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Migrate presets, actions, and settings

Last updated on 14 October 2024

Learn how you can migrate presets, actions, plug-ins, preferences, and settings while upgrading to a new version of Photoshop or installing Photoshop on a different computer.

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Presets, settings, and actions

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Photoshop User Guide
Introduction to Photoshop
1. Dream it. Make it.
2. What's new in Photoshop
3. Edit your first photo
4. Create documents
5. Photoshop | Common Questions
6. Photoshop system requirements
7. Get to know Photoshop
8. Keep Photoshop up to date
Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
1. Work with Illustrator artwork in Photoshop
2. Work with Photoshop files in InDesign
3. Substance 3D Materials for Photoshop
4. Use the Capture in-app extension in Photoshop
Photoshop on the iPad (not available in mainland China)
1. Photoshop on the iPad | Common questions
2. Get to know the workspace
3. System requirements | Photoshop on the iPad
4. Create, open, and export documents
5. Add photos
6. Work with layers
7. Draw and paint with brushes
8. Make selections and add masks
9. Retouch your composites
10. Work with adjustment layers
11. Adjust the tonality of your composite with Curves
12. Apply transform operations
13. Crop and rotate your composites
14. Rotate, pan, zoom, and reset the canvas
15. Work with Type layers
16. Work with Photoshop and Lightroom
17. Get missing fonts in Photoshop on the iPad
18. Japanese Text in Photoshop on the iPad
19. Manage app settings
20. Touch shortcuts and gestures
21. Keyboard shortcuts
22. Edit your image size
23. Livestream as you create in Photoshop on the iPad
24. Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
25. Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop on the iPad
26. Work with Camera Raw files
27. Create and work with Smart Objects
28. Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
29. Auto adjustment commands in Photoshop on the iPad
30. Smudge areas in your images with Photoshop on the iPad
31. Saturate or desaturate your images using Sponge tool
32. Content aware fill for iPad
Photoshop on the web (not available in mainland China)
1. Common questions
2. System requirements
3. Keyboard shortcuts
4. Supported file types
5. Introduction to the workspace
6. Open and work with cloud documents
7. Generative AI features
8. Basic concepts of editing
9. Quick Actions
10. Work with layers
11. Retouch images and remove imperfections
12. Make quick selections
13. Image improvements with Adjustment Layers
14. Add a fill layer
15. Move, transform, and crop images
16. Draw and paint
17. Draw and edit Shapes
18. Work with Type layers
19. Work with anyone on the web
20. Manage app settings
21. Generate Image
22. Generate Background
23. Reference Image
Photoshop (beta) (not available in mainland China)
1. Get started with Creative Cloud Beta apps
2. Photoshop (beta) on the desktop
3. Reference Image
Generative AI (not available in mainland China)
1. Common questions on generative AI in Photoshop
2. Generative Fill in Photoshop on the desktop
3. Generate Image with descriptive text prompts
4. Generative Expand in Photoshop on the desktop
5. Replace background with Generate background
6. Get new variations with Generate Similar
7. Generative Fill in Photoshop on the iPad
8. Generative Expand in Photoshop on the iPad
9. Generative AI features in Photoshop on the web
Content authenticity (not available in mainland China)
1. Content credentials in Photoshop
2. Identity and provenance for NFTs
3. Connect accounts for creative attribution
Cloud documents (not available in mainland China)
1. Photoshop cloud documents | Common questions
2. Photoshop cloud documents | Workflow questions
3. Manage and work with cloud documents in Photoshop
4. Upgrade cloud storage for Photoshop
5. Unable to create or save a cloud document
6. Solve Photoshop cloud document errors
7. Collect cloud document sync logs
8. Invite others to edit your cloud documents
9. Share files and comment in-app
Workspace
1. Workspace basics
2. Preferences
3. Learn faster with the Photoshop Discover Panel
4. Create documents
5. Place files
6. Default keyboard shortcuts
7. Customize keyboard shortcuts
