If you find you’re having odd problems with Lightroom, resetting Lightroom’s Preferences file can solve all sorts of ‘weirdness,’ so it’s a good early step in troubleshooting. Let’s take a look at how to simply reset Preferences, and also how to find and take a backup of the file(s) so you can check resetting helps.
How Do I Reset Preferences?
There are three ways to do this. The end result is the same with exception of the third method where you can keep a copy of the Preferences.
– On starting Lightroom
In Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, there’s a simple automated way of doing it. All you need to do is hold down Alt and Shift (Windows) / Opt and Shift (Mac) while opening Lightroom. You’ll be asked whether to reset the preferences. The timing is crucial—hold them down while clicking/double-clicking on the app/shortcut.
– With Lightroom running
Introduced more recently in Lightroom Classic, you can reset Preferences from within the program. To do so, open Preferences > General. Hope down Alt (Windows) / Opt (Mac) and you’ll see the options under Prompts change. The right-hand one lets you Reset all preferences and relaunch.
– Manually
The third option is to reset the preferences manually. Moving or renaming the preferences file, rather than deleting it, means that you can put it back if it doesn’t solve the problem, to save you manually recreating your preferences again.
Windows
- Quit Lightroom.
- Open Explorer and navigate to
- Lightroom Classic, Lightroom 6 (or earlier): C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences Note that this is a hidden folder, so the easiest way to do so is to open the Start menu search box (Windows 7 / 10) / Search charm (Windows 8) and type %appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences
- Lightroom Desktop (cloud-based): C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom CC\Preferences
- Note: these are hidden folders, so the easiest way to find them is to open the Start menu search box (Windows 7 / 10) / Search charm (Windows 8) and type %appdata%\Adobe\
- Rename, move* or delete the following files:
- Lightroom Classic: Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferences.agprefs, leave the Startup Preferences there.
- Lightroom 6 (or earlier): Lightroom 6 Preferences.agprefs (earlier versions will be named similarly), leave the Startup Preferences there.
- Lightroom Desktop (cloud-based): Lightroom CC Preferences.agprefs.
- Restart Lightroom.
Mac
- Quit Lightroom.
- Open Finder and select the .
- Hold down the Opt key so appears in the menu, then click on .
- In the Finder window, open the Preferences folder.
- Rename, move* or delete the following files:
- Classic: com.adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.plist.
- Lightroom 6 (or earlier): com.adobe.Lightroom6.plist and com.adobe.Lightroom6.LSSharedFileList.plist (older versions are named similarly).
- Lightroom Desktop (cloud-based): com.adobe.LightroomCC.plist.
- Reboot your computer (because macOS caches some preference files), then restart Lightroom.
- If your presets are missing, go to , check Store presets with this catalog and they should reappear.
* Moving or renaming that preferences file, rather than deleting it, means you can put it back if it doesn’t solve the problem, to save you recreating your preferences again.
Note on manual removal: You need to remove (delete or move) all the Lightroom Classic and Lightroom 6 (and earlier) .plist / .agprefs files. If you just delete the Lightroom Classic CC 7 file, LR will read preferences from the earlier-version files.
Note on Classic raw defaults: Resetting Lightroom Classic’s Preferences dialog doesn’t reset the Raw Default settings found under the Presets tab. These aren’t known for becoming corrupted, but if you’re trying to get back to a “factory defaults” type of state or troubleshoot the Develop settings on import, you may also want to delete the following file:
- Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \ Defaults \ RawDefaults.xmp
- Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / CameraRaw / Defaults / RawDefaults.xmp
What’s Stored in Preferences?
If you reset your Preferences file, the obvious settings that you lose are those in the Preferences dialog. But it also includes other details such as your View Options settings, last used settings, FTP server details, some plug-in settings, your country, etc.
Your original photos, Develop settings, Develop defaults, collections, presets and other important settings aren’t affected by deleting the Preferences file.
The Store presets with this catalog setting also reverts to default (unchecked) if you reset the preferences file, but the presets themselves are perfectly safe, and checking the checkbox in Preferences causes the presets to reappear.
On Lightroom Classic or Lightroom 6 (or earlier), there are also separate startup preferences which don’t usually need resetting. These include the last used catalog path, the recent catalog list, which catalog to load on startup and the catalog upgrade history.
