How to Find Presets in Lightroom

Lightroom Presets are undoubtedly a super helpful set of resources to use while editing, and there are various ways to install them on Lightroom easily. If you’re unsure how to find your presets on Lightroom after installing, we’ve answered that extensively in this article. 

How to Find Presets in Lightroom

Depending on whether you use a Mac or Windows and the current Lightroom version that you’re using, there are several ways to find presets on Lightroom.

The Lightroom version on a Mac computer is slightly different from that on a Windows computer. As a result, locating your presets on both computers is a bit different. We’ve discussed several ways to find your presets from Lightroom on both computers.

Locating presets from Lightroom on your computer is pretty straightforward when you follow the step-by-step guide below:

Finding Lightroom Presets on Your Mac Computer

To find your Lightroom preset quickly on a MAC computer, here’s what you need to do:

1. Open up Lightroom on your computer
2. Navigate to the “Menu” bar and select “Lightroom”
3. Then, click on the option titled “Preferences” which displays a dialog box
4. The top of the Preferences dialog menu is divided into several tabs. Go to the “Presets” tab.
5. You’ll see a pop-up menu on the right-hand side of the Presets page of the dialog and a button that reads, “Show Lightroom Presets Folder”
6. Click on the button which displays a Finder Window on your computer
7. A new folder called “Develop Presets” will appear in the new window. The Preset folder on Lightroom is located here.

Finding Lightroom Presets on Your Windows Computer

Like the steps discussed above, finding your presets on “Lightroom” on a windows computer is pretty straightforward, although there are some minor differences between these methods. Pay close attention to the steps discussed below on how to locate your Lightroom preset on a windows computer:

1. Open up Lightroom on your Windows computer
2. Go to the “Menu” bar on Lightroom and select “Edit”
3. Click on the option titled, “Preferences” and a menu is displayed
4. On the menu, select the “Presets” tab
5. Click on the button titled “Show Lightroom Develop Presets”
6. After clicking on this button, it opens up the Explorer window on your computer
7. You will notice several folders, including one titled “Develop Presets,” when you switch to the new window. This is the folder where all of your presets are stored.

Finding Presets on Newer Lightroom Versions (7.3 or Later)

The steps discussed above work only for any Lightroom version that has been released before 2018 (version 7.3 and below). If you’re using the newer Lightroom versions (version 7.3 and above), there’s a different way to go about it and this is due to some differences between these versions.

The newer Lightroom versions stores your presets in a different format. Instead of storing the Preset files as lrtemplate, files are now stored in an XMP file format. Besides, the location of the Lightroomfolder has been changed from the “Develop Presets” folder to a new location.

Other Method of Finding Presets in Lightroom

Perhaps, the steps mentioned above are not that straightforward and you need an easier, yet faster way to find your Presets on Lightroom. There’s a different approach. Below, we’ve discussed another method to find your presets on Lightroom.

If you recently downloaded any presets and don’t know how to find them, you might want to look in the “hidden files” folder on your computer.

To locate the hidden files folder on a Mac:

1. Open the Finder window on your computer
2. Then, press the “Option” key while clicking on the “Go” menu option. 
3. You’ll be able to locate your library folder if you keep holding down the option key.
4. The “Develop Presets” file in Adobe’s Application Support folder contains the location of your presets stored in Lightroom.

On your Windows computer, there’s a different way to do this. Here are the steps to follow to locate the hidden files folder on a Windows computer:

1. Navigate to the Start menu and select Control Panel
2. After that, select Appearance and Personalization from the drop-down menu
3. Open the Folder Preferences options
4. You should be able to choose “Show Hidden Files and Folders” on the “Advanced” tab.
5. Your presets will be found in the “Develop Preset Folder”, under the AppData and Roaming files.

How to Find a Missing Lightroom Preset

After downloading, installing, and importing your presets into Lightroom, it should be up and running and ready for use, right? Not so fast. After importing your preset into Lightroom, it may fail to display due to some default settings. Follow the steps below to fix this without any hassle:

Method 1: Enable the “Show Partially Compatible Preset” Option

There are some presets that are only partially compatible with the photo that has been chosen even after they’ve been imported. This is because the selected photo cannot apply all of the settings of the downloaded preset. As a result, these presets may not be displayed in your Lightroom folder.

If you want to see these partially compatible presets on your mac, you can easily use the steps suggested below:

1. Open Lightroom on your computer
2. Go to the “Lightroom” option on your menu bar
3. Click on the “Preferences” option and select the button “Presets” which displays a dialog box
4. On the dialog menu, check the box titled “Show Partially Compatible Preset”

As expected, there’s a slightly different way of doing this on your Windows computer. To see these partially compatible presets on your windows, follow the steps below:

1. Load up Lightroom on your computer
2. Navigate to the “Edit” button on your menu bar and select it
3. Simply choose the “Preferences” option and click the “Presets” button to bring up the corresponding dialogue box.
4. Select the “Show Partially Compatible Preset” checkbox on the dialog menu to view only partially compatible presets.

Method 2: Verify Store Presets

If you are working with more than one catalog simultaneously, you might discover that some of your presets are missing when you are working with a specific collection. This could be because you have selected the “Store presets” option with that catalog settings.

If you’re to fix this issue on your Windows computer, here are the steps to follow:

1. Load up Lightroom on your computer
2. Open the catalog where you can find the preset.
3. Go to “Edit” on the Lightroom menu and select it
4. Then, navigate to “Preferences” and select “Presets”
5. Uncheck the box “Store presets with this catalog”
6. Click on “OK” to confirm this change.

If you’re a MAC user, you can go about this on your computer by following the steps below:

1. Open Lightroom on your computer
2. Navigate to the catalog where stored the preset.
3. Select the “Lightroom” option on the menu
4. Go to “Preferences” and select “Presets”
5. Make sure the “Store presets with this catalog” option is left unchecked
6. To confirm this update, click “OK.”

Using presets on Lightroom while editing streamlines your editing tasks and helps you to create consistent Lightroom designs with only a few clicks. Knowing where your presets are stored and how to find them easily is a plus. That way, you can effortlessly apply them to any image when you need to.

Related Questions

How Do I Find Presets In Lightroom Mobile?

On your mobile device, open Lightroom and select a photo to edit. Scroll down and tap Presets. Select User Presets by tapping the downward facing arrowhead. You’ll find the the presets imported from the Lightroom desktop app in the Lightroom mobile app.

Conclusion

Knowing how to find your presets on Lightroom quickly speeds up the rate you edit your images and helps you keep organized. You can easily find your presets under the “Develop” module or use File Explorer on your computer.