Reset preferences should back them up, include sys info.

@Rick Adams @Indeed, the hardening/checksum of the prefs is something I suggested in another thread, linked earlier. (Different ideas should have different discussion, so that the team knows on which suggestions other users agreed an voted upon)

And by all means, without dismissing your excellent suggestions, @Stephen Marsh if scripts and actions are good for power users, my suggestions aim to cover users of the entire proficiency range. (But please keep the scripts coming!)

Another option is to create an action or script to set various preference settings to your desired settings, then run after reset:

But as always, @jane-e , your answer is more complete than mine (so naturally it takes a couple of seconds longer to type 😉 )

Oh, and I voted for Pierre's suggestion.

I voted too. In addtion to the script, I can tell you what I've done which at least on the Mac is simple: Make a Symboic Link making it really easy to get to the preference file (from the Dock, the desktop, whatever), then make a backup of the original as well. 

This is free and works really well:

https://github.com/nickzman/symboliclinker/releases

@D Fosse 

I didn't see your post when I was typing.

Jane

@Rick Adams wrote:

I am always frustrated when Adobe support's first step to troubleshoot an issue is "reset your preferences", straight to the nuclear option.

Rick, the preferences file contains more than what is in Photoshop menu > Preferences panel (Windows: Edit menu). There are other settings that are used internally by PS and these settings can become corrupted, especially after a crash.

Adobe staff recommends a manual reset by renaming the preferences file instead of deleting it so it can be restored. Details here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

For comparison, when Microsoft Word gets corrupted, it involves editing the registry and deleting a file. I don't think that's better!

Any changes from Adobe won't be immediate. What you can do for now is:

• Back up your preferences file when it is working (see above link)
• Take screen shots of your panels in Preferences (or take notes)
  I've reset Preferences so many times in three decades that I don't need notes
• Use Stephen's script

I hope this helps,

Jane

The problem here is that actual user prefs is only a small part of it. It's the full app configuration, including lots of things you as a user never touched. And that's where the weird symptoms can happen.

The reason it's prone to corruption is that it's rewritten on every exit.

Thank you for starting this thread. I am always frustrated when Adobe support's first step to troubleshoot an issue is "reset your preferences", straight to the nuclear option. I am not technical however, I will look at the script below to see if it will help me.

If I could, my suggestion would be for Adobe to have a method that would create a text file that shows and compares default preferences and current preferences. With a list in hand, I could quickly see what my settings were before a preference reset and what I must change to get back to where I was and the way I had the settings set.

There are things I have changed throughout the years of my use of the app and I have no idea what I have modified in the past, the app works the way I want until it doesn't. I have been told by Adobe that the preferences file is the most susceptible to corruption. So, I must ask, if you know this, why is there not a better way of managing something that you know can be responsible for problems with the app and make it easier to "fix" something that is easily corrupted?

With only ten upvotes, I won't be holding my breath.  

Cross-post to two other preferences-related ideas:

 https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/preferences-safe-mode-start/idc-p/13568992#M16596

and 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/preferences-check-at-exit-during-use-export/idc-p/13568997#M16597

As useful this community is, I really wonder if the scripts and scriptlets should not be placed in a reposity, similar to github?

I saw, a few versions ago, that the Indesign team had made a panel with useful community scripts, a similar idea would be useful in Ps, Br, etc. : https://helpx.adobe.com/be_en/indesign/using/scripting.html#community_scripts