Location of installed Actions on MacOS Catalina for Photoshop 2020

[aMyth!]

Hello,

Where on my MacOS local drive can I find the actions I installed?

The /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2020/Presets/Actions folder is empty and the /Presets/Actions folder within the Applications folder shows only the default actions that Photoshop came with. I have several others installed which shows up within Photoshop and works perfectly too; just not able to find where they are located in Finder.

I am using Photoshop 2020 ver 21.2.2 on MacOS Catalina 10.15.6

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Myra Ferguson]

If you downloaded actions and then loaded them, they would be wherever you downloaded them. You can search for ".atn" which is the action extension.

[aMyth!]

Thanks, @Myra_Ferguson

So Photoshop does not copy the .atn files to its own folder when we load them?! Do we have to leave the downloaded files in the same location it was loaded from for the action to work in PS?

[Myra Ferguson]

That's a good question. I was curious, so I tried moving the .atn for an action that I had imported. After I moved it, I ran the action, and it worked. So Photoshop must be keeping track of where it is. I would say that if you do move the .atn file and it doesn't work, you could delete that set of actions and load them again through the Actions panel flyout menu.

[aMyth!]

I tried that too, and it sure seems to be working fine even if I move the .atn files. Photoshop is indeed keeping track of it somehow, but there's nothing in the /Presets/Actions folder in the Library. I tried adding an .atn file directly to that folder, but that did not show up in PS even after restarting. Wonder what that folder is for then.

[Myra Ferguson]

The Presets folder is for actions that you want to have easily accessible by going to the Actions flyout menu. There are several preset actions that come with Photoshop but aren't included in the Default set of actions that you can load by selecting them from the flyout menu. If you delete those actions from the Actions panel, you can reload them anytime by selecting them again from the flyout menu. If you download an action, you can put it in the Preset folder. When you restart Photoshop, you'll see that action there. But you don't have to have a downloaded action in the presets folder in order to just import it into the Actions panel.

[aMyth!]

Ah, I did not notice that! That's a very helpful tip for me. Thank you!!