8. Tool galleries
9. Performance preferences
10. Use tools
11. Presets
12. Grid and guides
13. Touch gestures
14. Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
15. Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
16. Technology previews
17. Metadata and notes
18. Place Photoshop images in other applications
19. Rulers
20. Show or hide non-printing Extras
21. Specify columns for an image
22. Undo and history
23. Panels and menus
24. Position elements with snapping
25. Position with the Ruler tool
Web, screen, and app design
1. Photoshop for design
2. Artboards
3. Device Preview
4. Copy CSS from layers
5. Slice web pages
6. HTML options for slices
7. Modify slice layout
8. Work with web graphics
9. Create web photo galleries
Image and color basics
1. How to resize images
2. Work with raster and vector images
3. Image size and resolution
4. Acquire images from cameras and scanners
5. Create, open, and import images
6. View images
7. Invalid JPEG Marker error | Opening images
8. Viewing multiple images
9. Customize color pickers and swatches
10. High dynamic range images
11. Match colors in your image
12. Convert between color modes
13. Color modes
14. Erase parts of an image
15. Blending modes
16. Choose colors
17. Customize indexed color tables
18. Image information
19. Distort filters are unavailable
20. About color
21. Color and monochrome adjustments using channels
22. Choose colors in the Color and Swatches panels
23. Sample
24. Color mode or Image mode
25. Color cast
26. Add a conditional mode change to an action
27. Add swatches from HTML CSS and SVG
28. Bit depth and preferences
Layers
1. Layer basics
2. Nondestructive editing
3. Create and manage layers and groups
4. Select, group, and link layers
5. Place images into frames
6. Layer opacity and blending
7. Mask layers
8. Apply Smart Filters
9. Layer comps
10. Move, stack, and lock layers
11. Mask layers with vector masks
12. Manage layers and groups
13. Layer effects and styles
14. Edit layer masks
15. Extract assets
16. Reveal layers with clipping masks
17. Generate image assets from layers
18. Work with Smart Objects
19. Blending modes
20. Combine multiple images into a group portrait
21. Combine images with Auto-Blend Layers
22. Align and distribute layers
23. Copy CSS from layers
24. Load selections from a layer or layer mask's boundaries
25. Knockout to reveal content from other layers
Selections
1. Get started with selections
2. Make selections in your composite
3. Select and Mask workspace
4. Select with the marquee tools
5. Select with the lasso tools
6. Adjust pixel selections
7. Move, copy, and delete selected pixels
8. Create a temporary quick mask
9. Select a color range in an image
10. Convert between paths and selection borders
11. Channel basics
12. Save selections and alpha channel masks
13. Select the image areas in focus
14. Duplicate, split, and merge channels
15. Channel calculations
Image adjustments
1. Replace object colors
2. Perspective warp
3. Reduce camera shake blurring
4. Healing brush examples
5. Export color lookup tables
6. Adjust image sharpness and blur
7. Understand color adjustments
8. Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
9. Adjust shadow and highlight detail
10. Levels adjustment
11. Adjust hue and saturation
12. Adjust vibrance
13. Adjust color saturation in image areas
14. Make quick tonal adjustments
15. Apply special color effects to images
16. Enhance your image with color balance adjustments
17. High dynamic range images
18. View histograms and pixel values
19. Match colors in your image
20. Crop and straighten photos
21. Convert a color image to black and white
22. Adjustment and fill layers
23. Curves adjustment
24. Blending modes
25. Target images for press
26. Adjust color and tone with Levels and Curves eyedroppers
27. Adjust HDR exposure and toning
28. Dodge or burn image areas
29. Make selective color adjustments
Adobe Camera Raw
1. Camera Raw system requirements
2. What's new in Camera Raw
3. Introduction to Camera Raw
4. Create panoramas
5. Supported lenses
6. Vignette, grain, and dehaze effects in Camera Raw
7. Default keyboard shortcuts
8. Automatic perspective correction in Camera Raw
9. Radial Filter in Camera Raw
10. Manage Camera Raw settings
11. Open, process, and save images in Camera Raw