On Lightroom 5 or earlier, don’t panic if Lightroom opens with a blank catalog or asks you to create one after trashing the preferences. If it finds a catalog at the default location, that’s the catalog it will initially open, but you can go to File menu > Open Catalog to navigate to your normal catalog.
For lots more information and tips on using Lightroom, see Adobe Lightroom – Edit Like a Pro (covers the cloud and mobile versions) and Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ (for the folder-based version). If you have a current Premium Membership, you can download the latest version of your book from the Members Area right now. (And if not, here’s the shop – go and buy your copy!)
Originally posted 22 December 2014, updated for latest Lightroom features June 2022.
La computadora cumple con los requisitos de sistema para lightroom clasic. Le instalaron windows 11 y aunque Lr abre bien no puedo utilizar las máscaras: sujeto, fondo, obeto, detectar personas
Google Translation:
The computer meets the system requirements for Lightroom Classic. Windows 11 was installed and although Lr opens well I cannot use the masks: subject, background, object, detect people
That is probably a problem with the graphics card or its driver.
Google Translation:
Probablemente sea un problema con la tarjeta gráfica o su controlador.
Will a preference reset fix my issue of 0 images in new folder that I supposedly imported to LR? I can’t figure out why the folder name is there but showing 0 photos even though they are in my pc folder. I am sure they did import to LR but for some reason it seems to think they’re not there. I didn’t move them via my pc and there is no ! or ? to indicate missing.
Unlikely, we’d need to know more background to help with that one. Feel free to post on the forum, link in the menubar.
Rebooted. I fixed it in the Library screen, then it was in the Develop Screen.
Thanks everyone for weighing in.
Marv…
P.S.
The arrow is not there. I know it should be, but isn’t. We tried everything before posting.
This is a new Windows Laptop and a ported over and updated LR from the old computer of my daughters. Everything else seems to be working and all the settings we checked matched my laptop LR settings perfectly.
I cant figure out what we are missing. Been a Lightroom user since early Ver 2.
Marv…
I just installed the latest version of Lightroom Classic on a new windows computer but I am missing the little Arrow in the bottom right tool bar that lets you expand so I can add Star or Color ratings in the Develop window/mode. What am I missing?
Hello,
I did the reset manually for version 6.14. Map module still does not load the map. It is just blank grey. Nothing on it. When I type a location for instance Rome, it displays quickly a text indicating Rome in Italy. I would be grateful if I can get any assistance on this issue.
Resetting preferences won’t help with that one I’m afraid… the Map module no longer works in version 6 as it uses Google API’s that have changed since LR6’s release many years ago.
Thank you Victoria
the filter under the previous and reset button.
Thanks Victoria. I am talking about the filters on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. I am not so well versed in lightroom but it is the filter you can save after you have edited and adjusted your settings. I have enabled filters but LR won’t change my photo according to the filter I click. I am also not sure where to find the helper.lrdate file. Thanks for the patience.
That’s called the Filmstrip Filters, it’s an easier way to get to the Attribute Filters that can be accessed above the grid.
Ok, post on the forum and include some screenshots so we can see what might be going wrong.
Thanks, will do.
Hi. Great advice but how do you do it on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 please?
What are you trying to accomplish, Alan? What kind of problem are you trying to solve by resetting preferences?
Kind of desperate here, but my filters don’t work. Whenever I select a filter, nothing happens. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I think we’ll need more information on that one, but if resetting preferences hasn’t done the trick, then I might try quitting LR and deleting the Helper.lrdata file next to the catalog. If that doesn’t do it, post on the forum (link in the menubar) where we can help you troubleshoot further.
Thank you! Helping my wife get the Blurb link working again after new computer with Win11 and fresh LRc install. This did the trick! Incidentally, you can edit the prefs file (Notepad in Windows) and remove corrupted part, or copy some of your old prefs into a fresh file that works correctly.
In my case a section at the bottom of the file starting:
[“pw_pw_com.adobe.lightroom.layout.blurb_blurb_accounts_generic_username”]
was the culprit. I replaced it with the same section of the working prefs file.
Excellent, thanks for sharing.
I’ve been editing a lot of shoots in the lasts months, using the print module to deliver previews to clients.
I uploaded my SD card as usual, made my selection, but the novelty is that LR stopped responding when I clicked on the print module. I did nothing different than usual and was able to access the print module no less than 3 days ago.
