Where Did Plugins Go?

[mldiggs]

I'm loading a backup from my stolen laptop onto my new laptop, but for whatever reason, none of my LR plugins (the Nik Collection and the smugmug, photobucket, and fb upload plugins) or my export presets are visible. Is there a way for me to find those and add them in, or do I have to recreate them all from scratch? I copied all the files from that harddrive (user folders, etc.) so I assumed some of those settings would be in the programs. Is that not the case?

 

[Brad Snyder]

With recent versions of Lr, plug-ins can be installed from wherever they're located on the hard-drive, so where they're located more or less depends where you put them (and unzpipped them, if applicable) when you downloaded them originally (In past versions, there was a specific 'Modules' folder in the User Apps tree). The Export Presets however, should be located there in the User Apps folder tree.

When you say you backed up 'user folders', which specifically are you referring to?

 

[mldiggs]

Thanks, Brad. I backed up all the folders under my name (when I log in, I have my own organizational structure, and somehow, on my last computer, that My Pictures folder was different form a generic on the the hard drive, so I quickly learned the ones under my login name were the most complete and up to date from my December back up.

In addition, the external drive had all the program files with the exception of Windows Vista (since my new computer has Windows 7), so I copied all the programs and documents from my external drive onto my new laptop's hard drive (including all my pictures and LR catalogs, etc.).

Basically, when I do a backup, I copy my hard drive in its entirety onto the external drive.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Well, the Export Presets should be in C:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Export Presets\User Presets .
As I said, the plugins could be anywhere, but start looking at the same place ......\Lightroom\Modules.

 

[mldiggs]

Thanks, Brad. I found the plugins. It was hard to find the folders with lrplugin extension, but somehow I smartly left them in downloads, so that was the easiest place to find them (including the photobucket, fb plugins I love so well.). The presets I have not found yet, but I'll check where you suggest.

 

[Brad Snyder]

BTW, that Users.../AppData tree is usually set to 'hidden' in a vanilla Windows install, you may have to enable viewing hidden files/folders in Folder Options, if you haven't already. That trips a lot of people up, and I forget to mention it about half the time.