How to install presets in Photoshop ACR for Photoshop 21+
FollowYou can now install your presets into Photoshop 21 much like you would Lightroom, and the new Adobe Camera Raw 12.3+ looks and functions more like Lightroom than ever! Note: If you have already installed your presets into the current subscription-based Lightroom Classic, they should now be available in Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw as well. No need to install into each program individually.
There are four methods of installation for installing presets into Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop 21 and later! (Sync from Lightroom Classic, Automatic installation, Whole .zip Quick Installation, and Manual Installation).
On a Mac and seeing greyed out .xmp files in ACR? CLICK HERE to see our troubleshooting notes.
Sync from Lightroom Classic.
As noted above, if you subscribe to Lightroom Classic and import presets there, these should automatically sync to Adobe Camera Raw for Immediate use on your next launch.
Automatic Installation:
Note: Some brands on do not offer auto-installation. If your collection does not have links for Automatic Installation on your downloads page, simply follow our Quick Installation steps below!
1. To begin, download the .exe auto-installer for Windows, or the .dmg auto-installer for Mac from the appropriate links on your downloads page.
2. Once downloaded, click-to-run as you would any installer/program. This will automatically place your presets in the correct location to be accessed within Photoshop ACR (and Lightroom Classic, if you have this installed as well.)
3. Once the installer has finished running, the "Close" button should be seen as clickable. Click to close the installer.
4. You can locate your newly installed presets in Photoshop by simply opening an image in Photoshop, navigating to "Filter" > "Camera Raw Filter...", and selecting the preset icon (two overlapping circles) from the left toolbar in the Camera Raw window:
Running into issues with the auto-installer? Click HERE for troubleshooting tips!
Quick Installation:
Even if your collection does not offer auto-installation, installing XMP presets into ACR is easier and faster than ever!
1. Download your presets in XMP format. These will download as a .zip file. (Do NOT unzip)
2. Launch Photoshop and open an image. (This image can be in JPEG or RAW format)
3. From the top menu, select "Filter" > "Camera Raw Filter..." to launch Camera Raw:
4. From the Camera Raw window, you can locate the "Presets" tab from the right toolbar. This appears as two overlapping circles:
5. From the Presets tab, open the "..." menu and select "Import Profiles & Presets...":
6. Select the entire .zip file(s) you downloaded (containing the XMP format presets) and select "Open" to import. Once populated, they should appear in their organized folders underneath that "Presets" header.
7. To Use Your New Presets: Simply expand the newly imported presets folder (via the little arrow to the left), select a preset or hover over to view multiple options, and click to apply your desired edit. Click "OK" at the bottom of your Camera Raw window to continue editing your image in Photoshop.
If you are at all confused by these quick installation steps, you can follow the traditional manual installation outlined below.
MAC USERS NOTE (If Safari is instantly unzipping your XMP files and the XMP files are greyed out in ACR):
To solve the unzipping issue and import the .zip whole in ACR:
1. Open Safari
2. Click Preferences
3. Under general tab, uncheck the option at the bottom which reads "Open "safe" files after downloading".
Then, simply download those files once more, and import that .zip file whole via "Import Profiles & Presets..." in ACR.
Alternative Manual Installation:
For this method you will download the XMP format presets from your downloads page. These will download as a compressed .zip file. You will simply unzip/extract those .XMP preset files for a quick copy-and-paste into your Adobe Camera Raw Settings folder.
To locate the Camera Raw Settings folder:
Find the following location on your computer hard drive:
- Mac Users: Users>YOUR NAME>Library>Application Support>Adobe>Camera Raw> Settings
- Windows Users: Application Data>Adobe>Camera Raw>Settings OR C: Users-[user name]>AppData>Roaming>Adobe>Camera Raw>Settings
Copy and paste the .xmp presets into the Settings Folder.
Windows Users: If you are unable to find your Settings Folder, you will need to change your folder options to show hidden files and folders. See instructions here
Mac Users: If you are unable to find your Library Folder, see this article
Mac Users: If you are unable to find the Settings Folder follow the steps below:
Go to your Finder and select Go > Go to Folder from the drop-down menu. Copy and paste the following in the search box: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Camera Raw/Settings