I tried
Restarting computer
Backing catalogue
Updating via creative cloud. Cloud said they detected issues with NVIDIA
Updating NVIDIA drivers
I verified if it was crashing for other collections: it does
I tried moving the print preset templates file elsewhere (as recommended here)
Found this helpful blog and changed the preference file name in Windows for LR Classic 7.
Nothing works.
hm. I’m on my way to update the intel drivers, but I’m sure it will change nothing. What else can I do ?
Hi Anne
That is frustrating! Did your Classic update yesterday to the latest release (11.5)? Just wondering what has changed for you. If it did, perhaps roll back to the previous version (11.4.1) just to test. I don’t think it’s likely, we haven’t heard any reports (thus far) on Print module issues.
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/roll-back-update-previous/
Also, if there are no photos selected at all and you click on the Print tab – does it still happen then?
For me the Map module was stuck loading markers, and a preferences reset did the trick, thanks! It’s worked in several cases, actually. Who knows why? Do I care? Not if it works 😀
Hopefully you can help in some way, Adobe support has been unable to comprehend the issue, let alone the settings in their own software.
I have the M1 Ultra 64GB with 48 GPU cores. Yet LR preferences does not allow me to turn on any o the GPU acceleration other than display. It will not allow GPU for image processing nor for Export.
Any ideas what might be blocking LR from allowing these for my more-than-capable computer?
THANKS!!
Try the final troubleshooting step on this page: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/camera-raw/kb/acr-gpu-faq.html
On my way! … I think you just changed my life. I have been battling with a crawling Lightroom Classic for months (and my iMac has an upgraded 32GB of RAM) and all of a sudden LR is back to being lightning fast. Thank you so very much. I am so grateful.
That’s great news!
Was in the middle of working on a wedding and lost all of my presets in the panel after a restart of my computer. Had no idea what happened. Spent 4 hours trying to resolve this and finally gave up looing an entire day I could have finished the edits. This morning I found this page and the “Reset Prefs” solution. Rather than spend another night trying to fix this and worry about my editing for the rest of the week that is due, I am now back to editing FULL speed. Thank you very much : )
I’m really pleased we could help!
Victoria, you came through with a workable solution to the sudden inability to delete rejected images from disk (‘An internal error has occurred…’) that, after 2 days of frustration and no help from Adobe, your suggestion to reset preferences solved!! Thank you so much—wish I’d discovered your site earlier!!
Excellent, I’m really pleased it helped!
Massive kudos to the Lightroom Queen Lightroom tips faqs. Resetting preferences tip was a life saver, and so easy. Thanks TLQ!
Have a question about lightroom with Mojave 10.14.3 & 10.14.4 working but slowly on iMac 5k 27 in 2017 model with CC2019. I can not open .ai files in mac mail but I can from my webmail. Any thoughts?
Feel free to post your Lightroom question on the forum (linked in the menu) as you didn’t tell us what the question was! As for your AI files, I’d suggest contacting Apple.
Hola buen dia.
tengo un problema con los ajustes preestablecidos. no me deja agregar a las fotos ningún ajuste como los de fotografia antigua ni los preset que guardo. ya intente borrando las preferencias, pero no va, sigue igual
Hola Christian, ¿qué pasa cuando lo intentas? (Solo hablo un poco de español!)
Hi Vistoria,
I hope you can help me. I am using LR 6.14 (hard copy) with Camera Raw 10.1 on iOS 10.14.2. I was trying to tethered with my Canon Mark II (Firmware 2.1.2) and it doesn’t work.
When the cable was connected between the camera and the Mac, the tether function didn’t work. I clicked the shutter but the image didn’t automatic transfer in the LR like it should be. I need to turn off my camera and turn it on again, and use Import to make the image show up in the LR.
What should I do to make the tether work the way it should be?
thank you very much,
sabrina
Which Canon Mk2 Sabrina? If it’s the 6D Mk2, tethering support wasn’t added until the following release (Classic 7.0), although raw format support was added earlier.
Weird. The last three times I loaded images into a new folder, an image from an earlier (and random) folder appears in the place of a “new” photo. It even retains the same image name as the rest of the new images, but it is a different photo from the rest of the ones in the folder.
Long time LR user…since version 1. I have not changed any preferences….always up to date with the newest version.
HOWEVER, I am using a newer memory card in my camera (hmmm…is that where there’s a problem?).
Should I reset my preferences?
Any suggestions?
Was this in the import dialog, or actually in Lightroom itself?
Excellent! This fixed several issues I was having with Classic v7. Thanks so much!!
