# Photoshop settings keep disappearing, why?!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-settings-keep-disappearing-why/201303>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 12, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-settings-keep-disappearing-why/201303 "2003-09-12T23:00:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-settings-keep-disappearing-why/201303/1 "2003-09-12T23:00:57Z")

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I have Adobe Photoshop 6. Every couple of weeks or so it will reset all of my settings back to their defaults :mad: , that is, the settings that are present after re-installing it, which I didn’t do. I don’t know what is causing this. When it happens I lose all my custom colors on the palette as well as the settings on my tools. It’s a big, frustrating pain in the ass to have to go back and reset everything back to the way I had it set before.

What could be causing this to happen? It seems to occur entirely randomly and I cannot detect any consistent patterns that would cause it (e.g. rebooting the computer). I didn’t see which INI files, if any, Photoshop uses. I have also tried saving backup copies of a series of files that, as far as I can tell, hold the settings data. These files are located at:

```auto

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\6.0\Adobe Photoshop 6 Settings

```

The files I make copies of are:

```auto

Actions Palette.psp
Adobe Photoshop 6 Prefs.psp
Brushes.psp
Contours.psp
CustomShapes.psp
Gradients.psp
Patterns.psp
Styles.psp
Swatches.psp

```

After I get things back to the way I like them I make copies of these files. If, after the settings reset themselves and I copy these files back to their proper location, the software still behaves as if it were just installed and I lose all my settings.  
Any help with this would be appreciated.

If it’s relevant, I use Windows 2000. No other applications have this problem, so I don’t believe a virus could be the cause.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![larsenmtl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@larsenmtl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larsenmtl)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-settings-keep-disappearing-why/201303/2 "2003-09-13T14:58:12Z")

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I’ve heard of Photoshop’s preferences being easily corrupted. Never seen any great fixes, however…

Two Comments:  
1.) If you are logged on as the admin you do have the proper preference files. If you have a username, it’ll be under that document and settings folder.

2.) Just an idea, but what if after resetting your preferences as you like them you go and make all those files read-only (the old right-click on the file, properties, read-only). This won’t allow Photoshop to change them on it’s own. The downside you won’t be able to change them either.

I hope that helps.