find the brush or brush preset in the system?

[Trevor.Dennis]

Make a new brush preset and save it. Take note of where it is being saved.  Give the preset a name easily searched for.

Search Google with ’phtotoshop file locations’. I’d do it for you, but I am using a phone with a flaky internet connection.

[Sanpanza]

Tried that Trevor.Dennis , but nothing shows up. Have you actually tried this ?  Why does Adobe make it impossible to find brushes. This is just plain stupid.

[Guest]

Not sure if this helps but the default location for brushes on a MAC are

/Users/User Name/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2018/Presets/Brushes

or

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2018/Presets/Brushes

[Sanpanza]

Have you actually tried to find all your brushes? This is the stock answer that I always get, but the real question snow is "Why does Adobe hide the location of imported brushes?"

Brush do not show up on system searches which begs the question "What is Adobe trying to protect?"

[designu46483552]

Interesting. Can't believe how obscure these things can get. It's got to be a fairly common problem, certainly is for any Designer I know. Sooner or later you need to get the REAL location of assets and these are available, just not from Adobe- usually you have to get the intel from other Creatives via Google or from helpful forum folks like Ged

I'm trying to find the same assets just on an office PC myself (PCs suck, btw).

[justinm47991011]

I looked in my user Library folder, the HD Library folder, even the Applications folder. I double-click a few of the Kyle's brush sets and nothing is moved or installed here:

/Users/User Name/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019/Presets/Brushes

I have to assume it installs the brushes into the package contents for the application itself. Nothing else seems to change in file size after the install. I just want to ensure that the 350+MB of space used in the Megapack is actually removed if I delete the brush group. Permanently deleting the original .abr file does nothing. The brushes still load when I re-open PS. It's definitely copied somewhere...

Can we get an answer to this already?

[Trevor.Dennis]

[justinm47991011]

I'm assuming that's the Windows equivalent of this Mac file path:

/Users/User Name/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019/Presets/Brushes

The brushes doesn't show up for me there. Finder is good at locating pretty much any indexed file quickly. If I run a system-wide search, the only results that come back are the original .abr files that are in my Downloads folder. If I permanently delete those, the brushes still work. So they're somewhere, just not in the Presets/Brushes folder.

[jane-e]

justinm47991011  wrote

The brushes doesn't show up for me there.

Hi Justin,

That's where they show up for me:

Users > [UserName] > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Adobe PS > Presets > Brushes

[justinm47991011]

Seems like mine is the anomaly in that case. I'm not sure where else to look. Everybody is saying they're supposed to be in that folder but they just aren't there.

[jane-e]

You can always move them there.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Hi

The abr files are used for loading brushes and exporting them.

The current brush panel contents are contained in a preference file which on Windows is in :

C:.Users>username>AppData>Roaming>Adobe>AdobePhotoshop CC 2019>Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings>  Brushes.psp

Not sure where the equivalent folder is on a MAC but search for Brushes.psp.  Don't move or delete it or you will lose your loaded brushes.

Dave

[jane-e]

Mac:

User > Library > Preferences > Adobe PS CC [version] Settings > Brushes.psp

Thanks, Dave!

[coryt30784717]

I recently upgrade my computer hard drives without first exporting my Photoshop CC 2018 brushes, like a fool, and this answer helped me retrieve them. You are my internet hero.

[Trevor.Dennis]

If you make new brush presets and/or groups, they exist within whatever Photoshop uses as house keeping drive space.  They are not stored as .abr files until saved with the Preset Manager.  I wonder if that is what is happening here?

I can never remember where to find the Preset Manager other than via the brush right click menu, and click on the cog icon

...so I usually use Ctrl F (Cmd F) to open the search tool, and type  Preset

Make sure that Brushes is selected as the Preset Type:

Select the group you want to save as an .abr file, and Save Set

It will then appear in the Appdata (Windows) Library > Application Support file path.

It seems reasonable that Photoshop will remove it from the other location when this has been done.