If you need to find Lightroom’s files at any time, you’ll need to know where to look, so here are the most popular Lightroom file locations.
By default, the boot drive is C:\ on Windows and Macintosh HD on Mac. If your operating system is installed on a different drive, you may need to replace the drive letter/name on the file paths that are listed below.
[your username] refers to the name of your user account, for example, mine is called Vic.
The default location of the Lightroom catalog is…
Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ My Pictures \ Lightroom \ Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Pictures / Lightroom / Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat
The catalogs are fully cross platform, and the catalog file extensions are:
*.lrcat is version 1.1 onwards.
*.lrdb was version 1.0.
*.aglib was the early beta.
The default location of the Preferences is…
Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom \ Preferences \ Lightroom 5 Preferences.agprefs
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Preferences / com.adobe.Lightroom5.plist
Preference files aren’t cross-platform. By default, Preferences are a hidden file on Windows and Mac OS X.
How do I show hidden files to find my preferences and presets?
On Windows, you can open the Start menu and type %appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom in the Start menu search box and you’ll be taken directly to the Lightroom user folder.
If you want to always show the hidden files and system folders, open an Explorer window and go to Organize menu > Folder and Search Options. Under the View tab, you may select ‘Show hidden files, folders, and drives,’ and I also like to uncheck ‘Hide Extensions for Known File Types’ as the extensions can be useful. Then click Apply to implement your changes. Bear in mind that those folders and files are hidden for good reason, so be careful if you decide to change these options.
On OS X, the user Library folder is hidden by default. If you go to Finder, select the Go menu, and hold down the Opt key, you’ll see Library appear in the menu, and then you can navigate to the Preferences or Application Support folder. Personally, I drag that Library folder to the sidebar so that it’s always easily accessible.
The default location of the Presets is…
Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom \
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / Lightroom /
Each type of preset has its own folder, for example Develop Presets, Filename Templates and Metadata Presets. Presets are cross-platform and are saved in a Lightroom-only format (.lrtemplate).
If you’ve checked the ‘Store presets with this catalog’ checkbox in Preferences, they’ll be stored next to your catalog file instead.
To find them easily on either platform, go to Preferences > Presets tab and press the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button.
Your Develop Defaults, Lens Defaults and Custom Point Curves are stored at…
Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / CameraRaw /
Your Develop default settings, lens defaults and custom point curves are shared with ACR, so they’re stored in the shared location, regardless of your ‘Store presets with this catalog’ setting.
The default location of the Camera Raw Cache is…
Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Local \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \ Cache \
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Caches / Adobe Camera Raw /
Your custom Camera Raw & Lens Profiles should be installed to the User folders…
Lightroom 5 no longer uses the shared ProgramData (Windows) / Application Support (Mac) folders for Camera or Lens Profiles. Instead, it stores the built-in profiles with its program files.
When you create camera or lens profiles, they must be stored in the user locations listed below. If you previously stored custom profiles in other locations, you’ll need to move them to these user folders, otherwise Lightroom won’t be able to find them.
Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \ CameraProfiles \
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / CameraRaw / CameraProfiles /
For the lens profiles, substitute the LensProfiles folder for the CameraProfiles folder.
The camera and lens profile file extensions are:
.dcpr—camera profile recipe file used for creating/editing a profile in the DNG Profile Editor
.dcp—camera profile
.lcp—lens profile
Preferences & Settings Menu Locations
A few of the menu commands are in different locations on Windows and Mac, depending on the operating system standard. Rather than repeating them every time I refer to Preferences or Catalog Settings, here’s a quick reference:
Lightroom Preferences & Catalog Settings are…
Windows—under the Edit menu
Mac—under the Lightroom menu
Photoshop Preferences are…
Windows—under the Edit menu
Mac—under the Photoshop menu
I believe the download location (for Lightroom 5.7.1) has changed since your original post. I can’t find it on the Adobe site. Chatting with the rep didn’t help. He said Lightroom 1-6 was no longer supported and tried to sell me a subscription. I have a perpetual license and there’s nothing wrong with the SW, I just want to move it from the old PC to the new one. Can you please help? Many thanks!
Not sure what you mean by ‘Download’ location; any imports go to the Destination you specify. None of the default locations for the other files changed, but remember they are Defaults – some are determined by the user (Catalog location, just as an example)
Adobe are correct with their support comments – Lr5 )released in June 2013) hasn’t been supported since April 2015 (and Lr6 since October 2017)
Having trouble with lost User presets in LR Classic 11.4.1. Eventually discovered it in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings/EnableLensCorr on Import.xmp. That is where LR put it when created. However, it is not being applied when importing a NEF file from a Nikon D850. After import the Enable Profile Corrections box is unchecked; checking it manually shows and applies the correct Lens Profile.
Is this an instance where Adobe has acquiesced to a Nikon request to disable presets on import?
Possibly so. What are the raw defaults?
How can I transfer my LR 5 to my new computer when I can’t find the licence number?
If you registered it with Adobe when you installed, the serial number should be listed in your account on Adobe’s website.
Run Belarc Advisor. I believe it’s a free tool and has helped me in the past to locate licenses.