[Pasted from the Photoshop Family forum where I found a link to this page]:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. My life is redeemed. LR had become so sluggish after the latest ‘update’ that it had destroyed my workflow and reduced me almost to tears. Everything was painfully slow, if it worked at all. Resetting the Preferences using the simple startup method has transformed it. Faster than ever. So fast I’m feeling giddy, clicking on folders and watching the thumbnails fill the screen in an instant – instead of (say) two minutes. Hurray! Why the heck don’t Adobe just incorporate this non-destructively into their Updater?
Oh I’m so pleased to helped Gary. It’s amazing how often it fixes issues that don’t look to be related.
LR CC, LR Classic CC, etc. will not open on my mac anymore. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling (both separately) and they will not open, I need to force quit to get out.
I’ve also attempted to reset my preferences and when I opt+shift on open to try to reset, the app freezes and will not complete the task.
I don’t understand?
The fact that neither opens makes me think there’s a problem on your computer. What’s changed since they last opened ok? OS upgrade or something like that perhaps? I’m guessing you’ve tried rebooting the computer?
Ignore the above , I have got it sorted !
Well done Adrian!
Hi Guys, I have Lightroom 5.7 on Windows 8 64bit.
Up until today when I imported a file from my hard drive the image would open in the Develop mode. All of a sudden , for no reason, it opens the image in the library mode. It is not a train smash but it means I now have to click Window then Develop to get started editing.
How do I get it to default the import into the develop mode again ?
Your words of wisdom appreciated.
I chose beginner mode when installing, by accident. I’m more advanced then the beginner tools, and want to know how to revert back to the ( other 2) options.
I’ve tried resetting as per above, but I don’t get the option, it just shows me the 5 basic steps of how to get started.
Please help!!
Thanks in advance 🙂
There isn’t a beginner mode Mendy. Just close the 5 tips and then you’re back to normal.
Just bought a new macbook pro and installed Lightroom 2015.6.1. Calibrated my new monitor and thought things were fine until I sent photos to be printed at my lab. They called to say they looked dark and muddy. Ugh! I suspect this has something to do with LR preferences and possibly the ProPhoto color space. My lab suggests using sRGB, which I was converting to once editing in Photoshop. (I didn’t think LR assigned a color space, but not sure about this.) I saved the photos for print in PS and thought they’d be fine. Do I need to reset my prefs in external editing to be sRGB? Would that remove the ProPhoto color space in LR altogether? Thinking no since it’s “external editing.” Trying to decide if I need to re-edit from scratch my last three clients who I’ve edited on this new Mac. Can you help me get my settings right so that I get back to great looking prints? I realize I need to send out for a new set of test prints, but want to make sure I get my settings right first. THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES!
ProPhoto is great as a working space between LR and PS, but most labs aren’t set to deal with it. When you export the photos (or save them for the lab in PS), you need to be exporting to sRGB.
Is there a way to reset the “helpful hints” that appear the very first time each module is entered? I’d love to see them again.
Yes, you’ll find it under the Help menu > e.g. Library module tips
Hi Victoria, I’m having problems with lightroom’s print module. I was messing around with profiles and tried a custom profile for a paper which i had. I didn’t like the result so switched back to the adobe rgb profile and since then lightroom has been printing in draft quality. The draft mode printing box is unticked and i’ve tried adjusting resolution and every other setting i could think of.
Do you think i should try your ctrl/shift trick….?
trevor
Worth a shot Trevor. I’d also check the printer driver, in case that’s the area that’s set to draft quality, rather than Lightroom itself.
Have lightroom 5.6 was told to get rid of the beach ball go to preferences. very nervous about going to the box and checking it as you-advise “store presets with catalog” do not understand about turning lightroom off :Quit lightroom and go to finder that would be in the general operation of the mac you mention Move this file*, plus any other Lightroom preference files (e.g. com.adobe.Lightroom6.LSSharedFileList.plist or older versions), to another folder or delete them. I have the above version lightroom 5 not 6 so I guess this will not work. Confused about “Default location settings” box,”location” box which has the tiny box this is currently unchecked “Store presets with catalog” and the third rectangular box that has many drop down windows it says “lightroom defaults” Restore is always the first word – then EXPORT PRESETS, FILENAME TEMPLATES, LIBRARY FILTER PRESETS, AUTO LAYOUT RESETS, KEYWORD SET PRESETS , TEXT TEMPLATES COLOR LAYOUT PRESETS, TEXT STYLE PRESETS 8 SMALLER WINDOWS… FINALLY A LONG BOX RESTORE LOCAL ADJUSTMENT PRESETS Is this in fact what I would be doing by deleting the preferences setting the default back to factory settings? ANOTHER WORDS THE PREFERENCES WAY IS THE QUICKER WAY TO GET THINGS RIGHT.? instead of individually pulling down these menus, which I have not pulled down, I am very nervous about deleting the catalog or not finding it. Could you walk me thru this?
