Migrate presets, actions, and settings

Custom brushes, keyboard shortcuts, actions, workspaces, and other personalized settings help streamline your workflow. Photoshop provides several ways to transfer these customizations between versions and devices so you can continue working without re-creating them.

Understand what you're migrating and how Photoshop categorizes these elements.

Presets

Presets are collections of saved values that you can apply in Photoshop. They include items like custom brushes, gradients, swatches, and workspace layouts. You can create your own presets or use those included with Photoshop. When you save a brush with specific settings or arrange your panels in a particular way and save that workspace, you're creating presets.

Settings

Settings represent the values currently active in Photoshop. These control how tools behave, which keyboard shortcuts perform which actions, and how your interface is arranged. Settings files store configurations like your current brush properties, tool presets, and menu customizations.

Actions

Actions are recorded sequences of editing steps that can be played back on individual or batch files.

Supported preset types

Photoshop can migrate the following preset types between installations on the same computer:

• Actions
• Black & White Adjustment presets
• Brushes
• Channel Mixer Adjustment presets
• Color Range presets
• Color Swatches
• Contours
• Curves Adjustment presets
• Custom Shapes
• Duotone presets (Mono, Duo, Tri, and Quad)
• Exposure Adjustment presets
• Gradients
• HDR Toning presets
• Hue/Saturation Adjustment presets
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Levels Adjustment presets
• Menu Customizations
• Patterns
• Selective Color Adjustment presets
• Styles
• Tool presets
• Workspaces

Choose a migration method

Choose the migration method for your scenario.

• Updating Photoshop on the same computer: Use Automatic migration during installation.
• Migrating after skipped installation: Use the Migrate Presets command.
• Transferring to another computer: Use Export and import presets.
• Copying files manually: Use manual file transfer from the Settings folder.

Migrate presets automatically during an update

When you update Photoshop through the Creative Cloud desktop app, it automatically imports presets, preferences, and settings from the most recent installed version.

Disable automatic migration

If you don't want Photoshop to import settings during installation:

Migrate presets after installation

If you skipped automatic migration or need to migrate settings later:

Export and import presets between computers

Use export and import to transfer presets to another computer or share them with other users.

For transfers between Photoshop versions installed on the same computer, Adobe recommends selecting Edit > Presets > Migrate Presets instead. For example, to transfer brushes:

You can use a similar workflow for other supported preset types, including actions and gradients.

Copy preset files manually

You can transfer some presets by copying their associated files directly.

Settings folder locations

macOS
<Username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop Settings

Windows
C:\Usersusername>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop\Adobe Photoshop Settings

Preset files

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

Copy the required files from the source installation's Settings folder to the corresponding folder in the destination installation.

Sync presets across devices

If you use Photoshop on multiple computers, you can sync presets through Creative Cloud instead of manually transferring them.

When preset syncing is enabled, Photoshop automatically synchronizes supported presets across desktop devices signed in with the same Adobe account.

Use preset syncing to keep your workflow consistent across multiple devices. Use migration methods for one-time transfers, offline environments, or version-to-version upgrades.