12. Repair images with the Enhanced Spot Removal tool in Camera Raw
13. Rotate, crop, and adjust images
14. Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw
15. Process versions in Camera Raw
16. Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
Image repair and restoration
1. Remove Tool
2. Remove objects from your photos with Content-Aware Fill
3. Content-Aware Patch and Move
4. Retouch and repair photos
5. Correct image distortion and noise
6. Basic troubleshooting steps to fix most issues
Image enhancement and transformation
1. Replace sky in your images
2. Transform objects
3. Adjust crop, rotation, and canvas size
4. How to crop and straighten photos
5. Create and edit panoramic images
6. Warp images, shapes, and paths
7. Vanishing Point
8. Content-aware scaling
9. Transform images, shapes, and paths
Drawing and painting
1. Paint symmetrical patterns
2. Draw rectangles and modify stroke options
3. About drawing
4. Draw and edit shapes
5. Painting tools
6. Create and modify brushes
7. Blending modes
8. Add color to paths
9. Edit paths
10. Paint with the Mixer Brush
11. Brush presets
12. Gradients
13. Gradient interpolation
14. Fill and stroke selections, layers, and paths
15. Draw with the Pen tools
16. Create patterns
17. Generate a pattern using the Pattern Maker
18. Manage paths
19. Manage pattern libraries and presets
20. Draw or paint with a graphics tablet
21. Create textured brushes
22. Add dynamic elements to brushes
23. Gradient
24. Paint stylized strokes with the Art History Brush
25. Paint with a pattern
26. Sync presets on multiple devices
27. Migrate presets, actions, and settings
Text
1. Add and edit the text
2. Unified Text Engine
3. Work with OpenType SVG fonts
4. Format characters
5. Format paragraphs
6. How to create type effects
7. Edit text
8. Line and character spacing
9. Arabic and Hebrew type
10. Fonts
11. Troubleshoot fonts
12. Asian type
13. Create type
Filters and effects
1. Use the Blur Gallery
2. Filter basics
3. Filter effects reference
4. Add Lighting Effects
5. Use the Adaptive Wide Angle filter
6. Use the Oil Paint filter
7. Use the Liquify filter
8. Layer effects and styles
9. Apply specific filters
10. Smudge image areas
Saving and exporting
1. Save your files in Photoshop
2. Export your files in Photoshop
3. Supported file formats
4. Save files in graphics formats
5. Move designs between Photoshop and Illustrator
6. Save and export video and animations
7. Save PDF files
8. Digimarc copyright protection
Color Management
1. Understanding color management
2. Keeping colors consistent
3. Color settings
4. Duotones
5. Work with color profiles
6. Color-managing documents for online viewing
7. Color-managing documents when printing
8. Color-managing imported images
9. Proofing colors
Web, screen, and app design
1. Photoshop for design
2. Artboards
3. Device Preview
4. Copy CSS from layers
5. Slice web pages
6. HTML options for slices
7. Modify slice layout
8. Work with web graphics
9. Create web photo galleries
Video and animation
1. Video editing in Photoshop
2. Edit video and animation layers
3. Video and animation overview
4. Preview video and animations
5. Paint frames in video layers
6. Import video files and image sequences
7. Create frame animations
8. Creative Cloud 3D Animation (Preview)
9. Create timeline animations
10. Create images for video
Printing
1. Print 3D objects
2. Print from Photoshop
3. Print with color management
4. Contact Sheets and PDF Presentations
5. Print photos in a picture package layout
6. Print spot colors
7. Print images to a commercial printing press
8. Improve color prints from Photoshop
9. Troubleshoot printing problems | Photoshop
Automation
1. Creating actions
2. Create data-driven graphics
3. Scripting
4. Process a batch of files
5. Play and manage actions
6. Add conditional actions
7. About actions and the Actions panel
8. Record tools in actions
9. Add a conditional mode change to an action
10. Photoshop UI toolkit for plug-ins and scripts
Troubleshooting
1. Fixed issues
2. Known issues
3. Optimize Photoshop performance
4. Basic troubleshooting
5. Troubleshoot crash or freeze
6. Troubleshoot program errors
7. Troubleshoot scratch disk full errors
8. Troubleshoot GPU and graphics driver issues
9. Find missing tools
10. Photoshop 3D | Common questions around discontinued features