The reason for this inquiry was the beach ball appearing in lightroom My guess is I should DELETE the old version of lightroom and photoshop . I upgraded as stated before to lightroom 5 and Cs6 photogshop THE DISC NOT CLOULD was nervous about deleting the old versions. but never had the beach ball before, and was told have a lot of space on the mac USING LION 10.7.5 ALSO RECENTLY CALLED ” APPLE” HELP WAS GIVEN TO CLEAN UP THE CACHE. AGAIN DO NOT LIKE THE BEACH BALL . CANNOT SEEM TO DO THE EASY WAY AS EXPLAINED BY YOU AT THE TOP, I HOLD DOWN OPT AND SHIFT SIMULTANEOUSLY OPENING LIGHT ROOM THE WINDOW DOES NOT COME UP WHAT DOES COME UP IS MENTION OF THE CATALOG ICRAT 5 NOT THE WINDOW YOU SATE. “RESET LIGHTROOM PREFERENCE?” AGAIN DOES NOT APPEAR FOR ME.
Resetting Lightroom’s preferences is often a good idea when you’re having problems, since corrupted preferences can cause all sorts of trouble. Since you have Lightroom 5, just replace “6” in the file names listed above.
Holding down Opt and Shift won’t work because you’re not on Lightroom 6 (as the instructions say above). You’ll need to use the manual method, also explained above.
The Lightroom Defaults buttons are used for putting back missing default presets, but won’t be necessary if you just reset preferences.
If you’d like further help troubleshooting, feel free to post on the forum at http://www.lightroomforums.net
I have a friend who inadvertently deleted all of his Lightroom presets. Is there a way to recover them?
Ouch! You could try checking the Recycle Bin/Trash, but beyond that, no, not unless he has backups, sorry.
I somehow lost my presets that come automatically with LR there were about 8-10 of them such as boost of color and their was an antiquing one…
I tried reinstalling LR but no luck.
If it’s the built-in ones Amy, go to the Preferences dialog > Presets tab and you’ll see there are buttons at the bottom for restoring built in presets.
I am totally stuck. Don’t know what I did. I hit auto in the develop and now all my photos have bright red spots all over. All I want to do is get back to the regular develop mode and it won’t let me. it just has the tone thing and red eye adjustment. HELP!!!!!
Red spots might be the highlight clipping warning – press J to disable. If that doesn’t do it, post it on the forum so we can investigate further with you: http://www.lightroomforums.net
The problem I’m trying to solve is the sudden appearance for the beachball, for a second or two, each time I make a change to a radial or similar type of filter. I’ve tried creating a new catalog with only 1000 of the about 65000 files in my catalog in it and that didn’t help. Use GPU is disabled. So, I’m going to try resetting the prefs. BTW, this is LR 6.4 with Mac OS 10.10.5 on a late 2012 iMac with 32gb RAM.
Thing is, when I created the new catalog, it had lost all of the info about my flickr exports and also, all of the albums I created with the Turning Gate plug-in for my website. Is there a way to reset the prefs without losing that somewhat critical info??
If creating a new catalog with 1000 of the photos didn’t help, then there’s no need to create a new catalog – you can just go to File > Open Recent and open your old catalogs again.
My local disk doesn’t have enough room to run Lightroom, so I wanted to switch the scratch disk to one with more space, but because it won’t even run, I can’t access Lightroom presets. Any tips?? I have no way of opening Lightroom.
Thanks!
Geneva
Lightroom doesn’t have a scratch disk. Perhaps you mean the Camera Raw cache? You can also change that setting from Adobe Camera Raw preferences in Photoshop. If you can’t access that, I’d find another way to clear out some space so you can open Lightroom.
You might want to move your catalog and previews to a new drive though, as they’re likely taking up a lot of space.
You want at least 10% free, and ideally 25%. If you fill the drive to the brim, the operating system can’t work properly.