How do you reset your 8 Ball account?

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

1. Quit Lightroom.
2. 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\
3. 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.
4. Restart Lightroom.

Mac

1. Quit Lightroom.
2. Open Finder and select the Go menu.
3. Hold down the Opt key so Library appears in the menu, then click on Library.
4. In the Finder window, open the Preferences folder.
5. 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.
6. Reboot your computer (because macOS caches some preference files), then restart Lightroom.
7. If your presets are missing, go to Lightroom menu > Preferences > Presets tab, 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.