As of July 2024, Photoshop’s legacy 3D features have been removed. However, now in the Photoshop (beta) app you can seamlessly add 3D objects to your 2D Photoshop design using the Adobe Substance 3D Viewer (beta) app. Click here for more details.

Presets are collections of items and values that are applied to artwork in Photoshop. You can save and load presets, or replace them with custom values at any time. Actions, brushes, and keyboard shortcuts are examples of presets. Photoshop comes with presets, but you can also create your own.

Settings are actual values that are currently loaded in Photoshop. They control various elements and tools in the application, such as your current brush and all its values.

Actions are series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files—menu commands, panel options, tool actions, and so on. For example, an action can change the size of an image, apply an effect to that image, and then saves the file in the desired format.

Migrate presets

You can migrate your custom preset collections, as well as some Photoshop presets, from one version of Photoshop to another on the same computer. The presets you can migrate include:

Actions
Brushes
Black and White (Adjustment)
Channel Mixer (Adjustment)
Color Range
Color Swatches
Contours
Curves (Adjustment)
Custom Shapes
Doutone (Mono, Duo, Tri, Quad)
Exposure (Adjustment)
Gradients
HDR Toning (Adjustment)
Hue and Saturation (Adjustment)
Keyboard Shortcuts
Levels (Adjustment)
Menu Customization
Patterns
Selective Color (Adjustment)
Styles
Tools
Workspaces

Migrate presets while updating Photoshop

By default, when you update to the latest version of Photoshop using the Creative Cloud desktop app, your presets, settings, and preferences are migrated from the earlier version of Photoshop. Also, when you launch Photoshop for the first time, you're prompted to migrate all available presets from the most recent version of Photoshop installed on your computer.

Presets can be migrated from the latest version installed before Photoshop, going back to Photoshop CS3. To migrate from multiple versions of Photoshop, migrate presets sequentially from one version of Photoshop at a time.

Note:

You can, however, choose not to migrate them by deselecting Advanced Options > Import previous settings and preferences on the confirmation screen that appears after you click Update in the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Advanced options available after you click Update in the Creative Cloud desktop app

Migrate presets after installing/updating Photoshop

If you chose not to migrate your presets when you updated Photoshop, or if you faced issues while migrating presets, you can select Edit > Presets > Migrate Presets to migrate presets, settings, and preferences later in Photoshop. Photoshop looks for an older version of Photoshop on the same system and prompts you to migrate presets.

Export and import presets

You can bring your presets from one computer to another, or to an offline computer, by manually exporting them and then importing. The Export/Import Presets is not restricted to computers running Photoshop as part of Creative Cloud.

SOURCE COMPUTER: On the computer that has the presets you want to migrate, do the following:

Open Photoshop.
Choose Edit > Presets > Export/Import Presets.
Choose Export Presets.
Select the desired presets and move them to the Presets To Export column.
Click Export Presets.
Select the folder to export your presets to. Choose a folder you can use to transfer the files using a USB drive, network, or an online sharing service.
Click OK.

TARGET COMPUTER: On the computer receiving the imported settings, do the following:

Choose Edit > Presets > Export/Import Presets.
Select Import Presets.
Select the presets you want to import, or click Add All.
If you saved your presets to a folder that is not the default, choose Select Import Folder, and select the appropriate folder.
Click Import Presets.

Save and load presets

When Preset Syncing is enabled, your presets on one device will automatically sync up with your Creative Cloud and sync down to any other desktop device you log into using the same Adobe ID.

To learn more about Preset syncing, see Sync presets on multiple devices.

For presets that currently do not support syncing like Tools and Contours, you can move them across different versions of Photoshop on same or different desktops by saving them and loading them into the target application.

SOURCE COMPUTER: On the computer that has the presets you want to migrate, do the following:

Open Photoshop.
Choose Edit > Presets > Presets Manager.
Choose the desired option from the Preset Type drop-down menu. For example, choose Tools.
Select the desired presets. For example, select the brushes that you want to migrate.
Click Save Set and then, click Save. Photoshop creates a presets file at the following location by default:

(Windows) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Presets\Tools
(macOS) Applications/Adobe Photoshop <version>/Presets/Tools

TARGET COMPUTER: On the computer receiving the imported settings, do the following:

Choose Edit > Presets > Presets Manager.
Click Load in the Presets Manager dialog box.
Select the saved set you want to load.
Click Load.

Migrate actions

See Migrate actions.

Manually copy settings

Photoshop has a number of setting files that you can manually copy from one installation to another. These files include:

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

To move these settings to a new installation, copy these files from the following path on the source installation to the same path on the target installation:

Mac: <Username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop <version> Settings
Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Adobe Photoshop <version> Settings

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