I need to move lightroom to a new computer but I have many catalogs from previous lR versions. More important I see that you note the catalog should be nexted under a diretoty named Pictures but all I seeis My Pictures. ASre these the same. I also can’t find a catalog with the most current date when I look in these directories but searching on lrcat returns a recent backup with much earlier dates (are tese the created dates). I’ve been backing u to an external hard drive but even the backup date there is 2016. Am I reading something wrong? Thanks
Pictures and My Pictures are the same – different OS’s name them slightly differently.
If you go to Edit menu (Windows) / Lightroom menu (Mac) > Catalog Settings, it’ll tell you which catalog you’re currently using. If your current catalog has all the photos and settings you expect, you can ignore the older Lightroom catalogs.
LR 6.1 ,Click on Develope module and a banner appears stating ” file can not be found”.Any ideas? -Ed
You need these instructions Ed: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/
Hi Victoria,
I’m using Lightroom 5 and my camera profiles have always been there, visible in the menu. Today they’re suddenly gone, with only the default Adobe options available. My custom camera profiles are all in the folder they’re supposed to be in, and I’ve restarted Lightroom several times, but they’re just not showing in the drop-down and I’m not sure what to do, since I haven’t changed anything around, and don’t know how to get them to be available to me again. Any thoughts you might have would be a big help!
Are the other standard camera profiles showing up ok? You definitely have a raw file selected, not a JPEG, TIFF or PSD?
Problem = solved!
Yes, raw files only here, but I didn’t realize that the profiles for one camera (5d mkii) simply aren’t visible when you’ve selected a raw file shot with another camera (7d). I suppose I expected them to still be visible in the drop-down even if they’re not applicable to that file. Serves me right for having files shot on different cameras in the same folder!
Thanks for your help!
Do you know how to install custom lcp files into LR6 (stand alone version)?
Yes, you put them in the Lens Profile location listed above (it’s the same for LR6) and restart LR.
Hello Victoria!
I just received your link as a response from Adobe Communities http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p(265883)a(2791170)g(22913796)url(https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1851379))
I want to install a new lens profile in Adobe CC. It doesn’ t show up in the Adobe CC menu for lens corrections. The path that you mention for LR5 doesn’t show up as stated in the Users section for CC.
“Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / CameraRaw / CameraProfiles /
For the lens profiles, substitute the LensProfiles folder for the CameraProfiles folder.”
Under Users in CC I only have a “Library” under “Shared” and that “Folder” has “Application Support” / “Adobe” / AIR , Lightroom > External Editor Presets (but no “Camera Raw”)
Where should the new lens profile be installed for Adobe CC?
Any suggestions, please?
On OS X, the user Library folder is hidden by default. If you go to Finder, select the Go menu, and hold down the Opt key, you’ll see Library appear in the menu, and then you can navigate to the Preferences or Application Support folder.
Thanks for your reply.
Over the long weekend I had a lengthy exchange of information in the Adobe Communities about the installation of 3rd party lens profiles. Useful information for others too.
A useful link about hidden hidden path, in addition to the information you provided, is the following:
http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p(265883)a(2791170)g(22913796)url(https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-files.html)
Hi Victoria,
Where is the default location to place plugins?
Woops! In LR 6.1 please…
Entirely up to you Brian! Plug-ins don’t need a fixed location. I usually recommend storing them next to your other presets – locations are the same as above.
Thank you Victoria. I had been placing them together with the included tether plugins which worked of course but when I tried to update one of Jeffrey Friedl’s plugins from within Plugins Manager it failed with an error that the update couldn’t be written to the location. I just moved them next to the presets as you suggested and the update went fine.
Excellent, thanks for the update!
I have a new iMAC runnng OS 10.10.2. Having trouble getting LR5 moved over. First problem is that I cannot locate this file path:
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Pictures
I have moved all my photos, I can find them, but the “Macintosh HD” seems to be missing? I am confused…
Macintosh HD is just the default name of the boot drive, but you might have called yours something else.
This was VERY helpful, thankyou for such well written detailed instructions.
I have successfully moved my enormous LR5 catalogue onto my new Mac, from win7pc.
I saw that when I installed LR onto the Mac, it made a catalogue in the default place, in Pictures. But as I have a Mac mini with only a 256GB SSD, I prefer to keep the catalogue on an external drive. So I pointed LR at the one on the external drive, where it had always been, and once I was sure it worked ok, and history items were still there, I deleted the new catalogue from Pictures.
At present it is in the Trash. Can you tell me it is safe to delete it properly please?
And thank you again.
Well done Ruth! You’re probably safe to delete the catalog from the trash, but without being there, it’s a bit scary to say yes for sure! Easy way to check is open LR, go to Lightroom menu > Catalog Settings and make sure it’s looking at the catalog on the external drive. Then look around the catalog and check everything’s there that you expect. Then yes, you’re fine to empty the trash.
Thanks Victoria. Yes, everything seems ok so I will risk deleting. It is a large amount of gb and I have noticed that if you do a ‘Secure Delete Trash’ it takes a very long time. So better do it now before accumulating any more deletions. Thanks.
No need to do a secure delete – just a basic empty trash will do fine.
Oh, I’ve been doing Secure delete as I was led to believe that it freed up more space on the drive. Is that not correct? Does just Empty give you back the same amount of space? Or does there gradually get to be less and less free space because of not-truly-deleted stuff? You are an amazing mine of knowledge!
Secure Delete just overwrites it with meaningless data to prevent it being recovered using disc recovery software. Unless it’s high security stuff, you don’t need to worry.